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C O N T E N T S
OMNIPRESENT CUSTOMERS 3 THE CHANGING FACE OF THE AD AGENCY 28

BRANDING THE PM IN AN ELECTION YEAR 4 ETHNIC FASHION BRANDS TRIP OVER GI 29

CONSUMERS ASK BRANDS TO GET CLOSE, NOT PERSONAL 5 BRANDED BY ORIGIN 30

ME-TOO TILTS THE EQUATION 6 VIVO MAKES THE RIGHT CONNECTION 31

CELEBRITY POWER 7 SMART PERSONALISATION DRIVING

INSIDE THE AVENGERS MARKETING JUGGERNAUT 8 CONSUMERS TO TRADE UP 32

BRAND JET’S FINAL NOSEDIVE 9 DEFINING JAPAN IN JUST ONE WORD 33

DELL, JEEP, LIC TOP THE TRUST CHARTS 10 LATE MOVER ADVANTAGE 34

FACEBOOK STEPS UP THE BRAND PITCH 11 BRAND KPMG PRESENTS A TEAM STORY AT 25 36

THE ONLINE FOOTPRINT OF THE FESTIVAL SHOPPER 12 BYJU’S STEPS OUT OF COMFORT ZONE 37

YOUTUBE ROLLS OUT THE PITCH FOR ADVERTISERS 13 SMALL BRANDS POWER INSTAGRAM’S

LOCAL BRANDS SURGE, GLOBAL BRANDS EXPAND THE NET 14 MARKETPLACE RUN IN INDIA 38

REPACKAGING BRAND SACHIN 15 LENSKART’S VISION FOR GROWTH 40

BRANDS LOST IN TRANSLATION 16 PERSONALISATION DRIVES THE TREND

BRANDS TAKE UP THE TIKTOK CHALLENGE 17 FOR SUBSCRIPTION-LED CONSUMPTION 41

BRANDS SCRAMBLE TO PLAY THE GAME OF GOT 18 SPREADING OUT A BIGGER BASKET 42

BRANDS PROMISE PROTECTION IN AN AGE OF ANXIETY 19 DHONI CRACKS THE BAT ON THE ENDORSEMENT PITCH 43

THE RISE OF THE AVATAR-INFLUENCER 20 TOP GEAR 45

BRANDING FOR AN EMI NATION 21 LEADING EDGE, ENGAGING AND TRUSTWORTHY 47

DIGITAL AD FRAUD STIRS UP A $1.63-BN SCAM 22 WORK-LIFE 2.0 48

KEEPING TROLLS AT BAY, THE HUL WAY 23 GCMMF JUICES UP, LOOKS TO LEVERAGE

BRANDS JOIN THE FRENZY, THE AMUL BRAND IN A NEW MARKET 49

STEP GINGERLY AROUND POLL POLITICS 24 RAISING AWARENESS AND MONEY 50

BACK TO THE BASICS FOR BRANDS AND CONSUMERS 25 WE WILL FOCUS ON SUPPORTING ENTERPRISES 51

THE MARKETING CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST 26 CALL TO ACTION 52

BRANDS PITCH EXPERIENCES, A LONG-LASTING TWINKLE 53

HOPE FOR MILLENNIAL BUY-IN 27 TRANSFORMING PERFORMANCE 54

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STRATEGY
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C O N T E N T S
HOTSTAR EXTENDS THE SUPERHERO RAYMOND REORGANISES SUPPLY CHAIN 84

NARRATIVE TO THE ICC WORLD CUP 56 WHEN FASHION GOES ECO-FRIENDLY 85

SAINT-GOBAIN GETS CLOSER TO THE CUSTOMER 57 BRANDS LOOK FOR BALANCE ON THE GENDER TRACK 87

COCA-COLA RAPS TO A BOLLYWOOD TUNE 58 DATA CAN GET YOU ONLY TO A CERTAIN POINT 88

SHUTTL STEPS ON THE GAS 59 TVS SHIFTS UP A GEAR 89

FABINDIA BATTLES FOR LOYALTY AMIDST CLUTTER 60 HUMBLE YET INDOMITABLE 90

EMOTIONAL TREAT 61 WE ARE MOVING FROM ‘FACILITATION’ TO ‘FLOW’ 91

A LONG ROAD AHEAD 62 ALWAYS READY 92

CUSTOMERS WANT INTUITIVE SOLUTIONS 64 PHONEPE, PAYTM LOOK TO

THE LAST LAUGH IN THE LONG-RUN 65 KNOCK DOWN THE AGE BARRIER 94

FROM ‘FOR SALE’ TO ‘FOR ALL’ 66 SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYS A ROLE IN

MCDONALD’S COMEBACK CHALLENGE 67 SUSTENANCE OF LINEAR TV 95

GOOGLE, YOUTUBE LEAN IN ON THE LEARNING CULTURE 69 PLAYING IN THE BIG LEAGUE 96

DATA ENABLES RELEVANCE & CONTEXT 70 BRANDS USE HUMOUR, PLY CAUSES TO

HYUNDAI ELECTRONICS LOOKS FOR GAPS 71 KEEP POLITICS OUT OF ELECTION PITCH 97

SOCIAL MEDIA REVERBERATES WITH SMALL IS BIG FOR DHL 98

THE ROAR OF GREASEPAINT MARKETERS 72 BRANDS GO BACK TO THE BASICS IN STORES 99

PIAGGIO ENTERS EXPANSION PHASE 73 DISCOUNTING IS NOT EQUAL TO LOYALTY 100

POLICING THE CROWDS WITH A SOCIAL FACE 74 UPSETTING THE APPLECART 101

THE MAN WITH THREE SIMULTANEOUS CAREERS 75 BRAND BIC CELLO REWRITES INDIA STORY 102

MAKING THE MOST OF A CRISIS 76 MONDELEZ TAKES ON BISCUIT RIVALS 103

ZOOMING AHEAD ON SCOOTERS 78 WHY SIMPLE IDEAS ARE GREAT 104

FOR A WORLD-CLASS AMBIENCE 80 DIGITAL MEDIA GAME WILL CHANGE

THE LESS COMPLICATED ARE THE MORE AGILE 81 COMPLETELY IN FIVE YEARS 105

LIFE BEYOND MOVIES 82 IN TOP GEAR 106

BRANDS PLOT A DIGITAL FOOTPRINT A POTENTIAL GAME CHANGER 108

AROUND THE ICC WORLD CUP 83 AUDIT CONTINUES TO BE CONSIDERED A TABOO 109

2
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Omnipresent customers
Brands must step out of the
bubble to cater to the
everything everywhere
customer writes
Ashish Mishra
MUMBAI, 31 DECEMBER

I
t has been a year of shocks and surprises,
but one of the big cards that 2018 has
dealt brands is that of perpetual restless-
ness. Nothing is permanent, no brand is
infallible and no category secure. In an age of
anxious and demanding consumerism,
brands have to create a new role for them-
selves in the coming year. Here’s a look at the
crystal ball for 2019.

Consolidate and aggregate

From Idea Vodafone to Bank of Baroda, Vijaya
Bank and Dena Bank to the change of guard
for Horlicks and Complan to the under-dis-
cussion Jet-Vistara deal, the trend has been
mostly to create fewer and bigger businesses
and brands.
Like most mature markets, we are also see-
ing the emergence of 2-3 players leading their
sectors. And this has led to deeper and wider
engagement across categories. If there is any
company that epitomises that, it is Amazon.
Think of its subscription service Amazon
Prime, the convenience store concept Amazon
Go, its ‘try before you buy’ online shopping
service Amazon Wardrobe, or even its latest
version of the Echo, called Look, that can
deliver fashion advice.
Jio has also been exemplary. How does one
define the category it operates in? What was
intended as a telecom business has subsumed
many other businesses ranging from enter-
tainment to commerce.
The big have also got bigger. Take a look at
aggregated market shares of the top three
brands in key sectors like telecom, e-com-
merce on one hand; and cars, tooth pastes and
shampoos on the other. Over the years, their
combined shares have risen, with many cross-
ing the 70 per cent mark. This is clearly a way
of customers finding safety in the trust of lead-
ing brands. And big labels investing to navi-
gate new and taxing supply side dynamics.
Utility, relevance and storytelling
While there was a tremendous surge in the
creative use of digital media by brands, the
emergent trend by the end of the year was that
consumers want the stories, but they also
want brands that add value to their lifestyles.
In a way, it is a return of the value proposition
in a new avatar.
Leading brands are driven by their desire
to be useful, to create products, tools, and
services that actually solve customer prob-
lems, and to use their marketing to serve and
not just sell.
L’Oréal has shown that traditional compa-
nies can also lead with experience, and has
developed a number of service offers that use
digital technologies to transform customer
relationships. ModiFace, a beauty tech com-
pany acquired by L’Oréal, allows customers to
experience a live, tutorial and coaching with
a makeup advisor, try personalised makeup
looks, and even shop online.
Brands also trained their sights on analyt-
ics and subscription models more intensely,
29 per cent of the total value of the top 100
brands was accounted by subscription-based
businesses, versus 18 per cent in 2009. This is
because traditional notions of loyalty are erod-
ing. We live in a service-driven economy
where access is more important than owner-
ship. Brands are winning by offering friction-
less ways to leverage their products and serv-
ices based on the personalised needs of
customers. Successful brands are born with a
subscription business model, or have signifi-
cantly adjusted their business models to offer
subscription services. Netflix’s brand value
grew 45 per cent this year, the second fastest-
growing brand, after entering the annual rank-
ing table in 2017.
Customer centricity
Anticipating emerging customer needs and
being able to evolve the business and brand
is no mean feat. Leading brands are co-creat-
ing solutions with their customers, bringing
the voice of the customer into every aspect of
their business, and investing in future-for-
ward customer exploration.
According to our Best Indian Brands data,
the brands generating the most stable growth
over the past five years are those with the
highest overall scores on ‘Relevance’ and
‘Responsiveness’. What’s more, the fastest-
growing brands over the last five years are
those where the two factors present the top–
performing dimensions. Brands like Maruti
Suzuki and Kotak Mahindra Bank, two of the
fastest growing Indian Brands of the recent
years have constantly innovated in keeping
with the changing customer aspirations.
So what will really be the big theme for
2019? Maturity, consolidation, positive utility,
higher role of brands, hyper customer centric-
ity, customisable subscription models will
dominate. Profligacy, aggressive and specula-
tive growth will give way to realism and bal-
ance. The future will be more human and per-
sonal. Indian brands however will have to
catch up on sustainability, good governance.
Ethics, policies and governance will rule.
The author is managing director of Interbrand India
yourmoney@bsmail.in

03

URVI MALVANIA
J
anuary has been a busy month at the
office of Brand Narendra Modi. First
there was the selfie with Bollywood
stars. Next was a five part series on the
hugely popular Humans of Bombay page on
Facebook where the prime minister’s rags to
riches story is being told. A biopic with Vivek
Oberoi playing the PM was announced and
two propaganda movies, The Accidental PM
and Uri were released. Most recently the
prime minister debuted as an animated char-
acter with the popular children’s superhero
Chota Bheem in digital game promoting
Swachh Bharat.
With elections scheduled a few months
from now, the PM’s team is wasting no time
at all. Popular culture and social media are
being used to present the prime minister as
the best man for the job, yet another time and
wash off the dark spots that demonetisation
and high unemployment numbers have left
on his image.
That was only to be expected from a sea-
soned marketer say brand experts while warn-
ing that the highly volatile digital world is a
double edged sword and those harnessing it
power must also know how to keep their dis-
tance.
“Without doubt, if social has had a suc-
cessful case study in India, it is Modi,” says
Ashish Mishra, CEO of Interbrand India. And
now as the opposition has wisened up to the
game, it is even more important that the PM’s
team step up their game, he adds.
The PM, says Ambi Parameswaran,
founder Brand-Building.com, has masterfully
created his own media to communicate with
key audiences and walks both digital and
non-digital worlds with ease. “He tweets often
and has ‘Mann Ki Baat’ (a radio show where
he broadcasts to the people via the govern-
ment-owned AIR). This has given him access
to the vast non-Twitter generation too. In a
sense he is straddling two very different audi-
ences with tailored messages,” he adds.
The Humans of Bombay page was but a
natural extension of the Twitter experiment
say experts. Moulded on the Humans of New
York initiative and originally started as a
Facebook page for street photographs and sto-
ries about its people, the page has phenome-
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Branding the PM
in an election year
From selfies with celebrities, a biopic, game
shows and propaganda films, image makers are
pulling out all the stops to build a perfect leader
From top: The PM on the Humans of Bombay
page, in a digital game and
Vicky Kaushal in the movie Uri
nal engagement numbers. On its website it
claims to garner 40,000 likes on an average
for its posts. However there have been as
many brickbats as likes for the PM’s inspira-
tional life story on the platform with many
even vowing to stay off the page for having
diluted its original intent.
“Not always does social media noise con-
vert into commensurate votes on the ballot.
But it has been smartly used by Modi. He has
managed also to ‘youngify’ his personal
brand this way,” says Sandeep Goyal, founder,
Mogae Media.
He has also been astute enough to use
films to further his image. In January, the
Vicky Kaushal starrer Uri, a big hit at the box
office and The Accidental Prime Minister that
has not met with as much success were both
used by the PM’s team to showcase his mili-
04
THE BRAND TOOLKIT
 Selfies with Bollywood celebrities, from Ranbir
Kapoor and Ayushmann Khurrana to Deepika
Padukone and Alia Bhatt, everyone lined up to
be in the frame with the PM
 A biopic with Vivek Oberoi playing the lead,
expected to launch before the elections
 An animated character in a game promoting
Swachh Bharat and featuring the popular
children’s superhero Chhota Bheem
 A 5-part rags to riches story on the Humans of
Bombay page that has 912,000 followers, his
last episode was shared 11,000 times
 Uri the film starring Vicky Kaushal on surgical
strikes against Pakistan has been screened for
multiple audiences and used to demonstrate
the PM’s military prowess With the BCCI taking
the IPL fan parks to newer cities, Vivo believes it
has a better opportunity to build a better
connect with the allied activities it does for
brand building there
tary might and show the opposition in poor
light. Such films and the earlier ones like
Toilet and Padman have meant that cinema
is now an active medium in political canvass-
ing. What this signifies is much larger scale
and budgets. Also the belief that overt cam-
paigning is no longer as impactful as perhaps
good storytelling,” Goyal says.
All of this will go hand in hand with tradi-
tional campaigning. Goyal says that while ral-
lies and marches will still be relevant, in 2019
wars may be fought over Twitter using not
just speeches, but memes. And Mishra points
out that Modi is a great brand consultant who
mastered the game in 2014. To do it again, he
would need to tweak some of the old rules
and keep up the energy.
“The medium has become the message.
All the debate and dialogue is happening on
social media irrespective of vote conversion,
everyone in the political domain has no
choice but to be seen on the social media bat-
tlefield,” Goyal adds. And therein lies the dan-
ger.

Consumers ask brands to
get close, not personal
Consumers tutor brands on
social media etiquette, ask
them to respect the line
between privacy and
personalisation: Adobe
Brand Content survey
AMRITHA PILLAY
‘D
on’t get creepy’, is what consumers
are telling brands, withdrawing their
loyalties if they find them crossing
the line on privacy, according to the Adobe
India Brand Content report. While the major-
ity of the consumers surveyed said this, those
most irked by insensitive personalisation
belonged to the 35-49 age band.
If 2018 was all about getting to know the
consumer to give her what she wants, the year
2019 is likely to be about walking the line
between proximity and intrusiveness. The
digital audience knows the difference between
healthy suggestions, which are welcome, and
a downright breach of privacy, which is
abhorred. And brands that get the balance
right, will win their trust.
The study found that two-thirds of con-
sumers in India are more likely to make an
unplanned purchase from a brand, if the dig-
ital content is personalised. Personalisation
is welcome, but not when it gets offensive.
“A winning customer experience can take
many forms, but the most common element
in every brand’s success story is personalisa-
tion. Brands that can strike the right level of
personalisation will forge stronger connec-
tions, resulting in brand loyalty and growth,”
said Sunder Madakshira, head of Marketing,
Adobe India.
Millennial and Gen X consumers are also
engaging with brands across multiple devices.
Device usage peaks for the millennial at an
average of 11 hours daily and minimum two
devices are used by all age groups, with
Indians accessing multiple screens up to 70
per cent of times. If the content is contextually
relevant and the experience is pain-free,
brands will find repeat consumers across
devices, the report said.
Consumer reaction to personalisation
depends on the stage of the purchase cycle
that he or she is in, said Shrenik Gandhi, co-
founder and CEO of White Rivers Media, a dig-
ital marketing firm. “While some amount of
personalised advertising is important to
ensure that one doesn't waste money in show-
ing ads meant for consumers in Delhi to those
in Bengaluru, it is important not to shock a
consumer in a way that will impact their pur-
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ALL EYES ONLINE
Age Use multiple devices
group (Constantly/frequently) (%)
Indian 70
18 to 22 61
23 to 34 77
35 to 49 68
50 and older 48
Source: Adobe India Brand Content report
chase decision,” he added. Both Indian users
and advertisers are about a year away from
fully understanding the issues as currently
the entire ecosystem is trying to work out con-
sumer habits, Gandhi added.
Social media platforms continue to be a
major source of data for brands in India.
Majority of consumers share social media con-
tent on a weekly basis, with over 50 per cent
of millennial users sharing daily. Most Indians
surveyed are also comfortable sharing their
behavioural, geographic, demographic and
personal information with brands, as they feel
this helps them enjoy a better customer expe-
rience, noted the report.
The survey noted that 95 per cent of con-
sumers express confidence in at least one
social media channel, with YouTube and
Facebook emerging as the most trusted medi-
ums overall. Younger consumers (18 to 34
years) trust YouTube the most, while middle-
aged and elderly consumers (34+ years) rely
more on Facebook.
“Interestingly, YouTube celebrities are one
of the most trustworthy influencers for con-
sumers between 18 and 34 years, with their
05
Total device
usage per day
10.8 hours
10.8 hours
11.3 hours
10.4 hours
9.0 hours
PHOTO:ISTOCK
word being preferred over that of family and
friends. In contrast, elderly consumers (50+
years of age) value and trust content from a
family member or a friend,” added
Madakshira.
Online news sources are the second-best
method for consumers to source and share
information. Given the huge reach and access
that these news aggregator apps now have in
the country, the segment has seen a surge of
new entrants with the Mukesh Ambani led
Reliance Jio with JioNews being the most
recent debutant.
“Five years ago, a digital ad strategy would
have been primarily about social media, but
now brands need to understand that while
users still spend time on social media, the con-
sumption pattern has changed. So there is a
need to factor in how much time across dif-
ferent times of the day do users spend on con-
tent, social media, news etc for brands to chart
out a complete personalised ad experience for
the users,” said Gandhi.

Me-too tilts the equation
Gender relations took centre-stage as advertising and media businesses came under
scrutiny over issues of workplace harassment, writes Srija Chatterjee
M
e-too. They are two very normal and
small words. Yet, when they com-
bine, they have come to evoke power.
2018 in many respects was a watershed year
for the movement in India and for the adver-
tising industry, in particular. Many allegations
were made and many were proven too. The
movement saw a few heads, including some
prominent ones, roll as a result.
Sexual harassment has never been an easy
topic to either discuss or dissect, leave aside
tackle with sensitivity. In hindsight what me-
too has done is liberate women to speak up
about sexual harassment at the workplace,
forcing stakeholders to take stock of the situ-
ation. It has quite simply given a voice, help-
ing people in an organisation understand the
issues from the perspective of the women
grappling with the problem.
What I find interesting is that me-too has
forced many to assess their own actions and
ensure they are not, advertently or inadver-
tently, supporting workplace harassment.
Employers can no longer look the other way
when an individual is subjected to behaviour
that makes her uncomfortable and she com-
plains about it.
This is a big shift in my view and one that
has tilted the equation in favour of women.
They are now in a position to decide what
behaviour is acceptable, or not. It is a liberat-
ing feeling. But for organisations it is even
more imperative now to take into account all
perspectives before deciding what is right or
wrong.
It is therefore critical that every workplace
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has a committee and a redressal mechanism
that is fair and just. Employees also need to
be told clearly what they need to do in such
cases so that there is no ambiguity in the
process whatsoever.
While the movement has kept a lot of agen-
cies busy with setting up processes and fram-
ing a gender-sensitive policy, it also brings to
the fore the importance of having women
leaders at the top. This is a subject that is close
to my heart and something that has me think-
ing all the time.
It is a fact that there are fewer women CEOs
at ad agencies and something that we need to
address urgently. Ironically, it is not an issue
restricted to Indian agencies alone.
International agencies too have been no dif-
ferent when it comes to women leaders at the
top. There are not too many of them up there.
To put it bluntly: The agency world still
remains largely a male preserve with mostly
men calling the shots.
Me-too in a sense has forced agencies to
re-think their hiring policies when it comes
to gender equality at the workplace. Are we
doing enough to keep women going? Are
workplaces safe? To me this debate is inter-
twined.
I've also noted that me-too has been a bind-
ing factor in the agency business, bringing
women from across networks onto one table.
06
TRACKING THE RAGE
The term me-too was first coined in 2006 by
Tarana Burke, an African-American civil rights
activist. It was used to unite people who had
suffered sexual assault and violence
The term resurfaced in October 2017 soon after
several women went public with their
allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey
Weinstein
Actress Alyssa Milano opened up the floodgates
when she posted on her Twitter timeline after
the Weinstein affair: "If you've been sexually
harassed or assaulted write 'me too' as a reply
to this tweet"
The movement took more than a year to
come into India, beginning with an
accusation against actor Nana Patekar
by one of his former co-stars, Tanushree
Dutta
Soon the accusations engulfed several
big names from the worlds of
advertising, media, movies and the corporate
world
Over the past few months, the allegations have
slowed down, but across agencies, there is
How many times does this ever happen? Given
the seriousness of the issue, at one level, I am
not surprised. But the effort of coming togeth-
er on one platform is laudable indeed. Even
clients are on one page with their agency part-
ners on this, not a common sight in the indus-
try.
I am hopeful that with proactive measures,
a renewed framework and policy, agencies are
in a better position to deal with workplace
harassment. Many have taken the right steps
to make the workplace a safe environment for
women.
I remain optimistic that 2019 will bear tes-
timony to this effort and that we get to see
more women at the forefront, confident and
comfortable.
(The author is managing director of
Publicis Worldwide, India)
Next: Partho Dasgupta, CEO BARC India
looks at the big shifts in television viewership
that are redefining content and brand behav-
iour
 STRATEGY
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Celebrity power
The power of stars as endorsers is all set to rise, contrary to
the dire warnings of their decline and irrelevance a year
back, writes Sandeep Goyal
AMRITHA PILLAY

T
his was the year when star power dis-
tilled itself into a concentrated and
potent mix, with a few top celebrities
setting the records in their favour even as the
arena expanded to include some uncapped
players.
The surprising winner was Ranveer Singh
(25 endorsements) who incidentally had just
one movie release, the controversial
Padmaavat, that too at the beginning of the
year! Ranveer pipped the Indian cricket cap-
tain Virat Kohli (24 endorsements), Amitabh
Bachchan (24), Akshay Kumar (22), Deepika
Padukone (22) and Alia Bhatt (20) to top the
charts in terms of the number of brands for
celebrities in 2018.
For the first time, none of the Khans made
top grades, signaling perhaps the end of an
era. Shahrukh had 13 endorsement contracts
in 2018 (down from 20 in 2017) and Salman
was the face of just 10 brands. Aamir and Saif
were both in single digits. Ranbir Kapoor,
despite a superhit Sanju, and all his metro
swag remained a laggard.
Bollywood continued to dominate the
endorsement business. Even Hrithik Roshan
who had no release in 2018, had as many as 16
brands while rising star Varun Dhawan flaunt-
ed 14. Ayushmann Khurrana who delivered
two 100-crore hits late in the year, did pocket
the prestigious Coca-Cola deal but did not
From top): Virat Kohli (24),
have enough time in 2018 to fully encash his
Ranveer Singh (25 brands), and
box-office success.
Akshay Kumar (22)
M S Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar started
endorsed the maximum
to lose steam with each of their portfolios
brands in 2018
dropping below double digits; the same being
the case with PV Sindhu who started to taper
off after a great 2017. Within cricket, no new Will it be the same for Anushka Sharma,
stars really emerged except a couple of cam- Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra?
paigns for Hardik Pandya and the MRF bat On the flip side, marriage will also create a
deal for Prithvi Shaw. Despite early promise, new opportunity with the emergence of ‘pow-
both Shikhar Dhawan and K L Rahul failed to er couples’. Virushka, DeepVeer and even
get any significant brands. Women cricketers Akshay-Twinkle are likely to be seen together
too drew a blank. more often. Virushka are already the brand
But there was no escaping celebrity power ambassadors for ethnic apparel brand
for brands. Millward Brown estimated that 24 Manyavar while the Kumars have quite a few. likes of Ishaan Khattar, Vicky Kaushal, Kiara
per cent of all ads aired on television had Ranbir-Alia were featured together just this Advani especially with more and more brands
celebrities as endorsers. The percentage may week by Flipkart, in what may be a sign of seeking younger faces.
actually be much higher if one were to factor things to come. There is an emerging market for micro-
in videos on social media. In terms of media The strong will get stronger in 2019. Virat influencers too going forward. The likes of
devoted to a single celebrity, as per the Indian Kohli will in all probability be the most Bhuvan Bam (BB ki Vines), Gabbar Singh,
Institute of Human Brands, Virat Kohli had sought-after endorser. More so because of all Zakir Khan, Suresh Menon, Abish Mathew,
the highest share of visibility, followed by the cricket slated for the coming year. Ranveer Gaurav Gera, among others represent a new
Amitabh Bachchan, Ranveer Singh, Deepika has a slew of new releases coming up, so his generation of celebrities on the internet who
Padukone and Akshay Kumar. currency is likely to remain strong. Akshay can also push brands.
What does this imply for 2019? One big fac- Kumar too should continue to enjoy a dream The stars will continue to shine and sparkle
tor that is likely to disrupt the charts is mar- run and has been marked out by many as the through 2019. But will we just see more of the
riage. The year could take a toll on star women most likely to replace an ageing Big B as same? Brands flocking to known faces to break
endorsers. Going by past records, marriage India’s ‘most trusted’ endorser. the clutter, but doing the opposite by hiring
does dampen the prospects of women as Deepika will continue to do well, Alia is the same known faces on the block. Or will
brand ambassadors. This has been seen to be likely to take the top spot among women and there finally be a more nuanced understand-
true for Aishwarya Rai and Kareena Kapoor. the year may also offer opportunities to the ing of endorsement strategy?

07
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Inside the Avengers

marketing juggernaut
How a superhero franchise packaged itself and spread its cult far from home
URVI MALVANIA
Mumbai, 1 May

G
lobalisation may no longer wear a super-
hero cape in the hallowed circles of econ-
omists and policy makers, but for
America’s entertainment business, its powers
are shining brighter than ever. Check out the
phenomenal showing of the final movie in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) Avengers
saga, Avengers: Endgame in countries far from
home and among people far removed from its
contextual framework. Endgame is the fastest
Hollywood release to cross the ~200 crore mark
in India and its marketing journey, as plotted by
the Disney cavalcade, is a lesson in how to build
a global legion of fans who are willing to brave
price, weather and all other odds to turn up at
the theatres.
While there was huge hype around the film’s
release, given the fan base it has already amassed
since the MCU started its journey in 2008 with
Ironman, the Disney team worked out a local
context for the story and its characters. Not only
has the movie been released in several lan-
guages, the marketing efforts have been multi-
lingual and an anthem, meant to herald the com-
ing of the movie, was sung by A R Rahman to
further strengthen local appeal.
“The Marvel movies have a distinct advan-
tage in that they have rich and complex story-
telling, but it is relatable because of the univer-
sal nature of the themes — good versus evil,
friendship etc. That is one of the reasons the
franchise has been able to form an emotional
connect,” said Bikram Duggal, head
of Studio Entertainment, Disney India. have an emotional connect with movies and over, no matter the language they speak.
Endgame released in three Indian languages their characters, the franchise thrives. India is a Localisation has also come in the form of
— Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, along with English diverse country with so many different lan- brand partnerships. For example, handset mak-
in 2,800 screens across formats with 13,000 guages, and we know that fans want to enjoy er OPPO has collaborated with Marvel Studios’
shows a day on an average. Disney India has these movies in their language,” Duggal explains Avengers: Endgame to launch a brand new F11
learnt its localisation lessons well, especially about the company’s strategy for localising Pro Marvel’s Avengers Limited Edition smart-
after 2016, when Jungle Book became the first Hollywood content in the country. phone in support of the film, while Myntra as
Hollywood film to breach the ~150 crore mark With Avengers: Infinity War, the Disney part of its loyalty program ‘Myntra Insider’ has
at the box office. Since then, Indian language team said the challenge was that there was not developed
dubs have been meticulously planned and mar- just one character that had to be promoted and a unique collaboration amongst Myntra design-
keted as has been the tie-ups with local mer- localised. There was the entire motley group of ers and Marvel Fans. Other brands to have part-
chandise and brand partners. superheroes that needed to build up. In India, nered with the movie include toymaker Hasbro
Currently Indian language versions con- this was done through figurine tours, retail acti- and retailer Max.
tribute to 50 per cent of Marvel movie collections vations, and marketing through popular plat- Amar Nagaram, head of Myntra Jabong said,
for Disney India. This is a significant jump from forms like the Indian Premier League. “Our brand Kook N Keech, popular for its char-
30 per cent share that the studio saw when the Disney collaborated with music director AR acter based licensed merchandise is offering
MCU launched a decade back. More recently, Rahman to launch the Marvel Anthem for over 400 different styles as part of the ‘Avengers:
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) breached the ~200 Avengers fans in the country. The anthem was i’ collection which has witnessed a significant
crore mark in the country. Apart from releases released in three languages — Hindi, Tamil, increase in sales over the past few weeks. We
in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, Disney also engaged and Telugu. Additionally, the studio worked also launched a special co-creation activity
regional influencers to create further hype for with A R Murugadoss to transliterate the movie where we had customers team up with our
the film. in Tamil. Duggal says that by paying close designers to design T-shirts with the winning
“The core strategy has been to deepen the attention to details and understanding what design to be made available on Myntra in the
emotional connect that the fans have with the sells locally, the team has been able to bring coming weeks.”
brand Marvel and the characters. When fans fans to the theatres many times

08

Brand Jet’s final nosedive
Price wars, rising costs, and an inability to meet its brand promise have led Jet to the
crowded pile of dumped airline brands, say experts
ANEESH PHADNIS
I
t is flashback time for many. Protesting
employees, irate customers, devastated fam-
ilies clamouring for compensation and justice
–the scenes playing out in the aftermath of the
Jet Airways debacle evoke a sense of déjà vu,
drawing instant comparisons with the long list
of airline brands that have found their way to
graveyard. Why are Indian airlines so vulnerable?
And why did Brand Jet collapse, within twelve
months of celebrating its silver jubilee?
A mix of financial and strategic mistakes com-
bined with poor expectations management are
the reasons for downfall, say marketing and
branding experts. For Jet, the deathly potion was
even more toxic on account of the bitter squab-
bles between promoter Naresh Goyal and strate-
gic partner Etihad Airways.
Airlines have no control over cost, especially
fuel (which accounts for 30-40 per cent of all
expenses) and taxes. What it does control is the
product and service. “Jet Airways never compro-
mised on products and services. From its incep-
tion the service philosophy was clear, the cus-
tomer at the back of the plane should not feel
inferior to those in the business class seat in the
front. For many years the airline offered services
like choice of North and South Indian meal
options, pillows and blankets for passengers. The
airline's brand and brand experience was suc-
cessful but in business management it was a fail-
ure,” said K V Sridhar, founder and chief creative
officer, Hyper Collective. Sridhar was a part of
the team at Lintas which designed Jet’s ‘flying
sun’ logo and its first campaign.
STRATEGY
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CRASH LANDED
Airline Launch Year it was sold or suspended/ Naresh Goyal, the man whose story reads
year shut operations
EAST WEST AIRLINES 1992 1996
DAMANIA AIRWAYS 1993 Sold to NEPC Airlines in 1995 then
NEPC AIRLINES 1993 1997
MODILUFT 1993 1996
AIR SAHARA 1993 Sold to Jet Airways in 2007 the best talent for his airline, giving it an edge
AIR DECCAN 2003 Sold to Kingfisher in 2007 over the rest in terms of the service it offered.
KINGFISHER 2005 2012
For Ambi Parameswaran, founder of Brand-
Building.com, price wars and an inability to
charge a premium caused Jet's downfall. Low
cost airlines drove down the price threshold to
the point that it was untenable for Jet. The airline
management could have relied more on data to
price its products differently from peers, he said.
“A good brand image cannot save a poor balance
sheet. In the last ten years Jet made profits only
twice and has been surviving on borrowed funds.
Kingfisher Airlines had the same problem as it
tried to offer better services but could not com-
mand a premium,” he said.
Sridhar does not see price wars as critical and
blames the crisis on strategic mistakes and an
entrepreneur's ego. The problem was the pur-
chase of Air Sahara in 2007. “Jet's wage and debt
and maintenance costs have always been high. I
do not think the inability to charge a premium
was a big issue. When the inventory is high and
airlines are adding capacity it is difficult to seek
09
a premium,” he said.
Like Sridhar many blame the debacle on
like a fairy tale. He sold seats and cargo loads
for other airlines as a general sales agent and
went on to launch Jet Airways in 1993.
It was not the first private domestic airline
of that era, but the only one to survive till
date. East West Airlines began in 1992 but
shut down four years later. Goyal attracted
Aviation consultant Vishok Mansingh says
over 30 scheduled, non-scheduled and cargo
airlines in India have shut down in last three
decades largely due to mismanagement, inade-
quate funding and absence of long term plan-
ning. “Margins are thin and there is no room for
inefficiencies,” he said.
Shashank Nigam, CEO of aviation brand strat-
egy firm SimpliFlying says airlines like Jet
Airways and Kingfisher perished in their attempt
to please everyone. Both got into the low cost
space in addition to a full service offering, leading
to brand confusion. Eventually Jet adopted a
single brand strategy but it was too late.
“Costs were too high and profits were deter-
mined primarily by the competition and exter-
nalities like fuel prices. The most consistently
profitable have kept their brand promise very
simple. It may not resonate with everyone, but
those who fly these airlines are die-hard fans.
The key to be a successful airline in India lies in
building a strong brand promise and then staying
true to it,” Nigam said.

Dell, Jeep, LIC top the
trust charts
The Tata group drops off the list of top 20 most trusted
brands, while group-owned Tanishq makes the cut at 14; SBI
debuts at 10: Brand Trust Report 2019
AMRITHA PILLAY
O
ne employee talks about her love for
football, another of his passion for the
shooting range. Both work in KPMG
and both are speaking up for their employer
as part of a campaign to celebrate the con-
sulting firm’s twenty-fifth year in India.
KPMG is looking to establish itself as a place
that nurtures interesting talent and as a con-
sulting firm of choice for its clients, turning
to its employees for a glowing testimonial.
While this makes for sound strategy, experts
say that the firm may have slipped up on exe-
cution and ended up with a rather weak
endorsement of its prowess.
The campaign, KPMGjOSH, launched ear-
lier this year and expected to run through to
the end of 2019 has been released on digital
and print. It has employees sharing stories
about their passions and about how they go
beyond office hours to serve their company’s
STRATEGY
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ative officer for Hyper Collective. For con-
sulting firms, getting the advertising pitch
right is tricky, given the intangible nature of
the brand and the mixed group of clients they
want to address. Given this, using employees
to stand up for the brand’s values has worked
for many in the past.
“It is a declaration of what we are capable
of, driven by the inner fire to win, to make a
difference. It is a statement that establishes
the firm as the #ClearChoice for businesses
and professionals who want to succeed,” said
a spokesperson for KPMG. In addition, the
campaign involves a weekly exercise of
employees across practices sharing stories
with the firm around the same theme. “We
believe that our culture and our people are
our differentiating point. Hence the idea was
to make them central to this campaign,” the
spokesperson added.
Harish Bijoor, founder, Harish Bijoor
Consults believes that using employees as
brand ambassadors is a great idea. “In the
case of KPMG, as it celebrates 25 years in
India, it has decided to use its employees.
Good thing. When you use an employee there
is a greater degree of internal connect with
the creative execution,” he said.
Bijoor, however, has a word of caution.”It
is very important for the creatives to be
packed with integrity and every creative
must speak the language of high quality,”
Bijoor says. Miss that and one could turn into
a point of ridicule or fodder for memes and
more, he warns.
It is also important to establish consulting
firms as egalitarian workspaces, different
from the image of being fiefdoms that oper-
ate in secrecy, given the backlash against
some members of the profession for their
roles in corporate scams. To that end, asking
TOP 10 MOST TRUSTED BRANDS employees across the hierarchical matrix to
share their stories does make for an interest-
Rank 2018 2019
ing branding opportunity.
1 Samsung Dell However as Sridhar points out, it would
2 Sony Jeep have worked better if the campaign had been
crafted with greater thought. He recalled a
3 LG LIC campaign for Sapient in 2016 where the ad
4 Tata Amazon asked for troublemakers to sign up for a job.
5 Apple Apple iPhone “It conveyed we do not want people who are
6 Dell Samsung yes men, but troublemakers who ask uncom-
7 Honda LG fortable questions,” he said.
KPMG’s campaign has also raised several
8 Nike Aviva Life Insurance
eyebrows over its timing. Given the regula-
9 Hewlett-Packard Maruti Suzuki tory spotlight that audit firms in India are
10 Maruti Suzuki State Bank of India under. But that may just be reading too much
into a campaign, said Bijoor. “The timing
clients. Laudable attributes all but, brand may give one that impression but this looks
experts say, the narrative lacks integrity. like a KPMG 25 years in India campaign,” he
“The intent is not bad, it is the idea and added.
execution that could be better. It is a missed
opportunity both for the agency and compa-
ny,” said KV Sridhar, founder and chief cre-
10

Facebook steps up
the brand pitch
The platform has taken up an industry-wide exercise
to familiarise brands with their consumers
ROMITA MAJUMDAR
W
hat do brands want from their social
media engagement? How can they get
the maximum out of customer inter-
actions? And what happens when digital does
not deliver its promised set of customers?
Ask Facebook; that is what the social media
giant wants advertisers and marketers to do as
it sets down the rules of engagement for brands
and consumers on its platform. Using a series
of reports that it commissioned through 2018,
the team in India is reaching out to brands and
advertisers to help them sharpen their pitch
and maximise their returns from the platform.
Today consumers demand utmost speed
and simplicity when they decide to buy a prod-
uct or a service and brands have to ensure that
they act within seconds of a consumer request.
STRATEGY
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They also must work harder on their user inter-
faces.
Indian consumers are notoriously fickle and
abandon their purchase journeys at the slight-
est discomfort. Long queues, incomplete infor-
mation, long forms, anything can be a turn off.
Consumers dropping off the purchase journey
is referred to as 'friction' and it is here that
brands are losing out on millions of dollars
worth of sales opportunities. Facebook says it
can help brands avoid friction by enabling a
better understanding of consumer and plat-
form behaviour.
The need to dig deeper into consumer jour-
neys on social media is even more urgent today,
given the growing number of brands accessing
the platform and engaging with consumers
who speak languages other than English or
Hindi.
11
OPPORTUNITY MAP
 Smartphones: Brands can tap into a potential
sales opportunity of about $3.1 billion at a
reduced cost per action (CPA*) by almost 13%
 Automobiles: For four-wheelers, there is a
potential sales opportunity of about a million
units at a reduced CPA by nearly 4.7%; for two-
wheelers, the opportunity is about 2.6 million
units at a reduced CPA by almost 7.8%
 Fashion: For apparel, the potential sales
opportunity of about $5 billion at a reduced CPA
by about 5% is on the table; for accessories, it is
about $9 billion at a reduced CPA by almost 5%
 Travel: Airlines can tap into a potential sales
opportunity of about $9 billion at a reduced CPA
by 30%; and for hotels, about $2 billion at a
reduced CPA of 15%
*Cost Per Action (CPA) is the amount it costs in advertising
dollars per desired action
Source: Facebook
“Digital is absolutely mainstream today,”
said Sandeep Bhushan, director and head of
GMS, Facebook India and South Asia. He adds
that people with the smallest level of discre-
tionary income in the country have a smart-
phone and are online today which makes it
imperative for businesses to also be present on
the platform. “Platforms like ours which use
real identity login reach every Indian in the
broad segmentation possible,” he emphasised.
Note that while both Facebook and Google
have been locked in a battle for advertising rev-
enues across the globe, one of their key differ-
entiators is the login mechanism. While users
can at least use Google search without logging
in through individual accounts, none of the
Facebook apps can be used without logging in,
which at the basic level does provide more user
insight, according to analysts. However, given
the huge spread of apps across both tech con-
glomerates, it is by itself not a big differentiator.
hence the need for targeted outreach.
Last year Facebook launched the “Zero fric-
tion future” programme, in partnership with
KPMG and Nielsen India, releasing a series of
industry focussed white papers to help brands
understand media friction in consumer pur-
chase journeys and how mobile can help open
future avenues for growth.
As per the research findings and analysis
by Nielsen and KPMG, mobile plays a signifi-
cant role in eliminating friction across multiple
touch-points. It was also observed, across the
industries covered, that Facebook’s influence
at every stage of the marketing funnel is also
significant.
“Digital tools have been evolving over the
last few years with everyone going for different
product offerings. But the marketer still doesn’t
have clarity about what it means to business,”
said Bhushan. Hence Facebook saw the need
for an understanding of the basic query: Where
are businesses losing their consumer?
Of course, consumer challenges that lead
to friction can occur across different stages of
their purchase journey, starting from aware-
ness, consideration, intent to finally making
the purchase. And Facebook is keen that
brands plug the holes. For that is the only way
it can keep the business buzzing on its plat-
form.

The online footprint of
the festival shopper
Consumers don’t search by brands, begin the hunt for deals
just a few weeks before Diwali. In 2018, the bulk of new
consumers were from small towns
T E NARASIMHAN
B
reaking down the digital behaviour of
Indian consumers has been an uphill task.
Despite the vast reserve of customer data,
brands and e-commerce players find it difficult
to understand what buyers look for, struggle to
win their trust or keep them from dropping out
of the online purchase journey.
Recent insights into search and purchase
behaviour, still trickling in from the big festival
sales, could shine a light on such tricky issues.
Take a look at what the insights team at Google
found, using search trends to reveal how shop-
pers shop during the lucrative holiday sales sea-
son.
The team says that Q4 is the busiest shopping
season of the year in India and; shopping search-
es peak about 2-3 weeks before Diwali. “Online
shopping searches in this period grew 15 per
cent faster,” noted a recent newsletter from
Think with Google. Brands benefit if they are
able to grab consumer attention early in the
search journey.
A number of people coming online during
the festive season are doing so for the first time,
many from small towns and non-English speak-
ing communities, the e-commerce brands said.
“This year, we saw customers from over 600
new cities shop during the festive season. While
35 per cent of our customers shopped from
metro cities, nearly 40 per cent of our customers
shopped from Tier-3 towns. With increasing
data and internet penetration, we see almost 95
STRATEGY
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SHOP TALK
 Shopping searches peak about 2-3 weeks
before Diwali
 Almost 95 per cent growth in the number of
customers on Flipkart for the big festival sales are
from Tier-3 towns
 Amazon has seen 60 per cent growth in new
customer growth this season, with more than
82 per cent from lower tier cities
per cent growth in the number of customers
who shopped from Tier-3 towns,” said a Flipkart
spokesperson. Brands gain stickiness and loy-
alty by turning multilingual and offering prod-
ucts that customers look for the most.
What sold the most this year? Beauty, toys
and baby care, sports and fitness, television and
large appliances, followed by fashion. Ananth
Narayanan, CEO, Myntra-Jabong said, “The fes-
tive season usually brings high volume sales,
where we have so far recorded a 200 per cent
growth over last year in women’s ethnic category
from our private brands and double from the
category overall.”
Apart from smartphones and fashion, con-
sumables that include daily essentials and beau-
ty, large appliances, televisions and home and
kitchen have emerged popular during the
Amazon Great Indian Festival this year, said the
Amazon India Spokesperson. “The first 36 hours
of the first wave, nearly surpassed the entire
wave one of last year! We have already received
12
at least one order from 99 per cent of India’s
pin-codes and have witnessed a 3X surge in
Prime member signups,” said the spokesperson.
This festive season so far has recorded over 60
per cent new customer growth with more than
82 per cent from lower tier cities.
The real test for e-commerce players how-
ever will be to keep these customers coming
back for more. This has proved difficult in the
past. A recent report by Facebook, KPMG and
Nielsen showed consumers dropping out of dig-
ital purchase pathways in increasing numbers.
Apparel and accessories brands, the fastest mov-
ing segment online, are losing out potentially
on $5-$9 billion worth of sales because con-
sumers are not going down the entire length of
the purchase pathway. And that is a worry.
There are invisible barriers keeping them
from pushing their shopping carts to the final
counter. Brands can bring them down by reach-
ing out to the consumer early in the shopping
journey. And the festive season is a good place
to start for many.
According to Google Insights team, cus-
tomers behave differently for different product
categories. For instance, more than 75 per cent
of apparel and accessory searchers are generic
in nature. Almost 70 per cent of men's clothing
searches and 90 per cent of women's clothing
searches are generic in nature.
The story is different for footwear and mobile
phones. Google data says that search for shoes
grew 1.3X during this festival season so far as
compared to last year, with around 40 per cent
containing brand names. Almost 85 per cent of
the searches for mobile phones are brand driv-
en, while 70 per cent of price-related searches
are for smartphones between ~5,000-~15,000.
What the data also shows is that there is no
single way to market to the online customer. If
customers are searching by brand name, brands
must use the digital channels to provide product
reviews and detailed information on product
features. For this is how brand-conscious mobile
phone buyers behave before honing in on a
brand and making the final purchase.
Another insight is that brands must
approach the holiday season as a sum of its parts
instead of just one entire sales season. Going by
the trends demonstrated in 2017, holiday sales
surge twice; once pre-Diwali and then again in
the weeks running up to Christmas. The winter
holiday sales season is nearly as big as the
October-November festive season in the coun-
try.
E-commerce companies could also benefit
if they use the data on product styles or cate-
gories selling more, early in the season, to curate
their online stores more efficiently. In jewellery
shopping, online jewellery major Caratlane said
that it has seen a higher demand for earrings,
light weight bangles and necklaces, this season.
This insight can help if the company provides
consumers with wider choices in these seg-
ments.
However branded jewellers are still focused
largely on urban consumers. “While we have
seen a 20 per cent growth in our brand searches
on Google over last year, our focus still remains
largely on women in urban India,” said Atul
Sinha, senior vice president, Marketing & Retail
sales, Caratlane. To truly leverage the expanding
digital footprint in the country, brands such as
Caratlane will need to look for life beyond the
metros.
 STRATEGY
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YouTube rolls out the

pitch for advertisers
The Google-owned platform
promises personalised
engagement, diverse
viewership, and a captive
audience of 265-plus million
monthly active users
ROMITA MAJUMDAR

S
reenath, a young railway porter from
Kerala always dreamt of a city paved with
streets of gold and a life that meant some-
thing. His story that maps a phenomenal jour-
ney, from the railway station to the State Public
Service examinations and to his present day life
as a student administrator, was part of
YouTube’s pitch to advertisers at its annual flag-
ship event held in Mumbai on April 9. The diver-
sity of its storytellers and the millions of viewers
that they draw to the platform every month is
what YouTube wants marketers to bite into as
it kick-started a massive drive for a bigger share
of the advertisers’ wallet in the country.
As would be evident to anyone at the event,
if stories could be used as currency, YouTube
would be sitting on an inexhaustible treasure
chest. The storytellers on its platform come
from a wide range of locations and cut across
all age groups, as do its viewers, that was the
thrust of the message at the event. YouTube’s
CEO, Susan Wojcicki announced that the plat-
form has more than 265 million monthly active
users in India (as per ComScore). She said,
“India is now both our biggest audience and
one of our fastest growing audiences in the
world.” YouTube says that today it has become
the first stop for users to consume content,
whether they’re looking for entertainment or
information. And the creative flourish of its (Top) Hyundai’s ad where a civilian helps an army recruit reach his camp and (below) Samsung’s
diverse band of creators drives personalised voice assistance services ad were among the top ads for creative excellence, viewer attention, and
engagement on the platform. brand-fit, among other metrics
Wojcicki said, “In the last one year,
YouTube’s consumption on mobile has market, he said. unwanted content.
increased to 85 per cent, with 60 per cent of the For a long time the platform has battled Advertisers, the team at Google and
watch time coming from outside of the six advertiser outrage over its approach towards ad YouTube was keen to emphasise, err when they
largest metros in India. Today, YouTube creators placement. This led the Google-owned platform assume that the young today are looking for
have become effective storytellers, with more to overhaul its approach and offer marketers a short forms of content. People are willing to con-
than 1,200 Indian creators crossing the one mil- sharper set of tools to craft better narratives and sume long form content as long as the story-
lion subscriber-milestone, just five years ago, manage them more efficiently. telling grips their attention.
there were only two creators with a million sub- To keep advertisers interested and coming Noticeably, the BrandCast this year spoke
scribers.” back for more, the team at YouTube used the less about the creators themselves and more
Advertisers have benefited from the explo- numbers at its disposal to identify what works about the advertisers, advertising and reach.
sion of content and also from a bouquet of tools best with audiences. Ben Jones, global head- Globally, YouTube has faced criticism from
that YouTube offers that helps create targeted Unskippable Labs, Google, said, “Over 70 per their organically grown creators due to their
advertisements and tracks the nature of view- cent of a campaign’s success is influenced by increasing focus on conventional entertainers
ership as well as the numbers. Mark Patterson, creative. At Google, we have been working over and celebrities. Note that, Facebook as a brand
CEO, GroupM Asia Pacific said, “User behavior the years to enable the advertising ecosystem has lately been shifting their narrative to a
has shifted massively to mobile video and there- to make more engaging brand messages.” He more creator centric approach as they push
in lies the opportunity for marketers today.” added that the problem is not of shrinking atten- their video content and related advertising
GroupM is the largest buyer of YouTube in this tion spans but that of higher intolerance towards tools.

13

Local brands surge, global
brands expand the net
Home-grown labels in biscuits and dairy top the charts, but global giants find their
way into more categories and regions: Kantar
VIVEAT SUSAN PINTO
P
arle and Amul were the most frequently
bought labels across Indian households,
chosen 5.3 and 3.9 billion times respec-
tively in calendar year 2018. But while Indian
consumers are sticking to local brands when it
comes to food and dairy overall, as branded pur-
chases become more common, global labels have
a wider spread, according to the latest Brand
Footprint report by Kantar.
The report, which measures the number of
households buying a brand and the frequency
with which they are doing so, says that branded
buys are increasing in more categories and global
names are making their presence felt.
The top 16 list for 2018 shows a wider spread
of categories from soaps to shampoos, tooth-
pastes, detergents, creams, tea and instant noo-
dles, besides biscuits and dairy. And the prefer-
ence for names from the house of multinationals
was high in most cases. So, Clinic Plus (sham-
poos), Colgate (toothpaste), Wheel (detergent),
Lifebuoy (soap), Maggi (instant noodle), Surf
Excel (detergent) and Fair & Lovely (cream) were
chosen between one and three billion times by
Indian households in 2018. All these brands are
manufactured and marketed by companies such
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as Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Colgate-Palmolive
and Nestle India.
The only exception here is Tata, chosen 1.9
billion times in 2018, thanks to the recall it
induces in tea especially in the south, where it
has regional names such as Chakra Gold and
Kanan Devan driving it, said Kantar. In deter-
gents, on the other hand, price warrior Ghadi
stuck out amid MNC rivals in the top 16.
The big loser in 2018 was Patanjali (Rank 20),
as growth momentum slowed. It was not among
the top-growing brands in terms of penetration,
for the first time in three years according to the
report.
“At a broader level,” says K Ramakrishnan,
GM and country head, S Asia at Kantar World
Panel, “The top 50 list (for 2018) has brands such
as Sunrise coffee and Lay’s chips from Nestle
India and PepsiCo, which have marked their
presence for the first time in the report. This has
happened due to better distribution and mar-
keting by these brands, pushing up frequency
of purchase among households.” While Lays
debuted the list at Rank 44 on the back of strong
reach and penetration, Sunrise came in at 47 as
more households opted for the product off store
shelves.
As the menace of counterfeit products has
hit home, experts say, trust in brands from estab-
14
TOP 10 BRANDS
Rank Brand
1 PARLE
2 AMUL
3 CLINIC PLUS
4 BRITANNIA
5 AAVIN
6 GHADI
7 NANDINI
8 TATA
9 COLGATE
10 WHEEL
*Brands ranked by Consumer Reach
Point (CRP), which is arrived at after
taking into account penetration
and frequency of the brand
Source: Kantar Brand Footprint 2018
lished companies has been increasing. In 2018,
for instance, there were fewer “global” brands or
labels from multinational companies that
dropped their rankings versus the figure in 2017.
It stood at four versus seven in 2017, pointing to
the increased confidence in these names, Kantar
said. The number of global brands losing pene-
tration in 2018 was also lower than in 2017 (three
versus five), indicating that these companies
were also putting their money and might behind
improving reach.
In the last few quarters, most companies
including multinational players in FMCG have
been working hard to grow direct distribution,
both in urban and rural areas. This has come as
they seek to reduce dependence on the whole-
sale channel, considered unorganised and lag-
ging behind most other trade channels in terms
of its application of best practices.
HUL, for instance, has a direct reach of over
three million outlets, say analysts, which is
nearly 38 per cent of its total retail reach of 8
million outlets. Companies such as Procter &
Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser and Nestle have also
been pushing direct reach aggressively in addi-
tion to home-grown players such as ITC, Dabur,
Marico and Godrej Consumer. ITC’s direct reach
is estimated to be over two million outlets, while
Dabur’s is around 1.2 million outlets.
 STRATEGY
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Repackaging
Brand Sachin
Five years into retirement, the little master is the
third highest paid sports endorser. How did he
script his return to relevance?

URVI MALVANIA years back, he set up a company to ing nation, rather than a sports
manage his brand and investments BRAND STATS watching one, Mukherjee said.
called SRT Sports Management. He Number of brands: 17 The brand is more than the

W
hen Sachin Tendulkar retired from
cricket in 2013, none expected him to
fade away into the twilight. Still, few
would have anticipated that he would be rocking
the endorsement charts well into his retirement
years. Valued at ~40 crore (GroupM ESP
Properties’ Sporting Nation in the Making–VI),
Tendulkar has knocked badminton ace P V
Sindhu off the third spot in the highest paid
endorsers’ list in 2018. And after Virat Kohli and
M S Dhoni at first and second spot, he is the high-
est paid sports endorser in the country today.
How did the cricketer play his way back into
reckoning?
According to the report, Tendulkar was the
face of 10 brands last year. UNICEF, BMW,
Luminous, Smartron, GM Pens, Aster Pharmacy,
DBS Bank, Sony Ten, Smash and Quaker. Overall
he is associated with 17 brands (he had 24 prior
to retirement). According to his team,
Tendulkar’s fee per day per year has seen a
growth of 4x over the past five years, while the
aggregate value of his brand associations has
gone up 1.8 times in the same time period, despite
the decline in the absolute number of brands
endorsed.
Vinit Karnik, business head, ESP Properties
says, “Sachin is a cricketing legend, moreover,
he is also an inspiration to the masses for his off-
field conduct and gestures. This role model
image of Sachin is what attracts advertising dol-
lars.”
True, but like all things Tendulkar, his return
too has taken meticulous planning. Around three
launched his app through SRT and
Mrinmoy Mukherjee, director and Brand value: ~
CEO, SRT Sports Management says
that they spent a lot of time under- Rank: 3
standing what Sachin the brand Fee per day per year
stands for.
“We went back to the fundamen- increased 4
tals of brand planning. This meant in years 5
talking to his fans and followers and Source: SRT Sports Management,
understanding what Sachin stands for GroupM ESP Properties
(in their minds) now that he is off the
playing field. We did the same with brand part-
ners to understand how they relate to the per-
sonality,” said Mukherjee.
Talking to fans and brand partners was just
the start. The team then sat with Sachin to under-
stand his passions and the big ideas that he want-
ed to pursue, post retirement. As a result, the
brand is now positioned on “not just the fact that
he is one of the greatest players of the game, but
what went into becoming one of the greats of the
game,” Mukherjee explains.
“There are two brands that are really huge,
Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan. They
will never go away. Yes, there was a bit of slump
after retirement (for Tendulkar), but that is nat-
ural,” says Indranil das Blah, co-CEO at KWAN, a
sports management agency.
Brand Tendulkar said Mukherjee is not just
about the game of cricket but about health and
fitness as a whole, not only because it is a vital
part of any athlete’s career, but because the for-
mer team India captain is passionate about it.
He believes it is time India becomes a sports play-
endorsements in the bag. Hence
40 crore the team has been working with
Central and State ministries to
include sports in the curriculum,
tying up with brands on special
initiatives and CSR activities
times around sport. Many times, these
also include brand partnerships,
which may have an endorsement
element, or a deeper business
partnership.
As a result, the associations between the
brands and Tendulkar are more than pure
endorsement deals, they include business part-
nerships and other long-term associations.
“Before retirement, it was about the cricketer
Tendulkar. Now it is more about the statesman
Tendulkar,” das Blah adds.
Mukherjee concurs, adding that brands are
looking beyond just his on-field performance.
“The focus is on how he played the game. That is
where brands derive trust in him, from how he
has conducted himself. This is what makes him
endearing to brands, and to the audiences.”
This has also meant a change in the profile of
brands. For example, any brand with unhealthy
implications, is not an option. So while a cola
brand may have been a choice in the past, it is no
longer on the list. “While some may look at it as
a narrowing of choices, I would say it has sharp-
ened our focus and that’s why there’s been an
increase in the value of the brand,” Mukherjee
says. Like on the field, off the field too, numbers
matter for the master batsman.

15

Brands lost in translation
Content creation is big in the digital world, but advertisers have a small pool to select
from and fare which is not exclusive to platforms
ROMITA MAJUMDAR
W
hat do digital content cre-
ators like Shreya Jain,
Technical Guruji, Bhuvan
Bham, Mallika Dua, TVF, Sandeep
Maheshwari and Pocket Aces have
in common? Answer: They have mil-
lions of followers, advertisers and tech
giants desperate to have them on their
platforms.
As internet access spreads through
cheaper data and smarter phones, digital con-
tent creators are in greater demand. But the
irony is that advertisers have a small bunch of
creators to choose from. Look up YouTube,
Snapchat and Facebook, three of the biggest
names when it comes to video content in India,
and it is not surprising to find Technical Guruji,
Bhuvan Bham or Mallika Dua offering the same
fare. The same goes for the other popular con-
tent creators around. It is a small world and
content is hardly exclusive to platforms. In oth-
er words, it is a zero-sum game for advertisers.
They barely gain, said experts.
While digital companies are doing the best
to get creators to provide differentiated content,
this is not easy, experts said. Content creation,
they say, have limitations and pushing them
beyond a point is unreasonable. The net result
for the platform is the lack of stickiness, some-
thing they dislike.
A day out in the sun
At Facebook’s flagship ‘Creator’s Day’ event in
Mumbai last month, the social media giant
talked about their top video stars and how it
was introducing a number of content moneti-
sation tools for this group.
“The biggest trend that the Indian digital
industry has witnessed in consumer behaviour
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(From top to down) : Shreya Jain , Technical
Guruji, Sandeep Maheshwari (left) and TVF are
popular content creators on most digital
platforms, including Facebook and YouTube
is rapid growth in adoption of video over the
last few years. We’re seeing consumer videos
exploding on our platform and today, video has
become one of the biggest drivers of engage-
ment growth on Facebook. Besides community
content, where people share their experiences,
we are a platform where professional content
creators come to find an audience and also earn
money,” said Paresh Rajwat, Facebook's head
of products for video.
The Menlo-Park-headquartered company
has also introduced ad breaks in five languages,
namely, English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and
Bengali for eligible partners. Ad breaks are
applicable to those videos that have attracted
over 30,000 one-minute views for two months
and have over 10,000 followers. Creators will
be eligible to 55 per cent ad revenue share, com-
pany officials said.
The chief incentive for creators on Facebook
is to graduate to Facebook Watch (their recently
launched long-form video segment), which will
give them more viewership and advertisers
alike. But the question is: Are content creators
16
game for it? And are they
ready to offer more to
one platform versus
the other.
There are no clear
answers yet. But
Facebook, said experts,
hasn’t given up too. It
has simplified how cre-
ators can keep track of their
online presence, viewership and
fan engagement through different tools on the
platform. This gives them the impetus to stick
on with Facebook and do their best to keep
engaging their audience with differentiated
content. Brands obviously gain from this exer-
cise, experts said.
Rivals follow suit
In November, Snap, makers of Snapchat, the
popular social camera app, announced the
launch of a localised tool called Discover. This
is a content discovery segment of the app. The
launch was meant for the growing community
of Indian snapchatters as well as aimed at
monetising their local user base
through advertising part-
nerships with brands.
Unlike Facebook or
Youtube, Snapchat contin-
ues to differentiate itself with
“curated” content so not
everyone can become a star
overnight. Experts say it is
Snapchat's in-house team that
decides whether content cre-
ators have made the cut based on
various parameters including the
kind of content created and their
follower base. Also, Snapchat has only Hindi
content and ads apart from English for their
Indian user base.
Shrenik Gandhi, co-founder and chief exec-
utive officer, White Rivers Media, a Mumbai-
based digital media company, says that since
digital content creation is fairly new to Indians,
the ecosystem will develop over time.
“Eventually we might see platforms incentivis-
ing these creators to share exclusive content
with them. The digital platforms themselves
will have to invest in increasing viewer sticki-
ness with new and interesting features and
tools,” he says.
Digital platforms have made a start. Some
of the initiatives introduced include Youtube’s
premium programming service with shows
such as ‘ARRived’, featuring music composer
AR Rahman, aimed at driving up traffic.
Snapchat has original content globally and is
in talks with Indian creators for the same.
Facebook may follow with an exclusive service
in the future. But the current strategy is to make
content creators comfortable with a host of
tools to help them adopt Facebook as their plat-
form of choice.

Actor Tiger Shroff sets up Brand Pepsi’s hook step challenge for TikTok users
Brands take up the
TikTok challenge
From cola brand Pepsi, fashion retailer Myntra to recent
Bollywood release Kalank, the mobile video platform is the
cynosure of all eyes
T E NARASIMHAN
C
ontroversy has dogged its heels since its
launch, but that has not stopped close to
200 million people or a long list of brands
from flocking to TikTok. In less than six months
since its India launch, TikTok has signed up a
slew of brands that are creating special promo-
tions and activations exclusively for the plat-
form.
Pepsi’s latest summer splash was crafted for
TikTok, for instance. As part of the campaign,
PepsiCo has launched a brand anthem with a
special challenge for TikTok users. Users are
asked to post videos of a ‘hook step’ to take part
in the #HarGhoontMeinSwag (Swag in every sip)
challenge. Launched in the first week of May,
the Pepsi challenge has notched up four billion
views already, making it the biggest ever brand
activation on the platform.
For PepsiCo India, these numbers are a vin-
dication of sorts, having taken a gamble with
what is an increasingly popular, but still untested
platform for brand promotions. “We need an
engagement platform with younger generation,
which is where TikTok came in. All platforms
offer engagement, but TikTok offers active
engagement. It is a good multiplier for mar-
keters,” said Tarun Bhagat, director-Marketing,
Hydration and Cola, PepsiCo India. He sees
TikTok as a way to reach the young because the
average age on the platform is much younger
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T E NARASIMHANTikTok is the most
downloaded social media app globally and in
India
than anywhere else.
TikTok, owned by Chinese start-up company
Bytedance, says that the average user is 13-14
years old and that it is the most downloaded app
in the country at present. Brands are drawn to
its band of teen users and the many opportuni-
ties for engagement.
TikTok has Hashtag Challenge, Brand
Takeover and In-feed Native Video, all tools that
facilitate direct interactions between brands and
users. The Hashtag Challenge allows brands to
create a video and challenge users to get creative
with their adaptations, Brand Takeover allows
full screen vertical display of ads when the user
is browsing and the In-feed Native Video aims
for in-depth interactions.
Some brands that have already tapped into
this opportunity include Pepsi, online retailer
17
Voonik, Myntra, ShopClues, Snapdeal, edtech
startups like Cuemath, Masterclass, video-on-
demand companies Voot and Viu, delivery app
Dunzo, dating app TanTan, social commerce
platform Meesho and short-video social network
app Vigo to name a few. Recently Dharma
Production also used TikTok to promote its
movie Kalank.
Brands say they are attracted to the cache of
language users on the platform, giving TikTok
an enviable geographical and demographic
spread. Sachin Sharma, head of Ad Sales and
Customer Support, ByteDance India that owns
TikTok says that it has users from the most
remote towns in the country. They are active
participants and are big contributors to the viral-
ity of brand promotions.
In May, last year, smartphone maker Huawei
launched Honor 10 with a 22-day
#1MillionAudition campaign in India. Over
73,000 users took part with 40,000 pieces of User
Generated Content (UGC) that garnered 640 mil-
lion views, and 321 million impressions.
The team at ByteDance believes that UGC is
a popular point of entry for first time-internet
users in India and TikTok, which is easy to use
has been able to leverage this. It is available in
10 major Indian languages including Tamil,
Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, and
Punjabi among others. “India is a key market
for digital brands and with a continued growth
in mobile internet penetration in the country,
we hope to offer a platform to those who are
looking for an outlet to showcase their creativ-
ity,” said Sharma.
Harish Bijoor, brand consultant and founder
of Bijoor Consults said, “Brands which want to
reach out to the heart of India, find this to be
an excellent digital medium. It has the element
of fun, content in it. In terms of leveraging con-
tent, it has music, it has got visuals and there is
a certain degree of voyeurism,” he said. Such is
the power of the platform that brands are will-
ing to risk the sanctity of their content, allowing
users to play around with it, he says. “All play is
good, all publicity is good and all virality is
good,” he added.

Brands scramble to
play the game of GoT
With more than 20 licencees and deals close to ~70 crore in retail value,
HBO is leveraging the huge buzz around its latest season of the fantasy epic
URVI MALVANIA
T
he latest season of the fantasy epic Game
of Thrones (GoT) debuted earlier this week
with five million tweets on micro blogging
platform Twitter. For an English television show
aimed at a niche urban audience this is remark-
able, as is the ~70-odd-crore merchandise deals
at retail value that it has struck with some of the
big brands in the country. And as more and more
brands and audiences flock the show, GoT could
well turn out to be the most merchandised enter-
tainment property of the year in India.
Brands such as Fastrak (Titan), Myntra,
Johnnie Walker Whisky, fashion designer Masaba
Gupta’s premium label are among the 20 plus
licensees that have signed on with GoT. Bhavik
Vora’s firm Black White Orange (BWO) has been
involved with merchandising the show and Vora
said that interest has soared in recent years.
Such is the desire to be a GoT partner that
Vora said, “Usually, companies within a category
do not like sharing rights for a property. In this
case, we have multiple apparel companies that
have readily shared the rights. As a result, nearly
10 different apparel brands covering all distribu-
tion channels have launched themed lines of
clothing around the premiere.”
Estimates peg that the show would have mer-
chandise deals worth ~60-70 crore in retail value
in the country this year. The products include
the regular run of merchandised lines—mugs,
T-shirts, bags and such others with prices starting
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COURTING THE THRONE
Masaba's Designer Limited Edition Collection
(premium fashion)
Fastrack (watches)
Status Quo Clothing (apparel)
Bioworld (apparel)
VoxPop (apparel)
Myntra(apparel and accessories)
Teestory (t-shirts)
Redwolf (t-shirts)
Bewakoof (apparel)
My Baby Excels (bags and backpack)
SouledStore (apparel and accessories)
Johnnie Walker (whisky)
at around ~300 and going up to ~15,000 with one
line (from Masaba’s luxe designer collection)
going as high as ~40,000. One of the more inno-
vative Thrones themed products available to
Indian fans this year is the GoT edition of the
board game Monopoly. Ayushman Chiranewala,
brand head, Fastrack, said, “GoT is perhaps the
most popular show among the youth globally,
and the association of Fastrack strengthens the
brands’ connect with the millennial buyers and
Gen Z.”
As a result of heightened interest in the show,
there are more than 500 designs around GoT
themed merchandise from India alone. Masaba
Gupta, who has a premium line around the show,
said, “The collection paints a canvas of Winterfell
18
(a mythical kingdom in the show) through a
fusion of medieval aesthetics with our design
sensibilities. Innovation lies in the silhouettes
and materials, while the clothing line comprises
of sharp power suits, and gown sarees, long
trenches for both men and women along with
accessories that explore leather and studs.”
Brands like Fastrack have focused on partic-
ular characters from the show. They have
launched products in three categories—watches,
sunglasses and bags and identified characters
like Arya Stark, Jon Snow, and the Night King to
base the merchandise on.
“We have designed our products around them
by incorporating the Sigils (magical symbols) of
the houses they represent as well as elements
from the outfits that the characters wear in colour
schemes that are close to the individual charac-
ters. The elements of the show were married with
the brand’s design aesthetics,” Chiranewala said.
Internationally, the show has associations
with a number of categories, including cookies
and make-up. The popular cream cookie brand
Oreo released a limited edition Game of Thrones
themed collection with special packaging using
the elements of the show. Sneaker brand Adidas
has launched six pairs of limited edition shoes
to commemorate its association with the latest
season, while make-up brand Urban Decay has
launched a limited edition range of products
including eye-shadows, lipsticks, and high-
lighters.
 STRATEGY
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Brands promise protection in

an age of anxiety
From soaps to air
conditioners, advertisers
position brands around
an assurance of safety,
hygiene, and wellness
T E NARASIMHAN

A
nxious consumers want their fears
allayed, or so believe advertisers and the
brands they speak for. From Savlon,
Godrej Protekt, Blue Star, Lifebuoy, Aquaguard
and a long list of health and fitness gear and sup-
plements brands, the positioning lines are being
drawn clearly and sharply around the core value
of consumer protection—be it the promise of
the product or that of the brand in its engage-
ment with stakeholders. While experts see this
as a sign of the times, market research company
Kantar IMRB predicts that the still undefined,
but growing category of ‘protector brands’ will
be a money spinner in 2019.
In a recent survey that looked at consumer
behaviour in the year of elections (Seeking sta-
bility: Predictions for 2019, Kantar IMRB), pro-
tector products are loosely grouped as consumer
goods that protect the customer from various
health hazards and prevent illness by keeping
hygiene and immunity at high levels. Such prod-
ucts have been steadily gaining ground as the
levels of stress and worry have risen in the coun-
try.
The report says that 47 per cent of Indians
say that they feel stressed these days (2018), up
from 39 per cent in 2017; and more women feel Ads from Lifebuoy (top), Savlon (right), Godrej
this way. Nearly 2.2 million people bought Protekt (below) have sharpened the pitch over
health, dietary and fitness brands online in 2018, hygiene and health
the numbers tripling over the levels in 2017.
The phenomenon has been discernible since spurred all such brands to expand into the hand
a couple of years and is one of the reasons (as sanitiser market. A spokesperson for ITC said, safety and wellness because it is made from nat-
per consumer surveys) why hand sanitizers, for “ITC has recently launched the Savlon liquid ural-organic ingredients. Sunil Kataria, CEO
example, have grown by a massive 59 per cent hand sanitiser as part of its hand hygiene port- (India & SAARC), Godrej Consumer Products
in 2017-18 (Kantar WorldPanel). Similarly too folio. The product has received a positive said, “Mothers are not just happy with chemi-
Chyawanprash (all brands), by 26 per cent and response.” cal-based germ protection; they look for ‘natural
air purifiers (40 per cent). Among the protector product segments, ingredients based, safer’ products. It was based
The industry does not define a protector seg- hand sanitiser, sun protection and sanitary prod- on this insight that we launched Godrej Protekt
ment. It is a combination of all categories/ brands ucts have grown at 59.2 per cent, 37.4 per cent – a health and wellness brand.”
that have a positioning around protection, say and 15.9 per cent respectively, in terms of vol- However to assume tht such consumers are
experts. “It is a combination of categories with ume. Harish Bijoor, CEO Bijoor Consults calls only from the higher income group would be a
different units of volume. In value terms, this this a sign of prosperous times. fallacy, Kataria added. Stressed consumers are
would amount to ~9000 crore in personal care India has traditionally been a curative market also extremely focused on affordability.
and homecare alone. If we include food cate- and hence brands have addressed a problem by According to Kataria, many are constrained by
gories such as milk food drinks, ayurvedic tea promising a cure, not a way to prevent the issue the prohibitive pricing of liquid hand washes
etc., the value could exceed ~12,000 crore,” said altogether. For example, dandruff removal sham- and this led the company to launch a powdered
K Ramakrishnan, general manager and country poos, points out Bijoor. Now society is getting concentrate of the liquid hand wash that sells at
head, South Asia, Kantar Worldpanel. into a state of “preventive paranioa” says Bijoor. just ~15 for a 200ml pack.
“Consumers look for products that provide “I would really call it prosperous preventive para- The Kantar-IMRB report believes that brands
benefits that reduce the risk of disease and pro- noia and it is growing,” he added. will soon need to expand their protective ring to
mote good health,” said a spokesperson for The phenomenon has also seen brands look- social concerns too. “Brands will have to create
Hindustan Unilever (HUL). Hand wash brands ing for ways to differentiate their promise around a stable, positive environment and enable sup-
have gained the most from such concerns and the common ‘protection’ positioning platform. port groups to change the discourse of negativi-
the growing market for hygiene-led products has One way has been to say that the brand promises ty,” it said.

19

The rise of the
avatar-influencer
The influencers aren’t flesh and blood, yet millions follow
them, raising concerns about authenticity & trust
Bella Hadid (left), an influencer on social media, and her digital counterpart Miquela Sousa in a
Calvin Klein commercial
TIFFANY HSU
T
he kiss between Bella Hadid and
Miquela Sousa, part of a Calvin Klein
commercial last month, struck many
viewers as unrealistic, even offensive. Hadid,
a supermodel, identifies as heterosexual, and
the ad sparked complaints that Calvin Klein
was deceiving customers with a sham lesbian
encounter. The fashion company apologized
for “queerbaiting” after the 30-second spot
appeared online.
But Hadid, at least, is human. Everything
about Sousa, better known as Lil Miquela, is
manufactured: the straight-cut bangs, the
Brazilian-Spanish heritage, the bevy of beau-
tiful friends. Lil Miquela, who has 1.6 million
Instagram followers, is a computer-generated
character. Introduced in 2016 by a Los
Angeles company backed by Silicon Valley
money, she belongs to a growing cadre of
social media marketers known as virtual
influencers.
Each month, more than 80,000 people
stream Lil Miquela’s songs on Spotify. She
has worked with the Italian fashion label
Prada, given interviews from Coachella and
flaunted a tattoo designed by an artist who
inked Miley Cyrus.
Until last year, when her creators orches-
trated a publicity stunt to reveal her prove-
nance, many of her fans assumed she was a
flesh-and-blood 19-year-old. But Lil Miquela
STRATEGY
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is made of pixels, and she was designed to
attract follows and likes.
Her success has raised a question for com-
panies hoping to connect with consumers
who increasingly spend their leisure time
online: Why hire a celebrity, a supermodel or
even a social media influencer to market your
product when you can create the ideal brand
ambassador from scratch?
That’s what the fashion label Balmain did
last year when it commissioned the British
artist Cameron-James Wilson to design a
‘diverse mix’ of digital models, including a
white woman, a black woman and an Asian
woman. Other companies have followed
Balmain’s lead.
Fable Studio, which bills itself as ‘the vir-
tual beings company,’ created Lucy, a car-
toonish character able to read and respond
to viewers’ reactions in real time. The com-
pany says it makes digital creations “with
whom you can build a two-way emotional
relationship.”
Xinhua, the Chinese government’s media
outlet, introduced a virtual news anchor last
year, saying it “can work 24 hours a day.”
Coca-Cola and Louis Vuitton have used video
game characters in their ads. Soul Machines,
a company founded by the Oscar-winning
digital animator Mark Sagar, produced com-
puter-generated teachers that respond to
human students. Last month, YouPorn got
in on the trend with Jedy Vales, an avatar
20
who promotes the site and interacts with its
users.
Edward Saatchi, who started Fable, pre-
dicted that virtual beings would someday
supplant digital home assistants and com-
puter operating systems from companies like
Amazon and Google. “Eventually, it will be
clear that the line between a Miquela and an
Alexa is actually very slim,” he said.
Virtual influencers come with an advan-
tage for the companies that use them: They
are less regulated than their human counter-
parts. And the people controlling them aren’t
required to disclose their presence.
Many of the characters advance stereo-
types and impossible body-image standards.
Shudu, a “digital fabrication” that Wilson
modeled on the Princess of South Africa
Barbie, was called “a white man’s digital pro-
jection of real-life black womanhood” by The
New Yorker.
The Federal Trade Commission acknowl-
edged in a statement that it “hasn’t yet specif-
ically addressed the use of virtual influ-
encers” but said companies using the
characters for advertising should ensure that
“any claims communicated about the prod-
uct are truthful, not misleading and substan-
tiated.”
In a way, virtual influencers are not so far
removed from their real-life predecessors.
It’s no secret that the humans who promote
brands on social media often project a ver-
sion of daily life that is shinier and happier
than the real thing. But when a brand ambas-
sador’s very existence is questionable—espe-
cially in an environment studded with decep-
tive deepfakes, bots and fraud—what
happens to the old virtue of truth in adver-
tising?
Bryan Gold, the chief executive of #Paid,
which connects influencers to companies,
said virtual influencers could lead companies
into “a dangerous area,” adding, “How can
consumers trust the message being put out
there?”
But the concerns faced by human influ-
encers—maintaining a camera-ready appear-
ance and dealing with online trolls while
keeping sponsors happy—do not apply to
beings who never have an off day. “That’s
why brands like working with avatars—they
don’t have to do 100 takes,” said Alexis
Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit and the self-
described grandfather of the virtual influ-
encer Qai Qai.
“Social media, to date, has largely been
the domain of real humans being fake,”
Ohanian added. “But avatars are the future
of storytelling.”
©2019 The New York Times
News Service

Branding for an
EMI nation
Premium brands pitch
easy finance and
instalments over superior
features and quality,
expand their appeal
across income groups
SHALLY SETH MOHILE
B
e it cars, mobile phones, accessories and
clothes, whether it is Apple, BMW or
Steve Madden; across the universe of
luxury products in India, equated monthly
instalments or EMI has become the universal
and ubiquitous brand attribute. Makers of lux-
ury goods are taking the EMI route as a sure
shot way to consumer’s wallet in a market
where value seeking buyers are not uncom-
mon even in the premium segment.
Confronted with consumers who simulta-
neously inhabit antithetical worlds—where
premium features and bragging rights are
important and so is the price tag, luxury
brands in India have found this the best way
to draw buyers in without dropping prices and
compromising their premium positioning.
From luxury cars and exquisite fragrances to
high-end phones, the trend is feeding into var-
ious product categories and over the past few
years, the trend has been further accentuated
by the growing influence of e-commerce. “It
is the mindset that differentiates an Indian
consumer from a global one,” Sushmita
Balasubramaniam, South Asia Domain Lead,
Commerce at market research firm TNS
Kantar said.
Take the case of the super-premium
iPhone, which has had to go up against
intense competition from Chinese smart
phone makers in India. In September,
Apple launched the high end iPhoneX with a
price tag of ~91,900. In the run-up
to the launch, besides highlighting the fea-
tures of the phone, the fact that it was
available on “no cost EMI” got significant dis-
play on banners and ads. As a matter of fact,
it even became a talking point on social media
with rivals taking a dig at the brand. “Choose
wisely between MI or EMI,” wrote
Manu Kumar Jain, country head, Xiaomi in
response to a tweet. (MI is the Xiaomi smart-
phone brand)
Auto makers have long embraced the easy
finance route. But a dull festive season has
also prompted luxury car makers to get more
aggressive about EMIs, besides doling out
steep cash discounts and hefty exchange
bonuses. BMW for instance, is offering its 3
Series for an EMI of ~25,333. Mercedes and
Audi have similar offers on some of their
select models.
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Democratising luxury
Such moves, point out marketers and
experts, are being driven by the need to
democratise luxury. “There’s one thing that
all the luxury brands are looking at, democ-
ratisation of luxury. The fact that one can buy
premium, luxury segment on EMI reflects
that,” points out Balasubramaniam.
Global consulting firm Boston Consulting
Group (BCG) defines democratisation of lux-
ury as middle-market consumers selectively
trading up to higher levels of quality, taste,
and aspiration. The unabashed adoption of
EMI in advertising narratives and as a core
value by luxury brands has brought many
more consumers into the fold say market
researchers.
To a great extent, democratisation is being
driven by the diversified nature of luxury, said
Balasubramaniam. “People born into the lux-
ury segment are a small percentage of total.
Now the neo-rich are joining the luxury fold,
that is why there is so much action in the so-
called affordable segment,” she said adding
that the new shoppers are first generation lux-
ury consumers who have made it big. But she
points out. even though they have graduated
to the luxury segment, their mindset is still
the same and they tend to be value seekers.
Digital push, consumer pull
The e-commerce boom is playing a crucial
role in bridging the gap between those that
can afford luxury items and those aspiring for
it, says Ritesh Srivastava, chief executive at
Elitify.com, an e-commerce website that
21
ASPIRATION WITH A
PRICE TAG
 Be it smartphones, cars,
handbags, clothes, watches,
premium brands are no
longer pitching their wares to
a select audience
 Millennial consumers are
more likely to bite the EMI
bait, slaking their desire for
luxury goods without
burning a hole in their
wallets, say market
researchers
 E-commerce has helped
pushed the luxury in
installments story as Amazon
and Flipkart run their own
financing schemes for large
purchases
retails everything from a Calvin Klein, DKNY
and Biagiotti to an Emporio Armani and
Burberry to a Jimmy Choo through a dis-
counted price and EMI. Close to 40 per cent
of his firm’s sales are coming from tier two
and three towns.
“While there was always latent demand,
inaccessibility to malls and good brands was
always a challenge. With e-commerce we are
leveraging that opportunity in a big way,”
Srivastava said.
For aspirant markets such as India, con-
sumers are quick to lap up an EMI option,
which according to Srivastava, is reflective of
the nature of the consumer in the country.
People want affordable luxury he believes and
pegs the overall retail market for fashion at
around $14 billion, within that share of luxury
segment is 15 per cent.
So what needs do luxury goods meet?
Researchers point to snob value, a sense of
inward and outward gratification as being crit-
ical factors driving demand for premium and
luxury goods and services.
Kantar’s Balasubramaniam said that lux-
ury brands have been able to master the art of
offering affordability via an EMI package.
“They are looking for ways to get buyers (who
value price and want luxury brands) in, the
only way they can do this is to offer their prod-
ucts and services as small value packs so that
consumers can sample the experience, and
when they find value they will spend,” she
said.
 STRATEGY
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Digital ad fraud stirs up a

$1.63-bn scam
ROMITA MAJUMDAR
THE MANY FACES OF DIGITAL
A
t nearly nine per cent of the global bad
ads business, India’s digital ad fraud FRAUD
ecosystem is thriving. It is a scam worth
$1.63 billion at present and the numbers are like-  Click farmingwhere low paid workers click
ly to go up by 23 per cent in 2019 according to on banner ads, create larger fan and follower
techARC Research, a firm that tracks digital communities in social media
advertising in the country.
According to the company’s ‘India digital ad-
 Bots used to create false ad impressions on
fraud market report’ the problem is particularly cost per impression campaigns, carry out
rampant in the domains of banking and fintech, domain spoofing, copy reputed websites and
entertainment and gaming (especially video create ad inventory on these spoofy sites to
based) and healthcare and pharmaceuticals gain advertisers’ attention
where the focus is on acquiring new customers.
 Bad keyword targetingmedia companies
Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst,
techARC noted that digital ad-fraud is getting can ask clients to bid for low value keywords to
increased attention from the C-level leadership get cheaper clicks when in reality they are
of evolved organisations, where it is no longer actually getting irrelevant, or fraudulent clicks
an agenda of a CDO or CMO alone. “The impact  Hidden ads. Placing more than one ad in a
of digital ad-fraud now goes beyond diminishing
designated, high value slot so that every click
the returns on marketing spends and can jeop-
ardise the entire digital transformation journey or impression gets counted twice
hampering brand equity, relevance and posi-  Ad injection.This happens on the media
tioning among other ramifications,” he added. side where a bot or a program is fraudulently
Online deception comes in many forms; placing ads on a site without permission
apart from the now-familiar track of generating Source: Hansa Cequity
fake likes and comments on advertising, pub-
lishers and websites have an array of tools at significant technological resources.”
their disposal (see box). The misguided leads In 2018, Google said it identified and termi-
originate from publishers or websites who are nated almost one million bad advertiser
keen on gaining ad spends but do not have the accounts, nearly double the amount that were
viewership to justify the same. Kawoosa noted terminated in 2017. Nearly 734,000 publishers
that digital commerce or online shopping com- and app developers were terminated from the
panies are more likely offenders as they are in a Google ad network and it also took off of nearly
mature phase and want to focus more on user 28 million pages that violated the publisher poli-
engagement, rather than acquisition, which has cies. Advertisers must be alert and
sharper quantitative indicators. However experts Ramachandran said they could seek help from
said that blame must also be equally apportioned Google’s ad traffic quality program that uses
to marketing professionals in ad agencies and technology and human moderators or Oracle’s
companies that turn a blind eye towards patently Grapeshot and Adobe adopting WhiteOps to save
false metrics, in their rush to meet targets and valuable ad dollars.
justify high digital spends.
The rise of the dark side of digital has also
spawned a wide set of tools to monitor the same.
Nishad Ramachandran, chief digital officer,
Hansa Cequity, a digital marketing company
said, “We are seeing a lot of ad-tech companies
and technology players come up with tools to
help deliver high quality ad impressions.
Stopping ad fraud is a cat and mouse game. The
moment a new technology comes in to prevent
a type of fraud, the fraudsters start finding
workarounds around these toolsets to continue
to gain their share from online ad spends.”
Bad ads are a global problem. Google took
down 2.3 billion ads that violated its advertising
policies, banning six million bad ads every day,
in 2018. Speaking soon after the release of the
Bad Ads Report 2018, Director of Sustainable Ads
at Google, Scott Spencer said, “Our ads are meant
to connect users with relevant businesses, prod-
ucts and services; but bad ads ruin the experi-
ence. We have been working towards protecting
the users, advertisers and publishers by investing

22

Keeping trolls at
bay, the HUL way
The largest advertiser stumbled onto a social media
minefield over its recent campaigns. What can brands learn
from its missteps?
VIVEAT SUSAN PINTO
A
little girl pedals her way down the road,
calling out to her friends to play Holi.
Water balloons fly thick and fast and she's
soaked in colour. The kids however soon run out
of stock. It is the moment she's been waiting for.
She gives the green signal to a boy standing
around the corner. He hops on to her bicycle as
they make their way to the nearest mosque.
There's not a stain on his clothes. He’s happy
and so is she.
Hindustan Unilever's latest commercial for
detergent brand Surf Excel has evoked sharp
reactions on social media—some have liked it,
some have not and some see it as a case of love
jihad. The debate continues to roil the social
media timelines, making this the third instance
in three months where the country's largest
advertiser has found itself at the receiving end
on Twitter.
Its previous two outings, for Brooke Bond
(Kumbh Mela ad, released in early March) and
Close-up (#Freelove campaign, released in
December), have also polarised opinion. The for-
mer for suggesting that the Kumbh Mela is a
place where the elderly are abandoned and the
latter for touching upon sensitive issues such as
STRATEGY
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(From left) HUL was trolled for its Surf Excel ad where a young girl helps a Muslim boy avoid being
splashed with colour on Holi and the Brooke Bond ad where a son abandons his father at the Kumbh
Mela before having a change of heart and going back to bring him home
same-sex relationships and inter-faith marriage.
While some brand experts caution that in a
country heading towards general elections, the
strategy of picking up controversial issues is a
double-edged sword, some say that a brand has
every right to speak its mind. "I don't see any-
thing wrong with the issues selected by the
advertiser," says N Chandramouli, chief execu-
tive officer, TRA Research, which brings out the
annual Brand Trust Report. “HUL is well within
its right to do so. However, the issue has to stick
to its core. If it doesn’t, the cracks will show up
as it did with Brooke Bond’s ad, where linking
elderly abandonment with a religious gathering
didn’t cut ice with certain sections of society. It
is a case of poor execution. But at an overall level,
there is nothing wrong with a brand taking a
stand.”
In an age of purpose-led advertising,
brands, say experts, are increasingly turning
their attention to burning issues around them.
HUL’s portfolio of brands espouse some virtue
or the other. In the case of Brooke Bond, for
instance, it is about brotherhood. Lifebuoy
speaks about health and hygiene, Close-up is
all about togetherness and Dove about inner
beauty.
Not only HUL, even its closest rival Proctor
23
& Gamble (P&G) has joined the cause-wagon.
It has raised its voice about gender inequality
(Ariel’s #Sharetheload), menstrual taboos
(Whisper), and more recently, toxic masculinity
(Gillette). The latter’s campaign in January,
which flipped the brand’s popular tagline—
‘The best a man can get’ to ‘The best men can
be’ saw mixed reactions on Twitter. The ad,
released in the US, showed how men could
stand up against bullying, sexism and harass-
ment. While some hailed P&G’s courage, others
found the ad preachy and insulting. P&G stuck
to its guns, saying that it was promoting “posi-
tive, attainable, inclusive and healthy versions
of what it means to be a man”. Just as HUL did
with the Holi campaign saying that the cam-
paign embodied its ‘Daag Acche Hain’ or ‘Dirt
is good’ philosophy.
Santosh Desai, managing director and CEO
of Future Brands, says that brands need to be
honest with their communication, not over-
reach. “If risk on social media can be avoided,
then a brand should consider it. If not, then at
least be honest and admit to the mistake and
course correct with simple and effective com-
munication,” he says.
Ashish Mishra, managing director,
Interbrand India, says that brands could
navigate social media by telling “interesting
stories”. “If real stories are told by customers,
employees or even allied stakeholders or the
brand has a powerful message, this could
work,” he says. In 2018, for instance, Airbnb,
responded to the travel ban imposed in the US
by the Trump administration with a campaign
titled ‘Let’s keep travelling
forward’. The video highlighted the importance
of movement in building nations and the cam-
paign was hugely popular.
Sometimes, just being straightforward clicks.
 STRATEGY
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Brands join the frenzy, step

gingerly around poll politics
Ad rates soar on television, Indian elections top the trend lists on social media, even as brands
step in with celebratory messages

URVI MALVANIA
Mumbai, 23 May

O
n a day that had nearly every Indian
glued to a screen, advertisers made hay.
Brands stepped in for a slice of the
action with cheeky celebratory messages, care-
ful to compliment the voter without raising a
toast for the victor while television channels,
digital news portals and social media timeli-
ness boiled over in cacophonous frenzy.
Experts said that this is the event to beat all
events in the country and no advertiser wants
to be left behind. At the same time, they want
to step carefully around party alignments,
without antagonising a single consumer.
“Big brands with national presence and
deep pockets will look at events like elections
and the counting day with keen interest. The
general elections result in the nation engaging
in one conversation, which then they try and
leverage for their advertising goals,” says
Saurabh Uboweja, CEO Brands of Desire.
Over the past month-and-a-half through the
nine phases of the election, a large number of
brands such as KFC, Zomato, McDonald’s,
Samsonite, Benetton have waded into the elec-
toral arena using humour to get their messages
across. As the D-day drew closer, more and
more citizens were drawn deeper into conver- Top L to R: Amul and SpiceJet congratulated the PM; (Bottom L to R)
sations around politics, providing what experts Kingfisher and IndiGo used humour to convey an inclusive message
say, the best opportunity for brands to strike.
On social media it led to trending Twitter
hashtags and on television, increased viewers. TOP 5 NEWS CHANNELS form of messaging, keeping it simple and
In April for example, the viewership on news straightforward with just a name being flashed
channels saw a 60 per cent growth year on year, Channels Impressions or running an old commercial. However on
(000s) sum
a trend which continued into the month of social media, many brands took a humorous
May. And on counting day, news channels were HINDI swipe at the results. The airline IndiGo tweeted
estimated to have clocked in numbers surpass- Aaj Tak 141,950 a photo in its trademark blue background and
ing that of the Indian Premier League finals. India TV 119,927 the copy read, “We have seats for everyone”.
According to one media planner, the average SpiceJet didn’t couch its message, congratu-
rates (throughout the day) on a typical Republic Bharat 113,526 lating the Prime Minister and declaring that it
Thursday would be in the rate of ~3000 to News18 India 110,785 was time for ‘Saffron on the ground, red in the
~7000. However on May 23, rates were in the ABP News 1002,11 sky’.
range of ~2.5-3 lakh, he said. Uboweja says that brands ought to be cau-
Avinash Pandey, CEO, ABP News Network
ENGLISH tious at such times, more than what they were
says, “Channels are selling just one third of the Republic TV 613 when Article 377 was struck down or the World
inventory on election day since the focus is on DD India 540 Cup final is played. “When it comes to a politi-
providing as much in-depth coverage as pos- Times Now 452 cal event, especially the general assembly elec-
sible. Moreover, with a fairly decisive result, tions, brands have to be very careful. They
viewership is expected to trickle over into the India Today TV 323 could end up alienating a part of the consumer
weekend since there may be some communi- CNN News18 316 base, employees or commercial partners oth-
cation from PM Modi.” Hindi : HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 15+ Individuals erwise,” he adds.
With the time available for ads going down, English : All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : Males 22+
brands sought out innovative ways to make Individuals Week: May 11-17
their presence felt. On ticker boards flashing
at the bottom of the screen, labels on state- flashing band on the channels was going for
wise breakdowns of electoral results and of around one lakh rupees, said industry sources.
course via ads on social media. The rates for a On television, brands took a fairly routine

24
 STRATEGY
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Back to the basics for brands

and consumers
The search for simplicity is
growing as people battle
fatigue. Companies need
to respond quickly, say
experts
VIVEAT SUSAN PINTO

A
t a recently held food show in Greater
Noida, near Delhi, almost 25 startups
specialising in organic food, set up
stalls to inform delegates about their fare. This
was the first time, the organisers, an arm of
the Department of Commerce, Government
of India, said they had seen interest coming
from so many brands within the category.
They were surprised.
But experts say the interest shown by
organic food players to pitch their ware to a
captive audience is part of a larger consumer
trend. People are going back to the basics, say
research agencies Euromonitor International
and Kantar IMRB, as many increasingly turn
to a lifestyle that is simple, devoid of the trap-
pings of materialism. The trend is also linked
to the fatigue experienced by consumers to
the surfeit of information, technology and
social media around them.
“Digital detox is emerging as a big business,
starting at the very top of the heap,” says Preeti
Reddy, CEO, South Asia, Kantar Insights wanting to know the values it espouses. Firms paign, which was released on digital and social
Division, in a report that maps the key trends therefore can no longer alienate their brand media last week, was intended to start con-
defining consumers in 2019. “As people and corporate identities. The lines are blur- versations and spark change. There were no
embrace physical activity from the new-age ring.” plans, it said, to pull down the ad or change
Zumba to traditional yoga, long-distance run- HUL itself has pushed the concept of its tone following negative feedback.
ning and cycling, the athleisure market is brands with a purpose aggressively over the Euromonitor International says social con-
growing. There are over 1000 marathons last few years. If Surf Excel spoke of how dirt sciousness will only grow — which Mehta
organised in big and small cities across India. was good (‘Daag Acche Hain’) earlier, it is now describes as “righteous anger” — as tolerance
Book reading clubs, litfests are all growing as addressing the need for handling failure with for what is wrong reduces. While millennials
people explore their roots,” she says. courage through ‘Haar ko Harao’. Brooke have been driving this change over the last
Ina Dawer, research manager, India, Bond Red Label, on the other hand, has few years, experts say that older men and
Euromonitor International, says the need for endeavoured to bring people together over a women are now joining the bandwagon. This
ethically-positioned authentic products and cup of tea, while Lifebuoy has focused on trend is expected to grow this year, putting
experiences is also growing in the country, hand hygiene and cleanliness among chil- pressure on firms to react appropriately to sit-
which is showing up in the increased adoption dren. uations.
of herbal and ayurvedic products. Market Rivals such as Procter & Gamble (P&G) and When the #Metoo movement began last
research agency Nielsen had said earlier that Tata Global Beverages (TGB) have also gone year, for instance, women from all walks of
the naturals segment accounted for 41 per down the road of purpose-led marketing, life and all age groups came forward to share
cent of the overall personal care market in pushing campaigns such as ‘Share the Load’ their experiences, empathising with those
India and could touch 50 per cent in the next (for P&G’s Ariel) and ‘Jaago Re’ (for TGB’s Tata who were victims of sexual harassment, said
few years. Tea) recently. P&G’s Ariel and Whisper brands, experts.
“Companies now have to embrace higher in particular, have attempted to address gen- Kantar IMRB says that #Metoo has spurred
welfare products if they wish to tap into this der inequality and the awkwardness around women to find ways to defend themselves.
trend for authentic experiences,” says Dawer. a woman’s menstrual cycle, both pressing Smart jewellry brand Leaf Wearables, based
Some companies such as the country's largest issues in India, with sensitivity. Gillette, which in Delhi, embeds a device called Safer Pro,
consumer goods player Hindustan Unilever is P&G’s male grooming brand, on the other which sends out an alarm signal and the user's
(HUL) have already understood these changes hand, has just touched upon the issue of toxic location to predetermined contacts, the
and have strategies in place to address it. masculinity globally, asking men to reject sex- agency said. Titan has launched smart watch-
Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and MD, HUL, ual harassment and bullying. While some es for women that allow them to alert their
says, “Brands with a purpose are selling more have welcomed Gillette's move, some have folks.
today. Consumers are increasingly growing criticised it for stereotyping the male gender.
conscious of the company behind the brand; Gillette itself has clarified that the cam-

25
 STRATEGY
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The marketing chickens

come home to roost
The year saw some big
disruptions in the
branding and marketing
landscape writes Bharat
Bambawale
SHALLY SETH MOHILE

W
e’ve had an exceptionally busy year
from a brand and marketing perspec-
tive. But what sets 2018 apart from
previous years is the magnitude of the shocks
that hit our brand ecosystem. Shocks that
would rank high on a marketing Richter scale,
the aftershocks of which will be felt for quite
some time to come, as many an action and
event from previous years completed its inglo-
rious cycle and had to be reckoned with.
The year we finally broke trust with social
media
India’s enchantment with the smartphone,
heralded for its potential to change lives for
the better, started to turn dark some years ago
when we plunged into a hyper-addiction to
social media. Fuelled by cheap smartphones,
low data prices and free apps, India took to
social media with the speed of a Formula 1
car. For a while our proclivity for a billion good
morning messages every day amused and
enthused the tech world, but soon sinister
forces started to see the opportunity in our brands tread lightly to avoid being crushed by of the harassment line. There are now reports
addiction. Our personal data became available the battling elephants. GSK sold Horlicks to of the pendulum swinging the other way with
to the highest bidder, or was hacked by open Unilever in a move that isn’t without a colonial men refusing to mentor women, avoiding one-
system apps, and we found ourselves being echo. With both MNCs headquartered in the on-one meetings behind closed doors and
manipulated, whether for the marketing of a UK (and Unilever additionally in the declining post-work dinners unless in groups.
political idea or to push identification with a Netherlands), the sale is reminiscent of the Whichever side of the issue people weighed
particular community. Brands were prey too, islands of Bombay being gifted as dowry to in on, one point became clear: India’s market-
as self-styled influencers took crores of rupees Britain’s King Charles II on his marriage to ing industry had work to do to make the office
off unsuspecting businesses before the Portugal’s Princess Catherine of Braganza in wholesome and secure.
smarter ones twigged on to the marketing 1662. While the asset exchanged hands in The year the agency began its final death
impotence and low return from online influ- India, the deal was struck many thousands of throes
ence brokers. Whether fake news or fake influ- miles away. But more than policy, Indian busi- For years, advertising agencies’ impending
encers, our social media addiction and ness discovered to its chagrin that the brands collapse has been the worst kept secret. With
dependence on digital pundits came home they thought they had built were relatively the morbid fascination of Earthmen watching
with an unsavoury bang. powerless and had to face the consequences an asteroid heading straight at them in a dis-
The year we ceded control of years of low differentiation and under-sup- aster film, we have been waiting for the final
Not long ago, India’s policy makers permit- port. cataclysmic strike. But in actual fact it has
ted FDI and 100 per cent foreign ownership The year of owning up to bad behaviour been a far less dramatic meltdown and an
in e-retail (and a range of other sectors). America’s #metoo movement gave courage internal one, like that from a leaking reactor
Amazon and Flipkart went head to head for to many Indian victims of workplace abuse, core. Years of haemorrhaging revenues, non-
about three years before Flipkart, brave but of both genders but overwhelmingly women, value producing mergers, loss of talent, client
bloodied and running low on resources, threw to voice their experiences and name their flight to smaller shops, shifting of spends to
in the towel and sold to Walmart. Less than 12 aggressors. Corporate and personal reputa- digital and loss of access to the C-suite have
months later, Flipkart’s founders are out of tions took a beating. The marketing industry eroded agencies from within. Will we soon see
the business they built, as is their leadership was revealed as a largescale offender. As with a post-Chernobyl Pripyat-like ghost town
team. Like the epic heroes, Kauravas and the many issues in the deafening Indian media where once stood agencies with a proud her-
Pandavas at Kurukshetra, Amazon and bazaar, #metoo quickly degenerated into a itage in the names on their doors? It truly has
Walmart will fight on battle-field India. Unlike babble of accusations and counteraccusa- been a year of reckoning.
the Kauravas and Pandavas, neither adversary tions. Away from the hubbub, professionals Next: Umesh Shrikhande, CEO of Taproot
is of this soil. The Koreans battle the Chinese of both sexes privately reviewed their personal Dentsu, on the complete overhaul of the
for smartphone spoils and the Japanese for histories whether their actions in a less sensi- advertising agency
the automobile sector. In both sectors, Indian tized past might have been on the wrong side

26

Brands pitch experiences, hope
for millennial buy-in
From furniture and mobile phones to fashion and lifestyle, experience stores are opening
up new paths to customer engagement and retention
Royal Enfield looks to build a biking community around its brand, while Fabindia has a café and a children’s entertainment zone inside its new
experience centres
T E NARASIMHAN
W
hat does it take to sell clothes, mobile
phones, furniture, bikes, cars and all
else to millennial customers?
Engaging them with the right experience say
brand custodians at Fab India, Royal Enfield,
Pepperfry, One Plus, RedMi and many others.
Over the past year and more, several brands
have experimented with their retail outlets or
opened up new ones to serve up a range of
experiences—café, wellness centres, chil-
dren’s playrooms, reading corners and what
have you—apart from their core offering. The
brand promise, they say, is increasingly about
values and emotional connections as much
as it is about a product or a service to meet a
need.
Ajay Kapoor, president-Retail at Fabindia
that has opened 11 centres over the past year
or so said that experience centres mark a shift
from transactional exchanges to a more expe-
riential and interactive retail experience.
FabIndia plans to go for 30 more centres in
the coming months. “As per the industry
norm, re-developing a store leads to 6-7 per
cent sales growth whereas with experience
centres we are experiencing a jump of up to
30 per cent,” said Kapoor.
Brands are interpreting the millennial rush
for experience in different ways. Some see it
as a need to entertain the customer, others
look to align the brand to specific tastes and
expectations. Royal Enfield stores for instance
are built to push the feeling of camaraderie
among bikers, to create an ambience where
enthusiasts can share their passion about rid-
ing, said its spokesperson. The centres offer a
glimpse into the brand’s history and its posi-
STRATEGY
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tion within the shared heritage of the world
of biking and adventure. The Royal Enfield
Garage Cafe in Goa, for instance, hosts a
motorcycle museum, customisation area, a
café and a retail store.
Brands such as Pepperfry, born and bred
in the digital universe, look at experience cen-
tres as physical outposts that help bring cus-
tomers into the fold. Customers want to touch,
feel and interact with furniture, said its
spokesperson. Pepperfry Studios help the con-
sumer choose the right type of furniture and
have a conversion (customers to footfalls) ratio
of over 50 per cent. “The average ticket size
of a studio order is three times that of an
online order. Studios contribute 30 per cent
to our topline and we have seen catchment
sales go up by 90-100 per cent in areas where
we have launched a Studio,” the spokesperson
added. The company has ramped up its offline
strategy significantly, going from 29 Studios
at the end of FY2018 to 52, end of FY2019. The
company said that it was targeting an increase
in their contribution to the topline from 30
per cent to 45 per cent.
One Plus that started with an online-only
presence and set up its first experience store
in Bengaluru has now expanded to Chennai
and Delhi. Vikas Agarwal, general manager,
One Plus India says Indian consumers prefer
to touch and feel the product before making
their purchase. Besides premium buyers look
for a value-added experience woven around
their core purchase. Hence Agarwal added,
One Plus serves gourmet coffee and creates
an ambience of exclusivity in its centres.
Rival brand Xiaomi has five ‘Mi Home’
stores across Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and
Mumbai. The centres are a way for the brand
27
to reach out to customers directly thereby
removing multiple operational costs and inef-
ficiencies said the company’s spokesperson.
For home décor and lifestyle brands expe-
rience centres are a longstanding tradition. K
E Ranganathan, managing director, Roca
Bathroom Products said that they help pro-
vide a seamless retail experience. For some it
is a way to showcase the diverse set of prod-
ucts in its fold and establish an umbrella
brand. Vasanth Kumar, managing director,
Lifestyle International said they are setting
up large (50,000 square feet) centres where
its products will be retailed.
However experience centres are much
more than retail showrooms. They are not
about products or pricing, but a place where
one can relax and enjoy the entire shopping
experience say the brands that are working on
creating such centres. For bike brand Jawa,
experience stores create a warm brand expe-
rience, said Ashish Joshi, chief executive,
Classic Legends. Here buyers can walk in, read
about the bike’s Czechoslovakian origins, dig
into motorcycle folklore or buy T-shirts and
accessories or browse around the small library
of books located in the space. The art of retail
it would appear is all about the art of master-
ing the subtle sales pitch.

The changing face
of the ad agency
The very shape and nature of the advertising agency is
changing, writes Umesh Shrikhande
A
strategic inflection point is upon us.
Legacy structures aren’t working. New
capability creation is critical.
Storytelling needs a makeover; while televi-
sion commercials are not irrelevant, the dig-
ital footprint is growing rapidly and demand-
ing that we think new, fresh and radical.
Profits are at an all time low, fundamentals
are at stake.
For agencies, the rapidly evolving business
could either reveal new opportunities or open
the door to a downward spiral. What must ad
agencies do and how must they change, is a
question that occupies most in the business
today.
The good news is that new agencies have
begun exploring models that are lean, agile,
capable, responsive and hopefully more prof-
itable. What has emerged are a bunch of com-
pact, integrated structures framed by an
expanding web of collaborative relationships.
One also hears of a new agency that is built
on the lines of a private equity fund focused
on start-up companies. All these are exciting
developments.
Legacy agencies have also begun integrat-
ing acquired digital and CRM agencies with
their main agencies. Clearly all these devel-
opments hinge on the objective of exploring
new-age models of working to deliver superi-
or counsel and value. The tectonic shifts and
real threats notwithstanding, the centrality
of ideas in value-creation hasn’t diminished.
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In fact more than ever before, clients are seek-
ing ideas that will help them grow in a VUCA
(volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambi-
guity) world.
So what must inform the new age agency
business model?
Diversity of talent: The ‘Hollywood model’
seems to be the way to go. A strong core team
with capabilities like strategic planning
(including data and digital), ideation and cre-
ativity, business development and production
co-ordination complemented by special pur-
pose teams. There may be an advisory board
of subject matter experts and production
services can be outsourced. Such models are
highly adaptable, allowing us to reassess
investment decisions more often. High
engagement means motivation is strong and
skills are evident allowing agencies to com-
mand a premium. However it needs high lev-
els of collaborative and negotiation skills,
enabling cultures, fluid structures and inno-
vative training and development plans.
Non-standard deliveries: The output is
going to get increasingly non-standard, forc-
ing agencies to look beyond tried and tested
ways of delivering what clients want. An inte-
grated agency’s mandate will be to create
strategic-communication interventions any-
where on the value-chain.
28
Building leaders: For the longest time, this
industry has operated on the belief that lead-
ers create themselves. The year 2018, more
than ever before, has highlighted the fact that
we couldn’t have been more wrong. There is
a serious paucity of talent and it is time to
tap new sources. Art schools, business schools
and competing organisations need not be the
only focus. We need to go wider and find, cre-
ate, nurture and groom leaders with a supe-
rior state of new-age-readiness across cre-
ative, strategy and business.
The profit imperative: Agency remunera-
tion needs a review. Generating good quality
ideas and having the tenacity to produce
them well, is a tough business. Technology
may have made it more efficient but it can
never make it easy. The fee system (arguably
brought in as a fairer way of remuneration
over the commission system) has in many
cases, degenerated into a cost-saving meas-
ure. A tighter model with senior level engage-
ment and sharper accountabilities will help
reduce costs while making a stronger case for
higher remuneration. However, we do need
to move towards a fairer model, well-aligned
with the eclectic talent and capabilities being
sought, so that agencies could keep investing
in new capabilities with an R&D mindset that
the new age demands.
Transmedia brand engagement: It is an
exciting world today with a zillion possibili-
ties (including but also beyond traditional
media) of conversations, messaging and
transactions done through a careful seeding
or sharing or gaming and what have you.
Layer this further with fascinating data dis-
coveries made through the AI lens, and there
is a rich territory to play in. Moreover, as the
human condition evolves, storytelling gets
richer too. In the days and years to come, nav-
igating this staggering array of touchpoints
for creating a clear role for the brand in the
lives of people will be a huge challenge.
Optimising budgets while finding the conver-
sation plus media sweet spot will not be easy.
For new models to work therefore, we will
need new talent structures led by classical
brand champions and strategic planners for
uncovering basic consumer motivations as
well as writers, art directors, UX designers,
data scientists, customer experience special-
ists, business strategists who know how to
monetise and extract growth from personali-
sation and media-channel planners to help
optimise the touchpoints.
Over the past few years and months, some
moves towards a new model have been set
into motion. But these are early days still and
it will take some time for new models to settle
down and hum like well-oiled machines. The
list of things to be done or added or removed
will keep growing and it will be a while before
the emerging models settle down into lasting
structures. Meanwhile it will hold us in good
stead to reflect on some of the imperatives
that have emerged, as businesses and the way
we do business keeps changing.
The author is CEO of Taproot Dentsu
Next: Srija Chatterjee managing director
of Publicis Worldwide (India), writes on the
impact of 2018 on gender equations for the
ad and media industry

Ethnic fashion
brands trip over GI
As a small community from TN battles Reliance Trends, Tjori
over GI violations, it signals trouble for many more
(Left) A pouch embroidered in the Toda community’s trademark
black-and-red embroidery that is at the centre of the dispute
SHALLY SETH MOHILE
W
e’ve had an exceptionally busy year
from a brand and marketing perspec-
tive. But what sets 2018 apart from pre-
vious years is the magnitude of the shocks that
hit our brand ecosystem. Shocks that would rank
high on a marketing Richter scale, the after-
shocks of which will be felt for quite some time
to come, as many an action and event from pre-
vious years completed its inglorious cycle and
had to be reckoned with.
The year we finally broke trust with social
media
India’s enchantment with the smartphone,
heralded for its potential to change lives for the
better, started to turn dark some years ago when
we plunged into a hyper-addiction to social
media. Fuelled by cheap smartphones, low data
prices and free apps, India took to social media
with the speed of a Formula 1 car. For a while
STRATEGY
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our proclivity for a billion good morning mes-
sages every day amused and enthused the tech
world, but soon sinister forces started to see the
opportunity in our addiction. Our personal data
became available to the highest bidder, or was
hacked by open system apps, and we found our-
selves being manipulated, whether for the mar-
keting of a political idea or to push identification
with a particular community. Brands were prey
too, as self-styled influencers took crores of
rupees off unsuspecting businesses before the
smarter ones twigged on to the marketing impo-
tence and low return from online influence bro-
kers. Whether fake news or fake influencers, our
social media addiction and dependence on dig-
ital pundits came home with an unsavoury bang.
The year we ceded control
Not long ago, India’s policy makers permitted
FDI and 100 per cent foreign ownership in e-
retail (and a range of other sectors). Amazon and
Flipkart went head to head for about three years
29
before Flipkart, brave but bloodied and running
low on resources, threw in the towel and sold to
Walmart. Less than 12 months later, Flipkart’s
founders are out of the business they built, as is
their leadership team. Like the epic heroes,
Kauravas and the Pandavas at Kurukshetra,
Amazon and Walmart will fight on battle-field
India. Unlike the Kauravas and Pandavas, nei-
ther adversary is of this soil. The Koreans battle
the Chinese for smartphone spoils and the
Japanese for the automobile sector. In both sec-
tors, Indian brands tread lightly to avoid being
crushed by the battling elephants. GSK sold
Horlicks to Unilever in a move that isn’t without
a colonial echo. With both MNCs headquartered
in the UK (and Unilever additionally in the
Netherlands), the sale is reminiscent of the
islands of Bombay being gifted as dowry to
Britain’s King Charles II on his marriage to
Portugal’s Princess Catherine of Braganza in
1662. While the asset exchanged hands in India,
the deal was struck many thousands of miles
away. But more than policy, Indian business dis-
covered to its chagrin that the brands they
thought they had built were relatively powerless
and had to face the consequences of years of low
differentiation and under-support.
The year of owning up to bad behaviour
America’s #metoo movement gave courage
to many Indian victims of workplace abuse, of
both genders but overwhelmingly women, to
voice their experiences and name their aggres-
sors. Corporate and personal reputations took a
beating. The marketing industry was revealed
as a largescale offender. As with many issues in
the deafening Indian media bazaar, #metoo
quickly degenerated into a babble of accusations
and counteraccusations. Away from the hub-
bub, professionals of both sexes privately
reviewed their personal histories whether
their actions in a less sensitized past might
have been on the wrong side of the
harassment line. There are now reports
of the pendulum swinging the other
way with men refusing to mentor
women, avoiding one-on-one meet-
ings behind closed doors and declin-
ing post-work dinners unless in
groups. Whichever side of the issue
people weighed in on, one point
became clear: India’s marketing indus-
try had work to do to make the office
wholesome and secure.
The year the agency began its final death
throes
For years, advertising agencies’ impending
collapse has been the worst kept secret. With the
morbid fascination of Earthmen watching an
asteroid heading straight at them in a disaster
film, we have been waiting for the final cata-
clysmic strike. But in actual fact it has been a far
less dramatic meltdown and an internal one, like
that from a leaking reactor core. Years of haem-
orrhaging revenues, non-value producing merg-
ers, loss of talent, client flight to smaller shops,
shifting of spends to digital and loss of access to
the C-suite have eroded agencies from within.
Will we soon see a post-Chernobyl Pripyat-like
ghost town where once stood agencies with a
proud heritage in the names on their doors? It
truly has been a year of reckoning.
Next: Umesh Shrikhande, CEO of Taproot
Dentsu, on the complete overhaul of the adver-
tising agency

Branded by origin
With an exclusive store for GI tagged products at the Goa
airport, the government looks to build a premium label
for indigenous ware
TE NARASIMHAN
D
arjeeling tea, Alphonso mangoes,
Makrana marbles or dhokra horses, take
your pick the next time you travel in or
out of an airport in India. For now an assorted
mix of GI (geographical indication) tagged prod-
ucts will be available at exclusive government-
owned GI stores. The first store opened at the
departure terminal of the Goa airport earlier this
week and there will be more, promised Suresh
Prabhu, minister for Commerce & Industry and
Civil Aviation, speaking at the launch.
Geography, history and the promise of authen-
ticity are what the government hopes to leverage,
while offering a window into the diverse range
of products that originate in the country.
The venture, which is an initiative of the
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion
(DIPP), will use the 330 products registered with
the country’s GI registrar. This includes 14 prod-
ucts of foreign origin that have been listed for
sale at such outlets. S Kannan, executive director
and secretary, The Cashew Export Promotion
Council of India (CEPCI), part of the Goa team
says the stores aim to enhance marketability of
GI products.
The push to gather all GI tagged products
under an exclusive retail platform is also a way
STRATEGY
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to prevent trademark infringement. In the past,
the Indian government has had a hard time
claiming geographical identities for home
grownproducts and crafts and even when it has,
protecting the tag has been expensive. The stores
present an organised face to the GI initiative and
may prevent such misuse or such is the hope.
The store has its own tagline, Atulya Bharat
ki amulya nidhi (Invaluable treasures of incred-
ible India). It will bolster the government’s efforts
to create awareness about geographical origin
and trademark.
Among the recent entrants into the GI club
are the Puneri pagri (turban), Alphonso mangoes
from Ratnagiri, dhokra ware from Bastar and
several others. The GI Store will display and sell
original and authentic products recognised
under the Geographical Indication of Goods
(Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, says
Sushil Satpute, director, DIPP, ministry of
Commerce & Industry. It is expected to preserve
traditions and leverage growing consumer inter-
est in ethnic fare.
But given the globalisation of tradition, large-
ly driven by small home grown outlets that have
built their brands via digital platforms, does GI
tagging help? To an extent say experts, it helps
differentiate such products from the rest and
stamps authenticity on the purchase. Given the
30
involvement of the state in the venture, it also
helps build trust in the brand. While these are
the advantages, the downside is that state-run
emporia have not always proven to be the best
custodians of traditional arts and craft.
“The government has undertaken several
steps for promotion of Indian products. These
include promotion through social media and so
on,” says Satpute implying that the department
is keen to make it work. He is also hopeful that
the stores will create a distinct identity for the
products and long lasting associations about
their country of origin.
Ambi Parameswaran, brand strategist and
founder of Brand-Building.com says the idea is
great, but perhaps the government could use a
familiar brand to headline the stores, he says.
Calling it a GI store does not immediately create
the required association, the stores could be
named after a product or a uniquely Indian
weave or colour, he suggests.
According to officials associated with the ven-
ture, the GI tag is an important tool as it gives
the rightful share of intellectual property to the
artisan and the place of origin of the product.
For consumers GIs act as a signalling device,
helping identify genuine quality. Apart from the
thrust into modern retail, the department is also
promoting its GI initiatives online and organis-
ing promotional activities. Potential GI tourism
circuits will also be identified to create special
trails for those interested in the craft traditions
and the history of such products. The products
are also being offered online through an e-com-
merce venture registered with DIPP. Born and
made in India, GI products are also a smart and
perhaps, less controversial, way to showcase the
country’s traditions.
 STRATEGY
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Vivo makes the right connection

The phone maker is hoping
IPL will help improve
penetration of its
smartphones — the devices
on which the cricket
matches stream
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR

T
he title sponsorship of the hot prop-
erty that the Indian Premier League
(IPL) is gives you enough bragging
rights this time of the year and
leverage for the rest of it, one would believe.
Into its fourth IPL season and shelling out a
whopping ~440 crore annually for the asso-
ciation, the Chinese smartphone manufac-
turer feels it is on course with its branding
goals and has enhanced its engagement with
the larger audience.
To answer if the juice is worth the squeeze
for that kind of an investment leads to some
questions. The key among them is the branding
translating into sales. The company says that
not every gain can be tangible and cautions that
life beyond the carnival is just as important.
Some experts, however, raise a doubt on
whether IPL as a platform has given it a distinct
brand identity.
Nipun Marya, director, brand strategy, Vivo
India, says while there is an uptick (doesn’t share
numbers) in the sales during the 40-odd days
the IPL matches are played, its newer initiatives
around the gala event have helped the brand
immensely and can strengthen it further. He
finds the results of the brand metrics analysis
— done in the beginning and at the end of the
IPL season and including factors such as aware-
ness, considerations, performance, current posi-
tions and purchase intent — encouraging.
Even as he goes on to add that “sales is a
function of many things and absolutely
attributing everything to IPL might not be cor-
rect”, Marya says the response to the company’s
latest offerings, V15 and V15 Pro, the launch of
which have almost coincided with the IPL or
the weeks running up to it, have been good,
even dubbing V15 as the most “successful prod-
uct of the V series”.
“Our retailers and distributors are geared to
gain from the brand recall that we get during
these 45-50 days and we also launch some of our
premium products using this window,” he
explains how it works for Vivo. Among the ini-
tiatives, he talks about the Vivo Perfect Fan con-
test (see box) as a major brand building exercise.
“Anyone sitting in any part of the country can
take part in our contest and it is not confined to
only the urban centres where the stadiums are.
Similarly fanparks take us deep into the country
with newer centres like Madurai and Gangtok
being added this year and enhance the brand
presence aided by the promotional activities.”
The company is also tapping the newer social
media forums. For instance, on TikTok, which
has garnered a massive following across the
NEW TOUCH POINTS
 Earlier only partners were the trophy itself — a deviation includes many interactive
eligible for the Vivo Box which from the packaged box given exercises
offers a luxurious cricket viewing till last year  With the BCCI taking the IPL fan
experience in the stadium. This  The Vivo Concourse parks to newer cities, Vivo
year anyone can contest and was like a dug out which was believes it has a better
win a seat only used by spectators as a opportunity to build a better
 For better imagery, the latest selfie-clicking point earlier, connect with the allied activities
model V15 has been placed in this year it is bigger and it does for brand building there
HIGH STAKES
~60,908 cr* advertising ~440 cr** deal (2018-22) 12 in 2017
The total across TV, print The average 9* 10%*
advertising and radio annual Vivo’s rank The sports
market in India ~550 -650* sponsorship among genre’s
~3,450 cr* Vivo Mobile’s money Vivo advertisers in contribution to
Contribution of annual pumps into India across TV advertising in
the telecom expenditure on IPL as a part of categories in 2018, up from 3
category in advertising its five-year- 2018, it ranked per cent in 2009
urban-rural divide, the company recently ran a people have the option of enquiring about and
campaign which earned 30 million impressions. experiencing other products too. The halo
It is also natural that the IPL window is a effect gets transferred to the other products
huge opportunity to advertise its products as well.”
with premium slots reserved for it. For a com- Digital marketer Shubho Sengupta feels that
pany which plays across price points — rang- as a consumer brand Vivo does have certain
ing between ~8,000 and ~29,000 — isn’t Vivo advantages over other companies that held the
undoing some potential gains by airing com- title sponsorship in the past. “There is a better
mercials only for the flagship products V15 connect with Vivo than with DLF. DLF just want-
and V15 Pro, featuring brand ambassador and ed to get noticed and there is a far better con-
actor Aamir Khan? While he acknowledges the sumer connect in the inexpensive, first-time
importance of range advertising, Marya says phone lot, especially in regional for Vivo; DLF
it also depends on what is the company’s strat- was primarily urban,” he says.
egy at that point. “For us it is important that For Marya, the convenience that OTT plat-
the consumers look forward to the new prod- form provides and the steady growth it has reg-
ucts because those are the new offerings to istered has left Vivo upbeat on both brand
the market and also because the flagship prod- engagement and bullish on the prospects of the
ucts carry with them a lot of innovation into penetration for smartphones — the very devices
the market. Also when that product, equipped on which the cricket matches stream and it
with the latest features, draws one to the store, looks to sell.

31

Smart personalisation driving
consumers to trade up
Beauty, personal care brands see a rise in the share of premium purchases, as consumer
lifestyles and the way they shop change
SNEHA BHATTACHARJEE
A
sk anyone who treks down a purchase
path that starts with Instagram and
ends up at an online shopping cart and
she will vouch for this: It takes barely minutes
for one single purchase to multiply into many;
and for what was meant to be a bargain buy,
to end up burning a big hole in the wallet.
Digital commerce has been a big game chang-
er for consumer behaviour, say analysts. And,
as Euromonitor reports, in India, brands are
tracking it closely to drive bigger volumes for
their premium labels.
A recent report “Megatrends: What is shap-
ing the future opportunities in India?” points
out that consumer expenditure grew 13 per
cent in 2017-2018. It identifies the megatrends
as — premiumisation, connected consumers
and shopping reinvented (innovative pur-
chase pathways that adapt to changing con-
sumer behaviour)— shaping the Indian mar-
ket. One example of the move towards
premiumisation is in the beauty and personal
care industry, wherein premium beauty and
personal care brands’ sales to the overall cat-
egory sales grew from 4.4 per cent (2015) to
4.8 per cent in 2016 and 5.1 per cent in 2017
according to the report.
“In 2018, India had 560 million internet
users and we expect 99 per cent of mobile sub-
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Premium beauty
and personal care
brands’ sales to the
overall category
scribers will have access to inter- sales grew from 4.4 sumers. N Chandramouli, founder,
net on their mobiles by 2030,” says per cent (2015) to Trust Research Advisory says as there
Amulya Pandit, senior research 4.8 per cent in 2016 is higher disposable income, even
analyst, Euromonitor and 5.1 per cent in smaller cities now have access to pre-
International. As per the report’s 2017 (Euromonitor) mium brands. However, what is miss-
lifestyles survey of 2018, there is ing is the brand’s adaptability to
more reliance in recent years on independent these trends.
consumer reviews and recommendations “They (brands) are looking into a mirror
from family and friends influencing their pur- but not willing to look outside the window
chase decisions. where their consumers live. As a result, the
Beauty brands have been able to success- strategies are singular,” he says. The big
fully map this trend by working with influ- change he says most brands are still blind to,
encers and through online tutorials. Plus is the sharp difference in consumer behaviour
increased personalisation, which pushes pre- among people living within a few kilometres
mium products based on past behaviour, has of each other.
helped. However says K V Sridhar, founder- Gone are the times, when you could
chief creative officer of HyperCollective, per- approach a state with a single strategy of posi-
sonalisation is nothing new, nor is it a digital tioning your brands. “Neighbouring cities are
phenomenon alone. “Indian consumers were no longer same. What may work in
always aware of personalisation. For them, it Coimbatore might not in Chennai. Brands
meant looking at convenience and aspirations need to be consumer centric and not tier
that matched their expectations. It was their I/II/III centric,” he adds.
emotional equity with a brand that influenced Hence companies will have to look at the
their loyalty. Personalisation was once asso- emerging megatrends as part of their brand
ciated with the service economy however, now strategy, feels Pandit. “Brands need to know
it is more about experience economy,” he consumer’s priority. There has to be curation
adds. and personalisation. The more experiences
The demand for a personalised experience, you offer, the more you will touch the heart
according to many, is what is fuelling the of a consumer. Further, anything that will save
omnichannel shopping ecosystem and an a consumer’s time, and be readily available is
‘everything-everywhere’ mindset among con- going to be a winner,” he adds.
32

GUEST COLUMN
Defining Japan in just one word
Today Japan will announce the name of its new “era”, a historical event and a precursor to the royal
succession
Akihito abdicates in favour of his son Crown Prince Naruhito on May 1
I
magine coining the phrase “The Victorian
era” or “The Mughal period” or “The Stone
Age”. And then imagine how millions and
millions of people on Planet Earth will use that
phrase for years and years, and for generations
after generations. Well, we are today in that
unique cusp of history : On Monday, April 1,
Japan will announce the era name that will be
used for the new Emperor’s reign that begins
on May 1 as the current Emperor Akihito abdi-
cates in favour of his son Crown Prince Naruhito.
When in 1989, Emperor Akihito took the
throne, the name given for the era under his
reign was Heisei which is now in its 31st year.
Before that, the Emperor's father, the war-time
Emperor Hirohito held the throne for 62 years
— an era that was named Showa. Every
emperor's reign, or gengo, has a name, which is
used alongside the Western calendar to count
the years. The naming of an era is somewhat
similar to the naming of a newborn child. It will
carry hopes and expectations. Dreams for the
future of Japan.
The gengo name appears on coins,
newspapers, driving licences and all official
paperwork as a way of marking time. Under
the system, which spans several centuries,
2019 is known as Heisei 31, or the 31st year of
Akihito’s reign.
Eras, their names and their happenings,
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each have a distinct flavour. At the beginning
of the Meiji era in the late 19th
century, Japan began to adopt a
capitalist system and opened up to
the world. The Meiji (enlightened
rule) era of 1868-1912 is therefore
remembered as a period of western-
inspired modernisation. The Showa
(enlightened harmony) era, which
began in 1926, is closely associated SANDEEP GOYALX
with Japan’s economic rise, but also Former chairman
with its role in the Second World War. Dentsu India
So there are always mixed feelings
when Showa is mentioned. The Heisei era too
has its own set of imagery. Foremost of course
what comes to mind is the end of the bubble
economy. Also the loss of economic supremacy
in Asia to China. And of course, there are
memories of the 1995 terrorist attack on the
Tokyo subway and the disastrous earthquake,
tsunami and nuclear accidents of March 2011.
The Era Name Act stipulates that a name
must be written with two Chinese characters, it
must have a positive meaning, and it must be
easy to read and write, and not be a phrase that
is commonly used. It is also unlikely to start
with the first character of any of the last four
eras: Heisei, Showa, Taisho and Meiji. Beyond
that, the selection process is highly
confidential. The process has been in progress
33
for a year now. Expert panels have discussed,
deliberated and debated many
options and suggestions. Japan’s
cabinet on Monday morning will
most likely endorse the final
recommended name. To guard
against leaks, even cabinet members
will reportedly hand over their
phones and smart-watches before the
meeting, and must stay in the
decision-making room until the
official proclamation is made. On
Monday morning in Tokyo, the Chief
Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga will enter a
room, pause, bow, gather his thoughts and
then hold up a work of handwritten calligraphy
— written in traditional sumi ink on decorated
shikishi paper. Millions of people across Japan
will pause too and digest the meaning of the
two kanji characters, and history would have
been made.
Heiwa (peace) and Ankyu (peaceful and
permanent) are potential candidates for the
era name, but no one really knows.
Well, Monday morning will witness the
historic revelation: The new era’s name will be
a veritable “reset”. Japan will surely hope it
will be a reset for new “hope”.
 STRATEGY
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Late mover advantage

Recent entrant Aditya Birla Health Insurance hopes to make headway by incentivising
healthy living
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR

I
n a country where exposure to health
insurance is low — only 29 per cent of
the families had at least one member cov-
ered by health insurance, according to
the fourth National Family Health Survey —
and lifestyle diseases are getting increasingly
common, often a chronic condition or a sud-
den ailment can mean a lifetime of savings
wiped off. This low base provides ample
opportunity to and has translated into robust
growth for standalone health insurers (SHIs)
in recent years.
Sensing an opportunity, Aditya Birla
Health Insurance (ABHI) has waded into the
market and is well aware of the challenges
ahead if it wants to break into the top three
SHIs by the year 2023, a target it has set for
itself recently. ABHI claims to be at No. 5
among the seven SHIs players currently.
Those vying to sell health policies also include
heavyweight general insurance companies
such as New India Assurance, Bajaj Allianz,
ICICI Lombard and Oriental.
According to the Insurance Regulatory and
Development Authority, the total premium
collection by the SHIs in 2017-18 was ~8314.28
crore, of which ABHI accounted for nearly
three per cent, that is, ~243.17 crore while the
table topper Star Health accounted for ~4,161
crore, or 50 per cent of the pie. Star Health
was followed by Apollo Munich and Religare
with premium collections of ~1,717.51 crore and
~1091.61 crore respectively.
This ~8,314.28 crore collect-
ed by SHIs, again, is barely a
fifth of the total ~41,981 crore
premium collected in the
health segment last year.
ABHI is banking on retail
sales with the focal point being The company is providing
a diverse young population. It virtual and physical care
aims to beat competition by assistants to help with claim
incentivising healthy lifestyle, settlement and hospitalisation
expanding the domain beyond
hospitalisation costs, leverag-
ing the power of digital the customer to pay off her
through swift issuance of poli- health bills or to wait till the
cies and making claim settle- end of the year to pay a part of
ment hassle-free. Since aware- the next year’s premium.”
ness of health insurance But then how does one
remains low, the company is monitor “physical activity” or
also banking on the tie-ups believe the claims made by a
with 10 banks and the foot- consumer? ABHI gets a period-
print of its parent group to ic health assessment or fitness
boost both reach and aware- assessment done for the con-
ness, says Mayank Bathwal, sumer which consists of five to
chief executive, ABHI. seven tests at a location which
Bathwal says, “We have products which are activity with their consent. So if you are doing is convenient for the consumer. “We get it
rewarding you for staying healthy and give something positive about your health — from done at our cost. It's not that we make the
you up to 30 per cent back on your premium running to gymming or yoga — we give 2.5 insured run on treadmills or make them
besides the cover. There is a whole matrix of per cent of premium back every month undergo a set of scans because people tend to
tracking the consumer's health and physical through a fund account. The option is with get scared. These are some basic tests such as

34

blood sugar, blood pressure, body mass index
and based on the results, we categorise them
as 'green', 'yellow' or 'red' on the health sta-
tus.”
The company also offers a chronic care
management programme for its flagship prod-
uct. “If someone enters as a healthy customer
and owing to one or various factors such as
sedentary lifestyle, genetics etc, gets diabetes,
the programme will kick in. We have four con-
ditions covered under the chronic care man-
agement programme called ABCD (asthma,
blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes). For any
of these conditions or a combination of them,
the programme will offer two benefits — the
regular non-hospitalisation medical costs will
start getting covered up to a certain amount
and second a health coach will be appointed
for the person.”
This health coach will not replace a doctor
but will suggest healthy lifestyle choices after
understanding the body needs and help some-
one manage diabetes or blood pressure well.
The company has a team of 10 doctors cur-
rently working as health coaches and plan to
add more as they go along. Similarly, ABHI
has a feature called virtual care manager
where people on the phone are available. “So,
the moment you lodge a cashless claim, the
virtual care manager will be appointed for
you, they will help you navigate through the
hospital system, making sure you have a has-
sle free experience. In two locations, Delhi and
Chennai, we even send a physical care man-
ager. Typically, these are nurses who ensure
that the process of hospital admissions and
claim settlement is without any trouble.”
The company has a tie up with 6,000 hos-
pitals, which Bathwal feels is sufficient. ABHI
now wants to increase its footprint in terms
of diagnostic centres, pharmacies and doctors
STRATEGY
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CATCHING UP
 Giving up to 30 per cent discount on
premium based on the holder's health
and fitness status
 Tying up with gyms, employing mobile
apps to track fitness regimens
 Providing health coaches to advise on
lifestyle changes for chronic conditions
 Leveraging the tie-up with maximum
banks among all SHIs to improve reach
and awareness
 With the banks — ranging from HDFC to a
small finance bank — ABHI is targeting Tier
III and IV cities
because of the out-patient benefits it is offer-
ing for chronic care. But that or the gym tie
ups or hiring the care managers mean extra
cost for the company. How feasible is that?
Avinash Singh, analyst at SBICAP
Securities, says ABHI is chasing growth and
is ready to burn cash. “As a late comer, they
have to show that they are a meaningful player
and they are ready to burn capital for that.
The risk, however, is that if a new competitor
comes along and increases the competitive
intensity, it can make life more challenging,”
says Singh. He says that while the 20-25 per
cent growth for the SHI category over the past
few years is likely to hold, for someone like
Aditya Birla, it may have to look around 40
per cent to hit the ~2,000 crore premium col-
lection target by 2023.
More on www.business-standard.com
35

Brand KPMG presents
a team story at 25
With employees as brand ambassadors, the firm looks to craft an inspirational tale; but
misses an opportunity to spin a memorable campaign say experts
The campaign has employees sharing stories about their passion, be it biking or sports, and their work ethic
AMRITHA PILLAY
O
ne employee talks about her love for
football, another of his passion for the
shooting range. Both work in KPMG
and both are speaking up for their employer
as part of a campaign to celebrate the consult-
ing firm’s twenty-fifth year in India. KPMG is
looking to establish itself as a place that nur-
tures interesting talent and as a consulting
firm of choice for its clients, turning to its
employees for a glowing testimonial. While
this makes for sound strategy, experts say that
the firm may have slipped up on execution
and ended up with a rather weak endorsement
of its prowess.
The campaign, KPMGjOSH, launched ear-
lier this year and expected to run through to
the end of 2019 has been released on digital
and print. It has employees sharing stories
about their passions and about how they go
beyond office hours to serve their company’s
clients. Laudable attributes all but, brand
experts say, the narrative lacks integrity.
“The intent is not bad, it is the idea and
execution that could be better. It is a missed
opportunity both for the agency and compa-
ny,” said KV Sridhar, founder and chief cre-
ative officer for Hyper Collective. For consult-
ing firms, getting the advertising pitch right
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is tricky, given the intangible nature of the
brand and the mixed group of clients they
want to address. Given this, using employees
to stand up for the brand’s values has worked
for many in the past.
“It is a declaration of what we are capable
of, driven by the inner fire to win, to make a
difference. It is a statement that establishes
the firm as the #ClearChoice for businesses
and professionals who want to succeed,” said
a spokesperson for KPMG. In addition, the
campaign involves a weekly exercise of
employees across practices sharing stories
with the firm around the same theme. “We
believe that our culture and our people are
our differentiating point. Hence the idea was
to make them central to this campaign,” the
spokesperson added.
Harish Bijoor, founder, Harish Bijoor
Consults believes that using employees as
brand ambassadors is a great idea. “In the case
of KPMG, as it celebrates 25 years in India, it
has decided to use its employees. Good thing.
When you use an employee there is a greater
degree of internal connect with the creative
execution,” he said.
Bijoor, however, has a word of caution.”It
is very important for the creatives to be
packed with integrity and every creative must
speak the language of high quality,” Bijoor
36
says. Miss that and one could turn
into a point of ridicule or fodder for memes
and more, he warns.
It is also important to establish consulting
firms as egalitarian workspaces, different from
the image of being fiefdoms that operate in
secrecy, given the backlash against some
members of the profession for their roles in
corporate scams. To that end, asking employ-
ees across the hierarchical matrix to share
their stories does make for an interesting
branding opportunity.
However as Sridhar points out, it would
have worked better if the campaign had been
crafted with greater thought. He recalled a
campaign for Sapient in 2016 where the ad
asked for troublemakers to sign up for a job.
“It conveyed we do not want people who are
yes men, but troublemakers who ask uncom-
fortable questions,” he said.
KPMG’s campaign has also raised several
eyebrows over its timing. Given the regulatory
spotlight that audit firms in India are under.
But that may just be reading too much into a
campaign, said Bijoor. “The timing may give
one that impression but this looks like a KPMG
25 years in India campaign,” he added.

Byju’s steps out of comfort zone
The homegrown education
technology firm hopes to
replicate its successful
India model in the US,
UK and Australia
SANGEETA TANWAR
A
fter disrupting the market for
online education in India,
Byju’s is getting ready to set foot
in select global markets. The
education technology firm is
keen on rolling out operations in English-
speaking markets and some Commonwealth
countries. Byju’s is actively looking at oppor-
tunities in the United States (US), the United
Kingdom and Australia. The company is
looking at acquisitions as a model of growth
and is hoping to beef up its offering with orig-
inal video content that will resonate with its
target audience.
Currently valued at $3.6 billion, Byju’s
started the year by acquiring US-based Osmo
for $120 million. The acquisition gives it a
foothold among a new demographic — kids
in the three-eight age group. Supporting the
concept of play-based learning for children,
Osmo produces augmented reality games for
mobile devices. Mrinal Mohit, chief operat-
ing officer, Byju’s, says, “We are building a
product for the international markets. At
present, our focus is getting the K-3 (lower
grades first, then second and third grades)
product ready for launch in the next few
months.”
Stepping out of its comfort zone, Byju’s will
have to compete with a lot of non-for-profit
organisations and established universities.
With popular names such as Khan Academy,
there is no dearth of competition in the field
of technology-led education. What this also
means is that the education market overseas
is lucrative. “Byju’s should be able to charge
better pricing in international markets. Tuition
fees are high in developed markets. With its
promise of making education affordable, the
company should be able to achieve better unit
realisation through subscriptions in select mar-
kets,” says Rakhi Thakur, associate professor,
SPJIMR.
The going won’t be easy for Byju’s
nonetheless. Building local teams and fight-
ing local competition is easier said than done.
The education market is currently valued
at $5 trillion globally. According to some esti-
mates, education technology investment
alone will reach $252 billion by the year 2020.
With digital content being the par for the
course, technologies like artificial intelligence,
virtual reality and internet of things are com-
monly employed by edutech companies
worldwide to design curriculum and make
things interactive for students. Some of the
fastest growing companies in the field — such
as School OS which is regarded as one of the
best education startups in the world, and Gro
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Like in India, in markets abroad, Byju’s will work with the philosophy that standardised tests are
not a mark of a child’s learning potential. Its goal is to make children active learners who focus on
conceptual learning over rote-learning
Play — have designed products enjoyable for students.
that claim to offer a unique learn- The company is confident
ing experience to the students. that as long as it succeeds in
Experts in the industry are addressing the needs of local
optimistic that the home-grown students, and make learning
edu-tech firm is in a strong posi- seamless and affordable, reten-
tion to succeed in the overseas tion will happen on its own.
markets as well. To begin with, the “We are trying to address the
company has done well to pick up need for access to quality edu-
English-speaking countries as its cation. And this need remains
first overseas stop. Thakur says, “At present, our focus the same irrespective of geog-
“Byju’s choice of English-speaking is getting the K-3 raphy. While the education
countries for its international (lower grades first, standards and schooling could
debut will give it a relatively easy then second and differ across the world, they are
entry into these markets. third grades) product all designed to prepare the stu-
Countries such as the US, the UK ready for launch in dents for examinations only,”
and Australia are global education the next few months” explains Mohit.
hubs. Classroom experience in Like in India, in markets
some of these countries is becom- MRINAL MOHIT abroad, Byju’s will work with the
ing expensive by the day. There Chief operating officer, Byju’s philosophy that standardised
will be many takers for quality tests are not a mark of a child’s
education that is affordable.” learning potential. The goal is
For the record, Byju’s closed a $540 million to make children active learners — to focus on
Series F funding round led by Naspers in conceptual learning over rote-learning. In a
September 2018. So it has the required nutshell, Byju’s is of the view that its challenge
resources to expand operations. from the beginning, irrespective of geography,
It is learnt that Byju’s is busy setting up its has been changing the perception about how
own office in the US and that country would children should learn.
possibly be its first overseas stop. Byju’s is The company’s success in its own backyard
planning to work with popular global has been staggering. The company boasts of
YouTube teachers who are experts in their 30 million registered students and two million
own domains. In India, Byju’s has been highly annual paid subscribers in India already.
successful in leveraging technology to provide Byju’s reported revenues of ~490 crore for the
quality, yet affordable education to a large sec- financial year 2017-18, a 97 per cent jump over
tion of students. It is hoping to replicate the the corresponding period last year. It is look-
same model in international markets as well. ing to clock revenues to the tune of ~1,400
With smartphone adoption and technology crore this financial year. It is not only creating
becoming ubiquitous the world over, the focus content in English and Hindi but putting
will be on integrating technology into its prod- together learning programmes in vernacular
ucts in a way that it makes learning more languages as well.
37

Small brands power Instagram’s
marketplace run in India
As the photo sharing platform gets ready to open for business in the country, small
businesses and regional labels are hoping to cash in
(From left)Swiggy, Chumbak, Sabyasachi are among the most aggressive brands on Instagram where 64 per cent of the users are in the 18-34 age band
NIKHAT HETAVKAR
T
he power of smartly composed photo-
graphs has never been more potent.
Check out the Instagram stories for
Swiggy, the online food ordering and delivery
platform, or Chumbak, an accessory design
agency or fashion designer Sabyasachi, whose
eponymous premium label is every celebrity’s
calling card. Among the most active brands on
the platform, they have seen their app down-
loads increase and recorded big marketing wins
at a fraction of the cost of traditional media ini-
tiatives. Now as Instagram gets set to roll out its
‘shop’ button in the country, both the platform
and its band of small brands are hoping to cash
in on their engagement.
Sabyasachi (fashion) with 3.3 million follow-
ers across seven accounts, Netflix with 710,000,
Chumbak with 256,000 and Zomato with
118,000 are among the big users of Instagram
stories, a format that allows easy display and
access to products and services. And over the
past year, they have cashed in as Instagram has
introduced a host of features that help browsers
shop online as a prelude to opening itself up as
a marketplace. “Shopping on Instagram is cur-
rently available in 46 countries, and we are grad-
ually expanding to additional partners in coun-
tries around the globe, including India,” said an
Instagram spokesperson.
India is an important market as small brands
have been eager users and promoters of the plat-
form in the country. They have benefited too as
engagement with brands is 10 times higher on
Instagram than Facebook says a 2018 report by
Vidooly, an online video analytics and marketing
company. According to the report, 60 per cent
of the app’s users login daily and it is the second
most engaged platform after Facebook.
“In India, Instagram has high-value cus-
tomers. Even though the number of active users
is less than 65 million. This makes it a powerful
platform, especially for fashion, beauty, hospi-
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tality and food brands,” said Vikas Chawla, co-
founder of digital marketing agency Social Beat.
According to data provided by research firm
YouGov, 78 per cent of active Instagram users
prefer shopping online. And while nearly every
brand is using the platform today, digital native
brands are likely to benefit the most when
Instagram turns itself into a shopping platform,
say experts.
They could take a leaf out of Swiggy’s book.
It achieved a 17 per cent increase in installs with
a 30 per cent drop in cost per install due to an
Instagram campaign that ran from January to
March 2018. Premium clothing brand Little West
Street finds the platform extremely convenient.
“Instagram is growing and customers love the
visual aspect and the ease of purchase,” said
Samridhi Ganeriwala, founder, Little West Street,
a fashion brand. Fashion is among the biggest
category of brands using Instagram.
Another draw according to experts is
Instagram Analytics, a free tool. It encourages
small brands to be bolder and more experimen-
tal with the medium. Ganeriwala said that the
detailed insights are helpful for the company to
understand what resonates well with customers.
“The breakdown of demographics, age, time of
purchase etc. are very useful,” she said. And as
shopping becomes even easier, brands like hers
will be tracking these numbers even more eager-
ly, hoping to turn their social accounts into com-
mercial goldmines.
38

MY BEST CAMPAIGN
Mixing goodness with fun
MY TAKE
We managed to strike a balance
between well-being and
excitement as well as accessibility
and premiumness
BRAND: Britannia
YEAR OF LAUNCH: 2018
AGENCY: INTERBRAND INDIA
SANGEETA TANWAR
Which is your best campaign and why have
you chosen it?
The campaign “exciting goodness” — as a
part of Britannia’s brand-led transformation
which was ushered in in 2018 — is my
favourite work. This campaign is special
because the project repositioned and re-
imagined an old and well-established brand.
What was the key idea behind the brand
makeover?
In the second half of 2016, Britannia’s board
of directors tasked Interbrand with the
responsibility of making the brand more
contemporary. The brief was to rejuvenate
the century-old brand to draw new
consumers and explore new market
opportunities in a manner that it reflected
the company’s future plans and portfolio
expansion. The brand’s new positioning of
exciting goodness espoused the increasingly
relevant idea of balance. The new logo
celebrates this beautiful balance between the
two fundamental choice drivers — well-being
and excitement — and also between
accessibility and being recognised as
premium. Britannia is uniquely placed to
champion this growing philosophy of
consumption as well as lifestyle. When
goodness and fun combine, new possibilities
arise. The idea was to dispel the belief that
these are mutually exclusive. Exciting
goodness not only provides a unique
positioning for Britannia portfolio but also
STRATEGY
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informs its purpose and its future
innovations framework.
How do you think the campaign helped
redefine brand Britannia?
Although the world around had changed,
merely refreshing the design would not have
helped. The most compelling reason for the
rebranding was strategic. It was to bring the
future business strategy to life through the
new-look brand. For the future, Britannia’s
business ambition warranted a stronger
connect with the youth and needed a broad-
basing of the portfolio beyond biscuits while
retaining its premium positioning.
Did you conduct a consumer research before
creating the campaign?
The campaign followed a two-year brand
engagement involving analysts, strategists
and design experts from across Interbrand’s
India, Madrid and London offices, who drew
upon the wisdom of Britannia’s leadership,
varied consumer cohorts, chefs and
nutritionists. Insights drawn from these
formed the basis of the refreshed new
positioning for the brand.
At the core of the strategic uplift was a
larger narrative. It was about how the long-
39
ASHISH MISHRA,
Managing director
Interbrand India
standing master brands should be treated.
The heritage mother brands in our market, as
also in many other parts of the world, have
had an existential challenge. There seems to
be a pattern that they follow as they evolve.
They all begin with being primary brands
dealing in certain product(s) and gain
substantial equity over time. That equity
then provides the strength for extensions and
expansions into newer categories through
corresponding product brands.
Over time, the product brands become big
and get managed by dedicated teams at
business unit levels. Simultaneously, the
mother brand, devoid of a structural
custodianship or governance, keeps getting
weaker. This creates a downward spiral as the
product brands, especially the premium and
special ones, begin to distance themselves
from it. Eventually, the powerful mother
brands get relegated to being a mere endorser
for the portfolio brands. The objective was to
restore the prominence and respect for the
mother brand Britannia. We did that by
establishing the larger role of Britannia vis-a-
vis the product brands.
More on www.business-standard.com
 STRATEGY
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Lenskart’s vision for growth

Why the numero uno brand

DALIP KUMAR
in the eyewear segment is
bullish about non-metros
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR

B
y the end of this month, eyewear retail
brand Lenskart is expected to cross the
milestone of 500 stores. Having already
turned profitable and attained the number one
position in the branded eyewear category, the
nine-year-old start up is looking to build on the
gains with a focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
While the company is already present in
these centres, its founder and chief executive
officer Peyush Bansal sees more scope of growth
in the non-metros. At present, the company has
476 retail stores in over 70 cities with nearly 300
in the metros while the remaining ones are in
smaller cities. “The traditional markets have
been good for us and next year, we will go very
aggressive in the Tier 2 and 3 markets,” he says
while not divulging the number of new stores
planned. Bansal, however, says of the 24 new
ones coming up in March, the ratio is 50:50.
The venture started as an online app and later
developed into an omnichannel business with
offline taking the driver’s seat. The physical
stores thus would be crucial in newer territories
too, believes Bansal. “A couple of years ago, we
realised that some companies were burning a
lot of money to compensate for the trials and we
thought we did not want to do that. It was more
sensible to actually solve that need for the con-
sumer. The problem was of trial and not so much
of inventory,” says Bansal.
He adds that the response to the stores —
where a customer could get a feel of the eyewear
along with optometrist services — was good.
“The stores were profitable in the first month
itself. And this was better marketing than the
loss making marketing others were doing,” he
says looking back.
The company is also known for its deep dis-
counts and promotional offers — the most pop-
ular being first frame free — and offering a big
range of products in the prescription eyewear
category at prices ranging from ~345 to ~30,000.
In the newer markets or stores, however, the
company doesn’t have plans to give heavy dis-
counts. It is hoping that thanks to a second man-
ufacturing unit it set up in China last year, it
would be able to ensure quick supplies and com-
petitive pricing.
The average store size in metros and smaller
centres is 600 and 300 square feet respectively.
In the bigger markets, the rentals are higher, but
it prefers to follow a company-owned model. In
the smaller markets, franchisees lead, says
Bansal. In its assortment, the company also
stacks products from other brands. But they con-
stitute about 5 per cent of a store's offering.
Bansal says his stores tend to get more queries
related to its own label and that gives it an oppor-
tunity to customise products.
What has really fuelled the needs for eyewear
in smaller and bigger centres alike is the fact that
these are seen as both a necessity and a fashion
statement nudging buyers to buy more that one
In the bigger markets, the rentals are higher but Lenskart prefers to follow a company-owned
model. In the smaller markets, franchisees lead and the average store size is mall
pair of glasses for every occasion,
says Siddharth Shekhar Singh, asso-
ciate professor (marketing), Indian
School of Business. “Once people
have discretionary income, they
start consuming more of products
that are not deemed a necessity.
Also growth in Tier 2 and Tier 3
cities is almost on par with the big
cities in India, unlike in many other
countries,” says Singh. Bansal says
that such a trend was already evi-
dent when Lenskart entered the
market but claims credit for taking
it to the next level. He also remains
bullish that this trend will not slow
down and people will continue to
buy more pairs of glasses. “We have “The traditional
seen that journey with shoes and it markets have been
is happening in eyewear too. Once good for us and next
you start appreciating the fashion year, we will go very
accessory part of it, you stop think- aggressive in the Tier 2
ing why should I have another pair,” and 3 markets”
he says. PEYUSH BANSAL
According to Bansal, the total
Founder & CEO, Lenskart
eyewear market is close to ~15,000-
20,000 crore and about ~2,000 crore
is organised, of which the market share of
Lenskart is 25 per cent. Without putting a num-
ber to the annual growth rate of the organised
eyewear market, Bansal estimates that in the
past five years, it has doubled. His own company
has grown at more than 50 per cent in this period
and he doesn’t see that momentum slowing
down, though he expects the company to grow
at 40 per cent this year.
While there are other players such as Titan
Eye Plus or Zeiss dealing in prescription glasses,
Bansal believes that the compe-
tition will now be for a bigger slice
in the overall pie which means
taking on the unorganised mar-
ket players.
Rajat Wahi, partner, Deloitte
India, pegs the growth of the
organised market at 15 per cent
while that of the unorganised
marker at anywhere between 8
and 10 per cent. However, the
foreseeable challenges for the
branded players could be the
entry of other established retail
players. “Their success will give
an impetus to the unorganised
market to move into some kind of
a semi-organised play,” he says.
While adding that life is not
going to be easy for the very small
retail stores in big cities, Singh
also cautions that the brands
can’t take the buyers in these cen-
tres for granted as there is a con-
stant demand for quality there as
well.
What do the unorganised cat-
egory players feel about this prospective change?
BS spoke to Anil Wadhwa, the president of Delhi
Optician association. He says that even those in
the unorganised market are gaining from peo-
ple’s penchant to own more than one pair of eye-
glasses. “The margins have been reduced but
volumes have grown because the demand has
risen. Online sure comes with certain advantages
but grievance redressal is not as swift as with
local shopkeepers. That, sometimes, causes dis-
satisfaction,” says Wadhwa.

40

Personalisation drives the trend
for subscription-led consumption
The millennial hunt for curated experiences is powering the rise of subscription box brands
(From left) Stylecracker has Alia Bhatt as brand ambassador, Papergang appeals to consumers
with a fascination for stationery and The Big Book Box offers books to meet the reading tastes of
their subscribers
NIKHAT HETAVKAR
I
t could be a fashion retailer packing up a
box of outfits or accessories every month
or a big grocery brand sending out a batch
of monthly essentials—whatever the form or
content, boxes are in. As millennials hunt for
personalised, experience-driven consump-
tion, brands are clambering on to the trend,
looking for a way into their shopping lists and
hoping to lock in their loyalty.
A clutch of home grown brands such as
Stylecracker (fashion), Fab Bag (beauty), The
Big Book Box (books) and PaperGang (sta-
tionery), Bokksu (premium Japanese snacks
and teas) among others have mushroomed
over the past few years, using social media,
especially Instagram, to drive scale to their
sharply targeted businesses.
Subscriptions boxes are a collection of
themed items, from beauty products to house
essentials, delivered to a customer’s doorstep.
Consumers sign up by paying a sum upfront,
or every month. In exchange, they get a reg-
ular supply of essentials or a curated box,
based on their wants and desires.
According to a McKinsey report (Thinking
inside the subscription box, 2018), there are
three broad types of subscriptions: replenish-
ment (Ustraa), curated (Stylecracker), and
access (Zomato Gold). Curated services, with
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55 percent of total subscriptions, are by far
the most popular, suggesting a strong
desire for personalised services, the report
said. Replenishment, which provide
household or personal essentials, accounts
for 32 per cent while access, special benefits
on a common service, form 13 per cent.
According to Karishma Changroth, asso-
ciate account director, Dentsu Webchutney,
curation brands promise to provide con-
sumers what they want without asking them
to spend time and effort to look for it.
Replenishment services enable recurring pur-
chases and restocking. “While most may still
be vary of paying a lump sum, the perceived
value of these boxes could justify the costs
with flexible subscription periods, personal-
isation, curation by experts, exclusivity and
convenience,” she added.
Evidence of growing popularity lies in the
burgeoning numbers on Instagram and the
expanding profile of such brands offline.
Stylecracker, for instance, has Alia as brand
ambassador. The brands say they are learning
and growing every day. “Instagram is where
we built our community, but it’s not the only
medium of sales. Our major advertising plat-
form is Facebook,” said Surabhi S Rai, co-
founder, The Big Book Box.
Globally, subscription boxes are part of the
mainstream shopping experience. In India,
41
however, subscription boxes largely
depend on a mix of word-of-mouth promo-
tions and social media chatter to push their
brands.
Subscription box services are using data
to develop sharper marketing tools. For
instance, ‘curation box’ services are mostly
used by women and The Little Book Box uses
this knowledge to include surprise gifts and
trinkets in their boxes, which might not nec-
essarily appeal to men. Similarly replenish-
ment boxes that offer convenience over
impulse are pitched mostly to men as they
find greater appeal in that demographic,
according to the McKinsey report.
The McKinsey report reveals that the
demand for subscription boxes comes from a
sense of experimentation. Changroth says
that self-indulgence and even self-reward has
become an integral part of the millennial
lifestyle and subscription boxes hit this sweet
spot of the “treat yourself” mantra.

Spreading out a bigger basket
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR
A
lmost a decade after online grocers
rushed to serve customers at the click
of a mouse, the Indian consumer has
yet to fully embrace online grocery
shopping. A humble 4 per cent of the country’s
grocery spending occurs online today, whereas
other retail categories have witnessed much
deeper e-commerce penetration — from 25 per
cent for footwear and apparels to upwards of 50
per cent for mobile phones and books. The gro-
cery category remains one of the rare exceptions
in the sense it is still playing catch-up even as
penetration reaches 15-20 per cent in countries
such as the UK and South Korea.
It is precisely this — the under-penetration
of online grocery shopping — that presents a
huge opportunity for seven-year-old Bigbasket.
The company is eyeing to fill the white spaces
as it were and expand its offering as an omni-
channel operation. As co-founder Vipul Parekh
says, the online category in grocery cannot be
seen in isolation. In other words, the next phase
of growth will depend largely on the offline
channel.
The company’s offline strategy is two-
pronged — supplement its current delivery
infrastructure by opening smaller distribution
centres and complement them with vending
machines for impulse purchases. While the 60-
70 new distribution centres will come in less
than three months reversing the 25:75 ratio
between same day and next day delivery, the
7,000 odd automatic vending machines will be
set up in apartments and markets by next
March. “All of these new spots will come up in
the top 10 of the 25 cities where we are present
currently because 60 per cent of our business
comes from there,” says Parekh.
He added that the goal with the smaller dis-
tribution centres is to deliver faster to customers.
For example, Bengaluru will have 20 such dis-
tribution centres, up from the three it has cur-
rently. “So the big warehouses, between one and
three, will supply to the smaller centres which
will then supply to the customers. Besides doing
3x deliveries the same day we will reduce the
time taken during the same day to two hours
from the current five-eight hours.”
Pushing for offline growth makes immense
business sense. Devangshu Dutta, chief execu-
tive, Third Eyesight, says food and grocery is
the biggest chunk of spending in the Indian con-
sumer’s basket, of which the vast majority of
sales continue to happen offline. Also, the
minuscule market share online grocers have so
far has been gathered at a massive cost. That
apart, online grocers face a multiplicity of chal-
lenges — the category is relatively low-margin,
it can be price-sensitive and, with frequent
small-value deliveries, it’s tough to make money
off each transaction. “An offline presence should
help them reduce logistics costs per transac-
tion,” he says. “Also, online grocers are driven
by immediate needs and planned orders, both
of which result in well-defined and self-limiting
demand — they largely miss out top-up and
impulse purchases on-site. So expanding into
an offline presence could even serve to increase
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DAILY NEEDS
How Bigbasket is juggling its
online and offline play
60+ Smaller distribution centres
splitting the centralised systems
in the top ten cities
25 of the orders are delivered the
% same day while
75 per cent are delivered the next,
 The company plans to reverse this and
deliver 75 per cent the same day by July
 Reducing the delivery time to two
hours for the same day
 Setting up 7,000 automatic vending
machines to address sudden needs in
apartments and markets. These
machines will largely dispense food
both packaged and fresh
(~698 cr) will be the
$100mn total investment
the average values per transaction for online
grocers.”
According to Bigbasket’s Parekh, the unit eco-
nomics will not change for the firm because the
added real estate costs behind the new centres
will be offset by the reduced delivery costs. Also,
to meet the rent expenses, the company is going
for a franchisee model. “The partners will man-
age. Ours is a revenue-sharing model with part-
ners. The model will differ depending on the
location. For example, someone may pay full
rent, and we go for profit-sharing but if rent
is based on sales, then we have a different
arrangement,” he said.
Experts such as Ankur Bisen, senior
vice-president at consulting firm
Technopak Advisors, caution about
future challengers: “Players tend to
put everything from staple to pack-
aged FMCG under one umbrella
called the food grocery segment but
when it comes to fresh products, a
hyper local approach is impera-
tive. And that is where hyper local
startups that service products
with short shelf lives — such
as Milkbasket for milk and eggs
or Licious for meat products
42
The vending machines that the company will
put across 10 cities are designed to carry
different SKUs. These can handle warm food
and cold food such as an ice cream or a samosa
and not merely packed items PICTURES: SANJAY SHARMA
— step in and seem to be thriving. “Going
ahead, the larger online grocery players might
aggressively go for an acquisition strategy to
take advantage of the hyper-local capabilities
the hyper-local guys have managed to build,”
Bisen adds.
The company’s other new initiative —setting
up vending machines that are operational round
the clock — has been planned with an eye on
the consumer who runs to the neighbourhood
store for top-up. “The machines will be prima-
rily dispensing food giving the shoppers the
option to choose anywhere between 48 and 70
SKUs. The machines become useful in ensuring
after-workhour supplies. We will put them in
large apartment complexes and offices. In
offices we are looking to sell food and beverages
for breakfast, lunch and dinner; the ones in res-
idential areas will have more packaged items
like biscuits, soda or milk, bread or eggs."
Each of these machines looks to serve
around 300-400 apartments. In offices, the
range is wider. The advantage would be zero
additional manpower cost. The machines will
monitor their own inventory and if any SKUs
is missing, they will generate their own
orders which will then be supplied by the
nearest vendor. The transactions will not
involve any cash dealings — the consumer
will need to install the app and from the
e-wallet in the app, the money will be
debited.
Parekh’s response to questions on
competitors with deeper pockets is
somewhat philosophical: “If the race
was won only by capital, you would
only have Amazon and Flipkart
today. What we are doing in
terms of supply chain or
technologies and customer
metrics, there is no one else
close to that and that really is
our USP.”
 STRATEGY
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Dhoni cracks the bat on

the endorsement pitch
With 25 brands in the bag
and his entry into the ~100-
crore endorsers club, is
Captain Cool setting up the
end game?
URVI MALVANIA

W
idely believed to be playing his last
World Cup in 2019, M S Dhoni is
cranking up his endorsements
game. In 2018, he added more than 10 brands
to his list and stepped into the hallowed ~100
crore club, the only Indian sportsperson after
Virat Kohli to do that. Now with 25 brands
and a documentary on his life (Roar), talent
managers and brand experts believe that he
may be packing the field in anticipation that
the upcoming World Cup (starts May 30) to
be played in England to be his last one.
According to a report by ESP Properties
(GroupM) Dhoni ranks second on the athlete
endorser list. Valued at ~100 crore (sharp
jump over ~60 crore in 2017) he is well behind
Kohli (around ~200 crore) but way ahead of
the rest.
To put things in perspective, Dhoni’s
brand value had almost halved (Forbes Fab
40 2016) between 2015 and 2016 and then
took a further hit after he announced he was
stepping down as captain of the limited overs
format in 2017. His subsequent rise in valua-
tion and jump in the number of endorse-
ments has come about despite these factors.
There are many reasons behind the resur-
gence of Brand Dhoni says a brand manager
who prefers to remain anonymous. “His
game has evolved. He has adapted to all for-
mats of the game and remains relevant from
a brand endorsement point of view,” he says.
His adaptability and ability to stay relevant
has helped Dhoni get new brands, even new- Brand Dhoni is valued at ~100 crore and has signed a spate of new brands, his campaign for Colgate
age ones. He is the face of the e-sports plat- is currently playing on TV
form Dream11, the fantasy league platform,
online bus ticketing platform RedBus, web “While there is no denying his value as a much as his game, plan his retirement years
hosting company, GoDaddy as well as tradi- brand endorser, right now, it’s a case of mak- well. It will help him maintain some play in
tional big-ticket brands such as Colgate. ing the most of a situation. There are around the endorsement business once he retires,
“Dhoni has been a popular youth icon, five to six cricketers who can be considered much like Tendulkar.
known for his strategic decision-making, for endorsement gigs, and of them Kohli is Indranil das Blah, co-CEO at KWAN, an
consistent performance and perseverance. too expensive for most brands. Dhoni is the entertainment firm that deals in sports mar-
His personality perfectly complements the next best choice, and he is making the most keting says that Dhoni’s career trajectory has
skill sets required for Dream11,” says Harsh of the demand. At this point in his career, ensured him a longer innings in the endorse-
Jain, CEO and co-founder of Dream11. the more the merrier. Also, like Amitabh ment field than his active cricketing days.
Dhoni’s rise is also credited to the sharp Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar, Dhoni start- “He’s had a great run as a captain, and a crick-
drop in the number of ‘brandable’ athletes ed his endorsement journey when fees had eter. Moreover, he has been fairly controversy
say some. While Kohli is a clear frontrunner, not sky-rocketed,” says Harish Bijoor, free for most part of his career. His post
the options are limited thereafter. The young founder, Harish Bijoor Consults, which retirement endorsement career should flour-
cricketers are still being tested and none is makes him more affordable. ish as well,” he says.
considered a bankable brand yet. There are Bijoor believes that Dhoni is being strate-
few alternatives to Kohli at present, they say, gic about his endorsements. It is logical that
and Dhoni has stepped in to fill the gap. the man known to measure his words as

43

MY FAVOURITE CAMPAIGN
A timeless ‘ad’hesive
MY TAKE
While the storytelling is
clean and simple, one
should not miss the
inherent sophistication
BRAND: Fevicol
YEAR OF LAUNCH: 1998
AGENCY: Ogilvy
SNEHA BHATTACHARJEE
Which is your favourite campaign and
why?
I was fairly young in advertising when I saw
my first Fevicol ad — the ‘Egg’ ad. This and
other Fevicol ads have stuck in my head,
though many ads of other brands that came
and went in the intervening time are long-
forgotten — this is precisely why the Fevicol
campaign is a favourite.
On what parameters did you base your
decision?
A cliché that bears repeating is that an ad
needs to communicate a single-minded
message in a memorable way. Many creators
of ads seem to forget this — so the Fevicol
campaign serves as a refresher course. Let’s
remember that this is why Fevicol ads have
stood the test of time. I was relooking at
them while answering these questions, and
they still look fresh.
There is a beguiling simplicity to Fevicol
work. While the storytelling is clean and
simple, one should not miss the
sophistication inherent to it: Instead of
literally showing the Fevicol bond using
household articles, the campaign takes it to
a metaphorical level.
I hear a lot of advertisers say that their
consumer won’t ‘get it’ unless the product
usage is shown literally. Yet, so many years
ago, Fevicol ads overcame this smartly by
bringing in the context of carpentry in ads
such as the egg one, but then handling the
messaging of the unbreakable bond
symbolically. Later, even the context of
carpentry was no longer required, so well-
STRATEGY
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established was the brand idea product or service advertised.
in consumers’ minds. Do you feel this was the case
with the Fevicol campaign?
What do you think was the key This is one of those debates that
idea the campaign was trying will go on forever. I think that if
to drive home? SUMANTO this flaw were true of Fevicol,
This campaign single-mindedly then we wouldn’t be
CHATTOPADHYAY
drove the message of the remembering their classic ads so
ultimate bond, helping the
Chairman & chief many years later. And the brand
brand firmly occupy the Creative officer wouldn’t be where it is today. The
category high-ground. 82.5 Communications answer is simple: If your story is
The Ogilvy Group relevant to the brand, then the
Do you remember the brand will not be forgotten. Some
campaign winning any advertising advertisers put their brand colours all over
awards? Do you think these awards serve an ad and count how many times the brand
any purpose? was mentioned. I am not talking about that.
The campaign has won many well-deserved The brand could appear briefly in an ad —
advertising awards, including the but in a key role — and it would be
prestigious Cannes Lion for the “Bus” film. remembered.
More than one study has shown that ads
recognised for their creativity tend to be far More on www.business-standard.com
more effective than run-of-the-mill ads. This
is something that is worth thinking about in
today’s data-obsessed world. Use data, by all
means. But don’t think of it as a substitute
for creativity.
Another important role of awards is to
motivate the ad folks that create them —
these people put in a disproportionate
amount of effort in their jobs. The
recognition keeps them going and pushes
them to do better. In a world where
advertising creativity is being valued less
and less by clients, these awards take on
greater significance.
Sometimes because of the
humour/emotion in a campaign, there is
greater recall for the story than the
44

Top gear
Tata Motors hopes that rapid product launches, larger footprint
and platform synergy will catapult it among the top four
T E NARASIMHAN
I
n February 2019, Tata Motors promised
"decisive action" to cut costs in its Jaguar
Land Rover (JLR) unit and improve cash
flow after weak sales at the British luxury
car brand led the company to post the biggest-
ever quarterly loss (Q3 2018-19) in Indian corpo-
rate history.
When it announced results for the fourth
quarter last month, things looked much better.
Its profit fell less than expected and the automak-
er said tighter control of expenses and a turn-
around at JLR helped it stay the course in the
face the economic slowdown at home. “We have
finally embedded turnaround into the culture
and into the DNA of Tata Motors,” says CEO and
STRATEGY
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MD Guenter Butschek.
So after years of negotiating rough roads, Tata
Motors Ltd (TaMo) is finally looking at a less irk-
some drive, thanks largely to its Turnaround 2.0
strategy, which helped the company address nag-
ging issues such as the lack of new products, weak
market activation, pressure on margins, a com-
plex organisation structure and external factors
like the implementation of demonetisation, GST,
BS-IV and the overall liquidity crunch.
TaMo is now starting on a new journey — that
of becoming the most aspirational Indian auto-
mobile brand by 2024.
In April 2018, TaMo kicked off the
Turnaround 2.0 process to arrest its losing streak.
The focus areas were sales enhancement, rigor-
ous cost reduction and improving production
45
and supply chain efficiencies —all aimed to
improve the bottom line. “Win decisively in CV”,
“Win sustainably in PV” and “Win proactively in
EV” were the key levers of Turnaround 2.0.
The process embraced more than 2,000 peo-
ple across the organisation. Three things hap-
pened immediately. Nearly 14,000 ideas were
generated for cost optmisation opportunities in
CVs; in PVs, costs came down by half and imple-
mentation time by a third. This, in turn, ensured
that all product margins jumped by 500 basis
points.
TaMo also shifted focus from the fleet seg-
ment to passenger cars and launched a series of
new products, including five in 51 days — a first
in the PV industry. Last year, TaMo’s PV sells
grew 12.2 per cent, against the overall industry
growth of 2.8 per cent. Prior to 2014, TaMo's per-
sonal to fleet ratio was 20:80; now with a new
range of PVs, the ratio has tilted heavily in favour
of the personal segment.
Mayank Pareek, president, passenger vehi-
cles, Tata Motors, says significant cost reduction
was a highlight of TaMo's turnaround strategy.
Cost savings in machinery and spares was around
26 per cent, while savings in operations and other
fixed costs was 13 per cent. The company decon-
structed 14 competitor cars and four Tata Motor
cars and introduced nine variants in six months.
 STRATEGY
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All this helped TaMo's PV segment to not only

outperform the industry for nine quarters, it also TURNAROUND
achieved EBITDA breakeven in 2018-19 at 0.1 per Revenue Commercial vehicles
cent, against -11.4 per cent in 2017-18. (~ in crore) Year Volumes Market share
“We will continue to focus on new products
and customer service. And of course we continue
Year Total income Profit in %
to focus on rapid cost management,” says Pareek. 2014-15 38,176.15 -4,738.95 2014-15 319,000 49.78
So what does the future look like? The com- 2015-16 44,502.74 234.23 2015-16 328,000 46.48
pany, which is yet to find a place among the top
four auto companies, says its efforts are directed 2016-17 50,079.25 -2,479.99 2016-17 325,000 44.4
at being counted among them. Here the key will 2017-18 61,182.29 -1,034.85 2017-18 399,000 45.1
be rapid product launches and customer out-
reach. 2018-19 71,757.42 2,020.6 2018-19 469,000 45.1
TaMo has unveiled a completely new archi-
tectural strategy that has modular and flexible Passenger cars
characteristics and has the ability to evolve into
a range of youthful and agile vehicles in a short Year Volume Market share
development cycle. The first rendition of this in %
strategy was its SUV Harrier. TaMo plans to 2017-18 187,000 5.7
launch another product in the same platform
this fiscal. The soon-to-be-launched Altroz will 2018-19 210,000 6.3
be its next vehicle on the Alfa platform. "We start-
ed launching new products based on our design
and safety promise and we have backed them up Gold ranges, helped TaMo
with innovative marketing programmes," said strengthen its position in the seg-
Pareek. ment.
TaMo's PV outlets have increased to 865 from Girish Wagh, president, CVBU, Tata Motors, being used to reach customers in remote loca-
400 and will touch 2,000 in the next three years. says the company will continue to aggressively tions.
Geographic footprint and new products are push its turnaround strategy this fiscal. With the To sustain the momentum, TaMo has identi-
expected to go a long way is revitalising the brand. BS-VI norms coming into play in April 2020, fied five "angles of attack" — a term frequently
In the CV segment, despite regulation TaMo will be "more prudent" with inventory used in the airline sector and doesn't surprise com-
changes and growing competition, TaMo's mar- management across platforms. It is planning to ing from Butschek who was COO of Airbus Group
ket share rose to 45.10 per cent in 2018-19 and it reduce CV platforms to 12 from 18, which will SA — that will pivot around products, scale, cost,
outpaced industry growth by clocking 17 per help it cut development cost and improve time technology and embracing digital. TaMo also sees
cent to 468,692 units in 2018-19 compared to the to market. TaMo added 275-odd new sales and synergy across its business units. Standarisation
previous year. New product launches calibrated service touch points for CVs last year to take it to of vehicle electronics and the unification of data,
to the revised axle load norms in M&HCV trucks over 3,750 across the country. Container work- analytics and security will ensure it is set for the
and tippers, along with the new Ultra and Ace shops and mobile service workshops are also next phase of growth, says the company.

STATSPEAK
CHANGING FOCUS
The Deloitte Millennial Survey 2019 gives a peep
into the way millennials think about work,
employment and life in general.
The latest edition of the report is based on
the views of 13,416 millennials questioned
across 42 countries and territories. Deloitte
says this year’s survey embraced a more
diverse group of respondents to generate a
more comprehensive perspective of the
generation as a whole. The previous surveys
focused only on millennials with college or
university degrees who were employed full
time and worked predominantly in large,
private-sector organisations. The survey says
that societal discord and technological
transformation create a “generation
disrupted”
Negative impacts of social media (SM)
Percentage of millennials who agree
with the following statements about SM
I’d be physically healthier if I reduced
the time I spend on social media
64%
I’d be a happier person if I reduced
the time I spend on social media
60%
On balance, social media does
more harm than good
55%

Who has the most responsibility for preparing Top reasons for near-term exits
workers for Industry 4.0 according to millennials? Dissatisfied with pay/financial rewards 43%
17% 8% Others Not enough opportunities to advance 35%
Government Lack of learning and
30% development opportunities
28%
Businesses/
employers I don’t feel appreciated 23%
Poor work-life balance (lack of flexibility) 22%
24%
21% Educational Boredom/not challenged 21%
Individuals institutions I don’t like the workplace culture 15% Source: Deloitte

46

TREND WATCH
Leading edge, engaging
and trustworthy
Some attributes that helped brands earn the most
influential tag in a recent survey
S
hould the most influential
brands be only those which
have high brand equity and
dominant market share? If that was
true, then the usual suspects —
FMCG giants and brands with long
historical existence would be the
front runners.
However, influential is a cut VIVEK GUPTAVVVVVV rankers in the Ipsos India’s Most
above, its USP is distinct. It Managing director & Influential Brands of 2018 is that the
influences the way you live and business head-
think and act or react. And brand Mumbai, Ipsos India brands
ownership leads to a much higher
level of deep emotional engagement.
Confused?
To map influential brands —we first had
to draw up a brand list. Shortlisting criteria
was two-pronged: One, brands had to be well
known; two, those with highest ad spending
and visibility were considered (with a few
exceptions of Google and Facebook which,
despite low paid advertising, are highly
salient). So, these 100 odd shortlisted brands
underwent the litmus test — over 1,000
urban, discerning consumers evaluated
them across broad five parameters of
trustworthiness, engagement, being leading
edge, corporate citizenship and presence —
further, each parameter had a battery of
statements, to dive deep into the attributes.
The winners — most of the top 10 most
influential brands — have high scores on the
three attributes of leading edge, engagement
and trustworthiness. Corporate citizen and
presence were seen to be more hygiene
REIGNING SUPREME
Here is a low-down of
brands that made the
cut and how!
2018 Top Ten
Rank Brands
1 Google
2 Jio
3 PayTM
4 Facebook
5 Amazon
6 Samsung
7 Microsoft
8 Airtel
9 Flipkart
10 Apple iPhone
STRATEGY
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factors. Important but with less
bearing on defining them in the
unique league of Influential —
technically, the winners are
distinctive, edgy, accessible 24X7 at
a mere click and are all technology
brands.
So, what is common to the top
list is largely dominated by new age
Influence is hard to get and easy
to lose. That explains how some of the local
brands find it hard to obtain and retain a top
ranking year-on-year.
The winners influence how we dress,
communicate, travel, shop, spend our free
time, celebrate and socialise. They provide a
strong sense of purpose and shape our world,
while connecting emotionally with people.
Ergo, influential is someone (or something)
that impacts (or shapes) how people act or
how things occur.
So, let me elaborate on the success stories
of the top five Most Influential Brands of
2018.
Google has emerged as the most
influential brand of 2018 and it has held onto
the pole position for four years in a row. It is
not only leading edge (the most important
attribute for being an influential brand) but
has also been ahead of its time and has
introduced consumers to something, which
the consumers did not know they needed.
What works
 New tech/media is the
new king of hearts and
commands respect.
 Influence is hard to get
but easy to lose.
 And while it is difficult for
Desi brands to obtain/
retain a top 10 ranking, Jio
and PayTM have changed
the rules of the game.
They have been resilient
and innovated to stay
engaging and drive
consumer stickiness.
 And finally, brands that
help make your life
simpler, better and easier
have an edge.
47
Besides keeping the consumers ahead of the
curve (via Google search engine), it also
continues to be the focal point in consumers'
existence; with multiple manifestations such
as Google smartphones and Google home
hub assistant which have made life
interesting for consumers and encouraged
them to make smarter decisions.Ergo,
Google has been continuously innovating
and is credited with altering not just the
consumer landscape but critical elements in
their life.
At number two spot is Jio. It moves up one
notch from 2017. Post demonetisation, Jio
stepped in and revolutionised internet
behavior - the Jio effect completely altered
the digital landscape. that had low internet
penetration and few smartphone users. Jio
captured the market with low tariffs and 4G-
enabled Jio phones and internet usage
jumped phenomenally across social
platforms. For many, they have become the
preferred mode of access to media and
entertainment. To further make inroads into
the hinterland, content in local dialects will
be the way forward.
At the third spot, is another homegrown
brand, PayTM. From a digital wallet
company to an e-commerce payment system
to an e-mall, PayTM attained critical mass
post demonetisation. It has widened its
scope of acceptance, with over 7 million
merchants now using its QR Code to accept
payments directly to their bank accounts.
PayTM has leveraged the near first mover
advantage and is today generic to the
category, something that Colgate was to
toothpaste or Xerox was to photocopying not
so long back.
Our survey shows that consumers have
rated PayTM high on three attributes —
trustworthiness, leading edge and presence.
PayTM has earned the trust of consumers.
PayTM was added to the brand list in 2018 —
as it qualified on the brand shortlisting
criteria.
At the fourth spot is Facebook. It has
retained its rank from the previous year.
Privacy concerns notwithstanding,
Facebook has been in overdrive mode
educating the masses about privacy and
security of personal information. Being
leading edge, engaging and presence, it has
retained consumers' trust as a key influential
brand.
Amazon is at the fifth spot in 2018. The e-
tailing brand with leading edge has changed
the consumer definition of window shopping
forever with instant access to millions of
affordable branded products right at their
door step. Amazon has been a trendsetter,
ahead of its time building trust with its
customers by offering cash on delivery, no
question returns, affordable over-the-top
content. Consumers credit Amazon for
having introduced them to something they
never knew they needed, the new definition
of shopping at home.
What has been central to Amazon's
success - consumers say, it understands
consumers' needs - is fast, reliable, provides
immense variety and convenient shopping at
your fingertips.
- STRATEGY
Work-life 2.0
Here’s what a host of firms are doing to reintegrate women
who had dropped out of the workforce
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR
T
he jury is still out on whether corpo-
rate India’s efforts to ensure better
gender diversity at workplaces is
merely tokenism but if 23 leading
companies give a chorus call to women on sab-
batical to apply for executive roles, it is certainly
an eye-catching development. A recent news-
paper advertisement issued on behalf of these
companies by Stanton Chase, an executive
search and consulting firm, has kindled hopes
that these companies are keen to ease the rein-
tegration process.
With almost 1,000 relevant resumes received
in response to the advertisement published less
than a month ago, Mala Kalra Chawla, the global
leader for diversity and inclusion for Stanton
Chase, feels the client companies’ desire to make
the twain — fair gender representation and tap-
ping leadership potential of those executives
who want to reboot their careers — meet, is well
on track. “I see this as an opportunity to look
beyond preaching the importance of diversity
by organising events and showcasing some suc-
cess stories and do something which is more
concrete. For a month, we spoke to some selected
companies in our clientele list and gave them
this idea about reintegrating women into the
workforce and a bunch of them agreed to par-
ticipate,” she says.
According to Stanton chase, screening and
shortlisting of applications will be done by them
as per the role requirements from their clients.
“From there on, the selection and fitment will
be decided by the corporates concerned,”
Chawla adds. But a woman’s return after a gap
is as much about looking ahead as it is about
looking backwards, that is, what pushed the
women to move out of the workforce and what
the challenges in returning after a significant
gap are.
www.business-standard.com
Charu Sabanvis, diversity expert and direc-
tor, Delta Learning, summarises the host of indi-
vidual reasons into three broad categories or
what she calls are the 3Ms – marriage, mother-
hood and mobility. Referring to a McKinsey
report, she says that at the entry level, the gender
ratio is around 29 per cent women with the
majority being men. At the mid-management
level, it drops to 16 per cent and this is where
the 3Ms kick in, the husband’s job takes prece-
dence over the woman’s.
Shailesh Singh, head of human resource,
Max Life Insurance, one of the 23 companies on
whose behalf the recent advertisement was pub-
lished, assures that the selection process after
shortlisting the resumes will be purely on merit
through a fair process which does not “carry any
biases from a gender perspective”.
Encouraging as it may sound, biases do exist,
say many women who have tried to come back.
That’s what Mumbai’s Lakshmi Ravindran felt
when she tried to reenter the industry after a
two-year-gap. “Having worked for 12 years, I left
my job due to family obligations. But it was
tougher than I thought. Nobody told me bluntly
but I never got calls for jobs which I was totally
eligible for. In a couple of interviews, where I
was called, they were offering a position which
was lower than what I left at. They made it sound
as if they were doing me a favour,” says
Ravindran, 41.
She now works for a FinTech subsidiary of
Axis Bank, a job she got through campus place-
ment after completing the Post Graduate
Management Programme for Women (PGMPW)
from S P Jain Institute of Management &
Research, Mumbai, an exclusive programme for
reintegrating women who have a gap of four
years or more in their resume because of family
or social obligation.
Ashita Aggarwal, chairperson of PGMPW, says
that corporates realise that even away from jobs,
48
Smooth comeback
Some dos and don’ts
of reintegration
 The position and
perks offered must
commensurate with
experience and skill,
yet merit should not be compromised with. The
human resources teams should be proactive in
identifying the most suitable roles for those
coming back after a significant gap
 A gap in one’s resume is seen as a bargaining
chip by some companies to offer them lesser
roles. This should be discouraged
 It is also important to allay any fears of those
who took only the stipulated leaves —
maternity or otherwise and not a sabbatical —
about being shortchanged by lateral entry of
those who took longer breaks
 Absence from work also requires reskilling and
upskilling, the recruiter should make those
arrangements according to the period of
absence
 Family obligations do not end even after
reintegration, so policies should continue to be
supportive
the women were managing a different entity,
their respective family for the most part, and
hence they were adaptive and they understood
handling and working with people in a different
context. “Also given that ours is a one-year, full-
time rigorous programme that requires women
to leave their families for the entire duration, the
upskilling is taken care of and the seriousness is
well-established.”
Another expert, Padma Kumar, the chief
operating officer of development consulting
company IPE Global, agrees that the women’s
experiences away from the workplaces are often
helpful for them to be better managers post rein-
tegration. “There are many reasons why com-
panies are increasingly looking to rehire women
employees. Their family experiences as home-
makers makes them better suited to multitask.
They also bring stability to the table because
they don’t switch very often compared to men.
By the time they return, they have figured out a
way where children will study, who will look after
them etc, which only helps them to focus better,”
adds Kumar.
Rachna Mukherjee, the chief human resources
officer of Schneider Electric India, a smart energy
management solution provider headquartered in
France, is more optimistic about the future. From
the vantage point that her association with a global
company offers, she confidently says that some of
the best practices adopted in India are being repli-
cated in the West even as women dropping out of
the workforce remains as much a reality elsewhere
as it is in India.
While Mukherjee’s company has a Second
Innings policy for such women, her counterpart
in Vedanta, Madhu Srivastava, says the firm has
proactively introduced progressive and bench-
marked schemes that are focused on reintegrat-
ing women in the workforce as it aspires to
increase the representation of women in the
company to 30 per cent by next year.

GCMMF juices up, looks to leverage
the Amul brand in a new market
The dairy major pitches its newly launched juice label as a healthy snacking alternative, bets
on recall and trust of its flagship brand
Launched in Gujarat last month, Amul Tru will soon be retailed across the country. It is aiming at the mass market consumer and is priced at ~10
T E NARASIMHAN
C
ome summer and there is usually a
flurry of high pitched campaigns and
new launches from the ever-growing
assembly of juice-cola brands in the country.
This year is no different—using the ongoing
Indian Premier League as a launching pad, a
number of new variants of colas and flavours
for juices have hit the shelves. However in
the midst of the din, with little fanfare and
no major campaign to mark its entry, Gujarat
Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd
(GCMMF) has launched Amul Tru, its first
venture into the blended fruit juices market
and yet another extension of its mother
brand, in a new format and segment.
Brand Amul, the company said, evoked
trust and recall, which it expects will help
Tru carve a niche for itself. It does not intend
to spend a big amount on branding and pro-
motions because it hopes to leverage the
brand pull that Amul has and also because it
is working with wafer-thin margins in the
market, having priced the product at ~10.
But is the strong recall and affinity of the
mother brand enough to beat the clutter in a
STRATEGY
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new market?
The juices and blended juices market has
an assortment of brands in play, there are
veterans such as Dabur (Real), PepsiCo
(Tropicana), Coca-Cola (Minute Maid), ITC
(B Natural) and Mother Dairy (Safal) apart
from small labels such as PaperBoat and Raw
Pressery. Brands have made a beeline for the
segment given its rising popularity among
the young. According to Euromonitor
International, a market research provider,
the blended juice market that Amul has
stepped into grew 10.2 per cent in volume
terms and close to 16 per cent in value in
2017-18, as compared to 6.5 and 10.3 per cent
in 2016-17
R S Sodhi, managing director of GCMMF
says that Tru is different from the fare avail-
able in the market. For one, it is a blended
product (fruit and milk, which according to
him is a unique offering). Second it comes
with the Amul tag attached and hence bears
the trust of millions who use its dairy prod-
ucts.
“The other USP is pricing and packaging.
With 80 days shelf life, the product does not
need refrigeration until opened. And the ~10
49
price point for a 200ml bottle,” he said,
“would be a big draw.”
The company has targeted ~4,000 crore
in revenue from the beverage business in the
next 2-3 years and Tru will be one of its major
drivers. Sodhi said that the company has col-
laborated with Almond Branding for brand
building, packaging, and communication.
Harish Bijoor, founder of Bijoor Consults
said that Amul Tru will draw immense bene-
fits from the mother brand. “Amul (the brand
name) creates an instant recall of good value
and quality,” he said while pointing out that
the company did not really need a big cam-
paign. He sees the extension as a clever move
because it does not stray too far from the
dairy portfolio while allowing it a foot into a
rapidly expanding segment.
Tru has been launched in Gujarat and will
be expanded to the rest of the country soon,
leveraging the 10,000-odd distributors and
nearly ten lakh retailers that GCMMF has
across the country. Given its price point, the
company is planning to make it available at
general trade, pan shops, bakeries, highway
outlets, schools, institutions and canteens
among other such outlets.
 STRATEGY
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MY FAVOURITE CAMPAIGN
Raising awareness and money
MY TAKE
Communication has to change beliefs and behaviour
and get some action done which this campaign did
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR
Which is your favourite campaign and why?
My all-time favourite project is a campaign called the Tap Project done
by David Droga, one of the most well-known creative in the industry,
and launched in 2007-08. His agency Droga5 has done many iconic
campaigns but I have chosen its Tap Project for United Nations
Children’s Fund (Unicef) because it was way ahead of its time and it got
people involved in the campaign.
In New York and many other parts of the developed world water is
potable, that is, you can drink off the tap, and people didn’t really
believe that a water crisis is coming up in the world. But the reality is
that there are a lot of people dying due to the lack of clean drinking
water. Instead of running a usual campaign telling people about the
lack of water or preaching them to conserve water, David realised it
might not affect them in the manner he intended to. To make it more
participatory and induce action, he created a campaign which
basically asked people to pay for tap water. He tied up with restaurants
around the US and suddenly, the waiters started asking customers if
they were willing to buy tap water for $1. And then when the water
arrived on the table, it came with the information that the $1 charged
will be contributed to people who are facing a water crisis. It became a
massive, crowd-funded initiative.
It became fashionable in the US to ask for tap water instead of
bottled water because people could make contributions to a cause. So,
they started getting involved, caring and talking about the water crisis.
So while it had already become a movement like going vegan or
opting for only organic, David did the unthinkable. He started
challenging the agencies around the world saying, “okay, whichever
50
BRAND: Unicef ANIL S NAIR
YEAR OF LAUNCH: 2007-08 CEO and managing
partner, L & K Saatchi &
AGENCY: Droga5 Saatchi India
agency is going to take this forward, we are going to support them.” So,
other creative forces in different parts of the world came together and
started running their versions in their respective cities of a campaign
that was primarily targeted at the Western markets. He raised
awareness and raised money at the same time.
What are the key takeaways from the campaign? What are the
parameters on which you have chosen the Tap Project campaign?
The key takeaways are one, the value of water, not just in dollar terms
but in terms of how precious the commodity is. So it made many people
change their behaviour towards water, something they had taken for
granted for really long. It was a behaviour alteration campaign. It is not
a campaign that everyone has seen but it is something people have
heard of. I have not seen the pieces of the campaign because I don’t live
in New York. It was not a beautiful or very emotional campaign but it
was what I would ideally like communication to do. Communication
has to change beliefs and behaviour and get some action done. What
happens with many advertising practitioners in the world is that they
get caught in “making it memorable”. But memorability doesn’t always
translate into action. Your ability to recall something doesn’t mean you
are able to act on it.
Do you remember the campaign winning any advertising awards?
Do you think these awards serve any purpose?
It won a few awards but it doesn’t really matter. It is something that
every creative person wishes he/she had done. There can’t be a bigger
award than that.
More on www.business-standard.com

‘We will focus on
supporting enterprises’
Digital transformation is the bedrock of our global
strategy, Maheshwari tells Neha Alawadhi
Small and medium businesses have
been a huge focus for Microsoft. What
is the end goal for SMBs going
forward?
If you look at the large companies, we
served a large number of the top 1,000 ANANT
companies here in India. All these MAHESHWARI
organisations have a CIO, CDO or CTO. President,
They are resourced to do things at scale. Microsoft India
When you come to small and medium
businesses, they don't have a CIO, CDO or CTO.
In a way we are becoming that enabler for
them through our partner ecosystem. We have
the largest partner base in the country. Our
cloud-ready partner base dwarfs the
combination of partners that many of our peer
groups would have. We have continued to
expand that in the country and will go to all
parts of India geographically.
You have set up data centres in India, and in
light of data protection Bill in India, how are
you looking at the regulatory side of data in
India?
On the data centre side, we believe that the data
capability will need to be more and more
geographically dispersed around the world
because every country would want — not just
for reasons of performance, but also for the
reason of security, privacy and trust — to have
their data within their national boundaries.
Today, we have 104 data centres around the
world in 54 regions that we call as cloud
regions. We created three data centres in India
many years back. That is a reason why we have
seen the growth we have seen in India.
What are the focus areas and priorities for
Microsoft right now?
Digital transformation remains the bedrock of
our global story. We’ve done the same in India
as our strategy is to empower every person,
every organisation on the planet.
The first thing is the modern workplace.
Our Workplace 365 makes everyone use
Windows Office and enterprise mobility to
harness the data that is important for them.
Second part is how you harness the data of
your organisation for your own productivity.
That is where our Azure story comes together
on the intelligent cloud. From public to hybrid
to private cloud, even Azure Sphere — a small
A NUMBER OF UNICORNS MIGRATE TO AZURE
EITHER PARTLY OR COMPLETELY. THE REASON:
THEY’RE CONVINCED THAT MICROSOFT IS NOT GOING
TO COMPETE WITH THEM
STRATEGY
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may be competing with them.
We started working on roughly around 50
unicorns or companies that were likely to be
unicorns. We took them as the first targets about
microcontroller which sits inside any two years back and we have had tremendous
kind of device — to have secure data success with all 50 of them on the Microsoft
transmission. cloud story. It’s now extending into the wider
Security, trust and productivity startup ecosystem.
are the basic tenets on which we
create the cloud infrastructure. Where does GitHub fit into this scheme of things
Third part is business and how is LinkedIn being integrated into
applications. Not likely to be from a Microsoft?
single tech platform,which is where Microsoft’s focus is about creating communities
the Dynamics 365 comes in, allowing of people, our focus has been on empowering
you to plug third party applications and organisations. The LinkedIn acquisition nearly
translate data. three years ago was thought of at that point as
We are helped in India by the fact that we’ve not really aligned with Microsoft portfolio, but
been here for over three decades and have now everybody says we were a perfect match.
made tremendous investments in the country. You look at LinkedIn, it has remained a
We are more than 10,000 people, working on a completely independent in the last
variety of assets we have on the ground, two years in the way they have
including front-end sales and marketing, continued to build their own
engineering, research, services and business model, it’s quite
centres of excellence, data centres and unique. That’s what our
cybersecurity engagement centres. leaders have already said
about Github also that it
How is the Azure (cloud) business will continue to build
shaping up? what is core to Github-
It is very consistent with what is building communities of
happening globally. Almost all CIO software developers.
surveys indicate that a very large
proportion of CIOs are either using or More on www. business-
planning to use Azure. standard.com
In the Indian context, the best example
would be the unicorns and startups. A lot of
them may have started on a different cloud
platform, not Azure, but over the last 24
months, we have seen a number of them
migrate to Azure either partly or
completely. The reason is that
they’re convinced that
Microsoft is not going to
compete with them.
We are not going to
enter into business areas
that they are doing right
now. Our model is to
support enterprises to
achieve more.
Today a startup
may be working with a
company as a cloud
provider, and the
next day a different
part of the cloud
company
51
 STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com

fund social (advocacy) initiatives to inform and reform public policy.

GUEST COLUMN
Take the long and strategic view

Call to action
Move beyond the impulse to burnish your legacy by simply endowing a
building. Treat your philanthropy as you do other investments, by:
Developing a thesis that is enduring, gets sharper through sustained
analysis, and evolves/adapts over time, in response to market/industry
signals
How India’s new philanthropic titans can tackle  Crafting a philanthropic portfolio that includes clusters of grants/invest-
challenges while giving it back ments that can be monitored consistently for valuable insights about
“social” return on investment.

Capitalise on data and use it to drive decision-making

T
he good news: Philanthropic funding from pri-
vate individuals has surged in India over the
past five years, growing at 21 per cent per year,
according to a recent Bain report. The growth of the
economy and the quantity of ultra-high net worth
players offer tremendous promise. The less-good
news: A 4 per cent decline in large gifts over the same
period from the super-wealthy. We’ve seen a similar
MICHAEL K. ALLIO blossoming of private philanthropy in the US, and
Director, The RI it’s changing both the complexion and the tenor of
Foundation philanthropic giving.
What’s holding Indian titans back? Perhaps it’s
the daunting challenge of where to begin? Some of the most exciting devel-
opments in the new philanthropy are powered by applying the private sec-
tor toolkit to tackle public sector/community challenges. Gearing up to
give back at a significant scale? Here are some ideas to consider:
New philanthropy designs data-capture and impact evaluation into grants,
and values evidence that reveals how programmes perform, for at least
two reasons:
 To better assess what’s working, what’s not, and why.
 To shift the focus from “inputs” and activities (such as number of
meals served or children treated) to outcomes and impact (number of
children achieving academic competency and advancing or number of
deaths avoided).
Dare to be humble
Capital and derring-do alone do not qualify or arm you to blithely solve
entrenched, complex social problems: Even Gates admitted that his initial
$2 billion plus bet on education reform was off-track, and course-corrected
his strategy, as did Mark Zuckerberg following a hasty $100 million bet
on education reform in the city of Newark that failed to take root.

Drive for leverage to generate a “social” return of investment from
the start
New philanthropy is far more open to collaboration in the quest to amplify
impact. This collaboration takes the form of:
 Partnering with other funders and other stakeholders to amplify and
concentrate the flow of resources directed to a given challenge.
 Deploying capital more broadly to propel change: Beyond just providing
grants to organisations for programmatic interventions, new philanthro-
pists are commissioning technical consultants to garner insights and data,
Dare to be creatively disruptive
You’ve earned your fortune by challenging norms, taking risks, experi-
menting, and seizing opportunities. Bring that to your philanthropy, by:
 Convening and catalysing unlikely bedfellows, from a range of sectors,
spurring them to collaborate differently, across boundaries
 Deploying new forms of capital, beyond programmatic grants
Allio is a practical strategist and a former Deputy Director at the Gates Foundation
in Seattle

STATSPEAK
A new report titled “5G consumer potential: daily basis. This study is representative of the Important expectations from a 5G
Busting the myths around the value of 5G for opinions of 1 billion smartphone users
consumers” tries to address some of the globally, claims Ericsson which conducted it.
subscription plan
(% of respondents)
doubts around potential 5G adoption and
utility. For the study, quantitative data was Reasons for switching fixed Consistent high speed
collected from 22 countries. Over 35,000 online broadband provider 49
interviews were held with people aged 15–69 (% of respondents) New application and services
in Australia, Brazil, China, India, the UK and 43
Too expensive
the US among others. All respondents are
smartphone owners and use the internet on a 38 Trusted network (protection from attacks)
Lower speeds than advertised 36
34 Discounted 5G devices
Unreliable connection e.g. VR headsets, AR glasses
23 32
Poor customer service
Sharing of 5G data between devices and users

80%
22 31
Bundled TV not good value for money
Higher volume of mobile data
22
Same provider as for mobile wanted 30
Interested in a 14 Service-based pricing with
5G home wireless Relocating guaranteed speed tier
broadband offering to 13 29
replace or supplement their Other No binding contracts
existing home broadband 23
4

50% Among early 5G

adopters say they
are willing to pay 32
60% Say 5G-
connected
home robots
40% Agree that 5G internet
connectivity in the car will be
as important as fuel efficiency
50% Global consumers who
believe that smartphones
will still exist but we will all
per cent more for 5G services will be a status symbol and engine power in the next 5 years be wearing AR glasses by 2025
Source: An Ericsson Consumer & Industry Lab Insight Report, May 2019

52

MY FAVOURITE CAMPAIGN
A long-lasting
twinkle
MY TAKE
The ad took a relatively unknown brand and
made it iconic
BRAND: Volkeswagen
YEAR OF LAUNCH: 1950s
AGENCY: DDB
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR
Which is your favourite campaign and why?
It’s definitely the Volkswagen launch
campaign in the United States in the late 1950s
by Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). They had ads
like Think Small (Beetle). With that
Volkswagen campaign, William “Bill”
Bernbach and Halmut Krone set the entire
tone for Volkswagen which exists even today.
On what parameters did you base your choice?
I believe Bill Bernbach fostered a creative
revolution in the US with this ad. A lot of good
work had been done in automobile advertising
till then such as David Ogilvy’s famous Rolls
Royce campaign but Bernbach took it to
another level of subtlety and he said that you
don’t have to hit the consumer on the head
with a hammer, you can persuade the
consumer using wit, charm, subtlety and
humour and surprise him.
It was also one of the first ads for
Volkswagen. Part of this campaign was the
Think Small advertising. Now in a country
where the norm was having these huge Impalas
and Chevrolets, came this little car. It was
revolutionary as it was a German car released
just a few years after the Second World War with
a so-called ugly shape but they made that
unusual shape into something cute and the
choice of the 1960s flower power generation in
STRATEGY
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the era of love and peace and
happiness. It and other vehicles
like the Volkswagen van became
the cars in which musicians and
other artistes would travel during
the Woodstock. So they became
iconic. So the entire hippie
culture revolved around the
Volkswagen van. So they took an
unknown foreign brand from
nowhere and made it iconic. Even
today, every Volkswagen ad has a
criterion that it must lead to a RAJEEV RAJA
twinkle in the eye. Not banana Founder & Soundsmith
peel humour but a subtle twinkle. BrandMusiq
What do you think was the key
idea the campaign was trying to drive home?
It was an amazing example of building the
intangibles of a brand. The fact that it all
became part of the Volkswagen brand image is
the difference between that campaign and the
other one-off campaigns that keep you
engaged but don’t build a brand in people’s
eyes and minds and hearts. The big idea was
“small is good”.
Do you remember the campaign winning
any advertising awards?
Do you think these awards serve any
purpose?
Back in the day, I am sure it must have won a lot
of awards because it just burst on to the scene
53
and blew everyone away. It was
also very grounded advertising.
That campaign sold more
Volkswagens than possibly any
other campaign. So it wasn’t just
clever creative for the sake of
awards but it was something
that got more cars on the road
and also won awards. That’s the
best example of the power of
advertising. Narrative
overpowering the brand was
not the case here. Because if you
go through the ads, there were
not just cars but also
information about how the cars
are built, German efficiency,
how much trouble went into those cars and so
on.
You spent decades in advertising before
moving on and setting up BrandMusiq which
specialises in creating audio identities for
brands. Did the Volkeswagen campaign
inspire any of your work?
I had the good fortune of handling the
Volkeswagen launch in India. I remember the
talking newspaper and other innovations for
that. While I wouldn’t like to talk about those
but they were inspired by some of the great
work done in the 1960s.

Transforming
performance
How a clutch of companies are changing the way
performance is assessed, improving engagement
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR
W
hen Adobe adopted a process of con-
tinuous performance management
ditching its annual appraisal process
in 2012, it set off a whole rethink of the process
of employee appraisal across the globe. The
US multinational took some years to embed
the new approach into its work culture, but it
paid off handsomely with voluntary turnover
decreasing by 30 per cent within a couple of
years of introducing the system of “check-ins”
and “frequent feedback”.
STRATEGY
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While Indian firms took some time to
embrace the system, most IT companies have
moved towards a continuous performance
management process, replacing the
annual/half-yearly appraisal cycles and more
importantly, the bell curve method that
focused largely on keeping talent in perform-
ance baskets. The adoption of a continuous
system helps in better monitoring of company
goals, arrest attrition rates and build trans-
parency, say experts and companies.
Business Standard spoke to Infosys, Tech
Mahindra and Accenture India, among a
54
handful of other technology firms to under-
stand their experiences since the switch. Each
of these companies is at a different stage of
the transition but all agree that quarterly or
short-term feedbacks — instead of waiting for
an entire year to discuss employee perform-
ance — help both the companies and their
employees carve out a path for their long-term
goals.
All three have found that a short-duration
performance management system helps them
identify and fix the shortcomings of each indi-
vidual resource instead of merely hanging the
Sword of Damocles over the heads of non-per-
formers. While ratings in a different form still
exist, these companies say they are even will-
ing to go on to the extent where rewards or
bonuses are not hard-coded to an employee’s
rating.
“One factor that made this inevitable was
the exit of top performers. The younger gen-
eration has less tolerance for not being recog-
nised on time. Earlier in the beginning of the
year goals were set and only at the end of the
year, those were discussed. In the continuous
cycle, your goal settings are reminded to you
in the monthly meetings. So it is not just to
pass on the scorecard to you but also to build
on a lot of transactional meetings to discuss
the input-to-output on a monthly basis,” says
Ajay Shah, vice-president and head-recruit-
ment services, Teamlease.

VISION, APPROACH & OUTCOME
What a switch from annual appraisals to continuous performance management and
feedback means for these companies
Infosys (iCount)
 Better talent retention
 Increased employee
satisfaction with the
performance
management process
(from 41% in FY18 to 49%
in FY19
 97% of employees have
indicated that they had
an effective review
conversation with their
Managers as part of the
performance cycle (Sep
2018)
 Achievements can be
updated by sending them
via email to the
performance
management system
rather than filling the
form repeatedly
STRATEGY
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Tech Mahindra Accenture in India
 Creating a holistic
 Continuous and real
time feedback will view of a person’s
help managers to potential by also
understanding
better observe and
distribute workload their aspirations,
amongst associates strengths, skills and
demonstrated leadership
 Better
behaviour
understanding of
 Creating a dynamic set
their KRAs resulting in
higher quality of priorities in
of work performance
achievement tool
 Employees no
(accessible on a laptop or
longer interested in
mobile device) that reflect
the annual reviews
the 3-5 most important
and do not like
areas of focus for the next
the wait
3-5 months
 Continuous short
 Understanding the
cycles of feedback can
teams’ collective
revitalise a workforce
strengths, priorities, and
levels of engagement
55
In the IT ecosystem, this switch is catching
up and individual employee development is
a common thread. Talking about Infosys’
iCount performance management pro-
gramme which was introduced in 2016, the
company’s executive vice-president and
group head of human resource development,
Krishnamurthy Shankar, says such a system
allows the employee to record her achieve-
ments on a milestone basis instead of looking
back only once. “Additionally, a continuous
mentoring and development cycle is rolled
out. For example, if I am the employee and I
am writing in the iCount that these are my
strengths and these are my weaknesses, these
are one or two things that I need to work on,
then the boss will have a say and based on
that a development plan is prepared,” says
Shankar.
On the reward and recognition side, too,
there is flexibility, says Shankar. “It’s not that
someone with a good rating will get a hundred
per cent bonus because your boss can also
make your bonus go up and down depending
on how he or she feels about your perform-
ance. There is a broad range of rewards and
performers will be rewarded according to
those. Of course, there are oversight mecha-
nisms in place — for example if someone with
a good rating is getting zero bonus, we don’t
let it pass.”
Shankar refers to some parameters (see
box) which have improved and adds that in
the past, when people quit, many identified
lack of performance monitoring as a reason,
and that percentage has come down drasti-
cally.
Tech Mahindra is a slightly late adopter of
a the contuinuous performance monitoring
system. Harshvendra Soin, chief people offi-
cer, Tech Mahindra, says, “While our perform-
ance management was twice a year till last
year, we are exploring an online real time feed-
back mechanism using Artificial Intelligence
(AI) for all our associates this year.” He adds
that Tech Mahindra’s focus as a company is
on continuous improvement of its associates
and “providing feedback at the end of the year
does not align with that”.
The company, however, does not divulge
details on the AI-enabled system it is getting
in.
Accenture says it uses the Gallup
StrengthsFinder assessment to help its people
understand their natural talents and how to
apply them. “We enable each person with the
ability to create a dynamic set of priorities in
our performance achievement tool (accessible
on a laptop or mobile device), that reflect the
three-five most important areas of focus for
the next three-five months. They are measur-
able, clear and specific and are aligned with
the goals of the team,” says Rohit Thakur,
managing director and lead human resources,
Accenture in India.
More on www.business-standard.com

Hotstar extends the superhero
narrative to the ICC World Cup
A band of local superheroes, humour and a facility for social viewing make up
the OTT player’s pitch for the digital viewer
The campaign is aimed at millennial audiences, believed to make up the core viewership on the platform
URVI MALVANIA
S
tar India’s video streaming platform
Hotstar is looking to keep the momen-
tum going from the recently concluded
Indian Premier League into the ongoing ICC
World Cup, for viewership numbers and
advertisers. In a new campaign released last
week, it has stuck to its past brand narrative,
using superheroes to drive home a popular
feature that allows for communal viewing on
its app. Advertisers including Amazon, CEAT,
Uber Eats, a sports drink from the Royal
Challenge stable, Acko, and ICICI Lombard
have already signed on for the tournament
and in the coming weeks, Hotstar hopes more
will join the list, as viewership numbers
expand and the big teams clash with India.
Varun Narang, chief product officer,
Hotstar, says, “Our success in the IPL 2019
in terms of viewership and reach is a testa-
ment to the platform’s superior standard of
live sports streaming. Over the years,
Hotstar has constantly raised the bar of tech
innovation, proving its mettle at handling
the immense scale and traffic seamlessly.
With the ICC World Cup 2019, we aim to con-
tinue delivering an uninterrupted and
immersive experience not just to the domes-
tic consumers, but to global audiences in
STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com
the US and Canada as well.”
Hotstar is aiming for the millennial viewer.
Its campaign #KoiYaarNahiFar (No friend is
too far) was first introduced during the Vivo
Indian Premier League (IPL) and uses a story-
line that treads the superhero trail, popular
with millennial and Gen X audiences. Hotstar
has also used a humorous storyline for the
campaign, hoping to cover all bases with its
core audience, known for its penchant for
comic capers and fantasy. With this it is also
hoping to convey the platform’s youth focus
to potential brand partners, eager to tap into
this demographic.
Indranil Das Blah, co-CEO, KWAN, says,
“Brands prefer digital over TV for one or more
of three reasons, cost, audience targeting, and
interactivity. Of course, all brands (advertising
on the World Cup) are banking on India to do
well. But for those on digital, Hotstar as a plat-
form offers a good option over TV if they want
to be innovative.” But not all brands can inno-
vate however and they are probably looking
to reach a young audience via Hotstar.
However, experts say that media and enter-
tainment companies may be erring in the way
they classify their audiences. Deloitte’s Digital
Media Trends Survey (October 2018) indicates
that the behaviours of Gen Z (ages 14–21), mil-
lennials (ages 22–37), and Gen X (ages 38–53)
56
are converging. Segmenting media consump-
tion habits based only on generational behav-
iour may not be the best way to reach one’s
audience. Demographic generalisations —
such as the assumption that people of the
same gender and in a similar age and income
bracket will consume products and services
the same way, and be engaged by the same
marketing ploys — are less accurate than they
used to be.
Hotstar is betting on its tech to grab the
attention of the young viewer. A social viewing
feature that lets friends share the experience
while watching the match separately, on their
individual devices, is the thrust of the cam-
paign.
The company said that Hotstar has regis-
tered a 2x growth in viewership for ODIs since
2018 and in an effort to sustain the growth, it
is streaming the World Cup in six languages.
The recently concluded IPL brought in more
than 300 million unique users, it claimed.
The platform also witnessed a 74 per cent
increase in watch-time as compared to 2018.
The IPL also saw an overall 45 per cent growth
in non-metro viewership with some of the
highest growth in viewership coming from
cities like Coimbatore, Lucknow, Patna,
Ranchi, and Salem.

Saint-Gobain gets closer
to the customer
The float glass company is fast moving into the B2C space. Will it succeed?
T E NARASIMHAN
I
t is not uncommon to see businesses that
start out by focussing on selling products
or services to other businesses (B2B) to
harbour ambition to eventually sell direct-
ly to the end user. Going straight to the
end consumer — or B2C — makes immense busi-
ness sense. You can get immediate feedback from
the buyer, sell at a potentially higher profit mar-
gin, and have more control over the way you
interact with the target audience. All this is, how-
ever, easier said than done. The entire organisa-
tion and its various processes have to be changed
to face and satisfy the new target audience.
Can Saint-Gobain manage that transition?
The $47-billion, three-century old French float
glass major Saint-Gobain, which has been pres-
ent in India since 1996 when it acquired a major-
ity stake in Grindwell Norton, is looking to
increase its turnover three-fold, from the current
~7,000 crore or so, over the next decade in India.
To achieve this, moving closer to the end cus-
tomer is imperative, it reckons. The Indian oper-
ations, which contributes hardly 1 per cent of the
global revenue, will be the group's main engine
for growth going forward and this market will
also be developed as a hub to cater to demand
from other emerging countries across the globe.
“We see immense opportunity in India to use our
expertise in sustainable building solutions to
enhance human habitats,” says Pierre-André de
Chalendar, chairman and CEO of Saint-Gobain
Group.
Saint-Gobain has had a rather long history in
the country. Its manufacturing footprint in India
was registered in the year 2000 with a new facility
to manufacture float glass at Sriperumbudur,
near Chennai. Later it expanded the production
capabilities to Rajasthan, Gujarat and is now look-
ing to set foot in Andhra Pradesh. Till now, the
company has invested ~7,500 crore in the country.
Today 95 per cent of company’s local sales are of
products manufactured at Indian plants.
The company claims that it manufactures 50
per cent of the total quantity of float glass made
in the country while the other half is produced
by four other players. The company’s share in
the float glass exported from here is even higher,
a whopping 90 per cent. Today the market for
float glass in India stands at upwards of 2 million
tonnes, growing at around 7-8 per cent annum.
The company has a significant presence in the
B2B segment already. “We are just about begin-
ning to address the B2C segment. It is, however,
a long journey and digital is going to be a big
help,” says B Santhanam, managing director,
Saint-Gobain India.
The company’s B2C strategy will rest on a few
factors. Besides developing readymade products
that buyers can pick up off the shelf, the compa-
ny will also have to train its people in dealing
STRATEGY
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The company has a significant presence in the B2B segment already. It claims that it manufactures 50
per cent of the total quantity of float glass made in the country, and has a 90 per cent share of exports
with consumers and in finding out what they
really want and offer customised solutions. “If
the value chain is not improved, there is no point
on developing a product in the B2C space,” says
Santhanam. In Saint-Gobain’s case, the value
chain includes contractors, architects, fabricators
among others. Santhanam notes that in a win-
dow, for instance, the contribution of glass to the
overall cost is less than 10 per cent. The bulk of
the expenses go into labour, equipment and so
on. So a big focus for the company will be training
people down the chain to reduce wastage and
keep costs under control.
The company will use digital tools to train
engineers and architects. It has also tied up with
25 diploma institutions across Tamil Nadu,
Gujarat, Maharastra and Rajasthan to run pro-
grammes on processing, fabrication and instal-
lation of glasses. For engineers it will have a sep-
arate programme. It has also tied up with the
National Programme on Technology Enhanced
Learning. India is the first market where the com-
pany is developing and testing out its develop-
CLEAR VIEW
The key factors driving
Saint-Gobain’s B2C strategy
DEVELOPING READYMADE products that
buyers can pick up off the shelf
TRAINING ITS MANPOWER on how to deal
with consumers and find out their needs
to offer customised solutions
OFFERING BOUQUET solutions for building
exteriors and interiors by bunching other
building materials with glass
57
ment modules. Digital technology will help the
company connect the dots and create a network,
consisting of service providers who will address
specific customer requirements. In something
that has become par for the course, customers
can now place orders, track status, receive ship-
ment notifications, register complaints among
other activities.
The other plank of its B2C strategy will be offer-
ing bouquets to consumers. Besides glass, the
group is also into building materials including
gypsum, roofing products, tile fixing mortars and
the like. The company hopes to bunch its prod-
ucts to offer “solutions” for the building and con-
struction industry, says Santhanam. “We want to
be a complete solution provider and this could
be done by combining glass, gypsum, other mate-
rials and electronics to offer innovative solutions
for building exteriors and interiors,” he says.
Saint-Gobain claims 50 per cent of Indian
consumers or one in two people recollects the
brand as one of the top three in construction
building materials. With such high recall, mar-
keting to the retail buyer won’t be a big challenge,
the company reckons.
India is a key market for Saint-Gobain. While
its revenue contribution is small, its contribution
in product development, application innovation,
and trying out new strategies is significant, says
the company. With India as its innovation hub,
the company has been able to expand its services
in other emerging markets.
The company’s research centre at the IIT
Madras Research Park, Chennai, was set up in
2015-16 at a cost of ~150 crore with a talent pool
of over 100 scientists and engineers. Since its
inception, it has delivered over 60 new prod-
ucts, 65 patents and over 30 value-added prod-
ucts for business units.
More on www.business-standard.com

Coca-Cola is used as a term of endearment in a movie starring Kriti Sanon and Kartik Aaryan
Coca-Cola raps to
a Bollywood tune
The cola brand headlines the lyrics in a song-and-dance
routine in an upcoming romantic comedy, marks its spot in
popular culture
URVI MALVANIA
E
ven as cola brands are facing a back-
lash of sorts from health conscious
millennial consumers worldwide,
brand Coca-Cola finds itself straddling the
worlds of commerce and culture in the coun-
try. In a 2015
forthcoming film Luka Chuppi that is set to
release in March,the American brand is part
of a love song.
With this Coke joins a select list of labels
such as Zandu, Fevicol, Murphy, Twitter and
WhatsApp among others that have made the
transition from a product or service to a cul-
tural reference. Coke has been a part of
another movie (Gulaal, 2009) in the past but
it did not get an exclusive billing in that song
as it does in this one.
Not always is the transition—from a prod-
uct and service to a cultural marker—a
planned or welcome one, but it still reflects
an inflection point in the consumer-brand
journey, say experts.
For the brand, any reference is usually a
sign of its rising aspirational value in society,
be it a car or a drink or as the case has been
in more recent times, a digital app. Hence
even if the reference is not very flattering and
the association not bound by a legal contract,
advertisers usually welcome such inclusions.
STRATEGY
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mission; the brand owner jumped in to sue
the filmmaker and managed to extract rights
for usage of the film footage for brand pub-
licity,” says Ambi Parameswaran, founder,
Brand-building.com.
Another big look-out for brands is nega-
tive portrayal. Back in 2012, when the movie
Barfi! used Murphy Radio in a song, even
though the brand was no longer in business,
the trademark owners objected for it was
used without their permission and alleged
that the song showed the brand in poor light.
“The inevitable pitfall is a negative portrayal.
But then you win some, you lose some,”
Goyal said. He believes that brands can really
do very little if they are represented in a neg-
ative manner. There are legal remedies but
injunctions are difficult to secure in Indian
courts. “My personal belief is that most usage
BRANDS IN A SONG
is playful and fun, and too much should not
be read into ‘negative’ usage,” Goyal said.
Year Brand Movie In fact it may well turn out to counterpro-
ductive, given that most brands target young
2019 Coca Cola Luka Chuppi
audiences who are also the biggest con-
Twitter and Tamasha sumers of such songs. Rappers and hip-hop
WhatsApp artists use brands with abandon too, in their
songs, and not always in favourable light. But
2012 Fevicol Dabangg 2 the songs are usually so popular that brands
2010 Zandu Balm Dabangg do not mind taking a jibe or two for high vis-
ibility and recall.
However, in cases where the brands have
“My old boss, Diwan Arun Nanda of been approached before using the logo or the
Rediffusion used to say that your advertising brand name, Parameswaran says that the
is really nothing till it becomes part of the onus to carry out due diligence is upon the
language and the culture of the people. If brand. As a brand manager on Burnol, in his
your brand name is being belted out multiple early days, he says he faced such a situation.
number of times every day on television as “The film maker wanted to paint the brand
part of a song and millions are tuned in to name on the wall where the heroine gets mul-
listen or see the same, as a brand you cannot tiple burns while cooking,” he said. But the
ask for more,” said Sandeep Goyal, founder agency refused for it was felt that the brand
Mogae Media. would turn out to be a laughing stock. And
However it does not always work out as a thus Burnol’s screen life ended even before
win-win formula. Back in 2010, the Salman it could begin.
Khan-starrer, Dabangg, featured the brand
Zandu Balm in the lyrics of its song Munni
Badnaam hui. It was one of the biggest hits
of the year but the company took the produc-
ers to court. “I think it was used without per-
58

Shuttl steps
on the gas
With bigger shared bus service operators hitting the brakes,
here is how Shuttl hopes to keep going
SANGEETA TANWAR
O
la’s exit from the app-based bus aggrega-
tion business early last year was seen as a
prelude to the decline and exit of smaller
players in the segment. A year down the line, the
industry is grappling with the imminent scale-
down of operations by Bengaluru-based ZipGo.
It’s learnt that the company is contemplating sus-
pension of its service in a few select cities. While
these developments have cast a long shadow on
the future of the bus aggregation business, Shuttl,
the largest player in the market with 1,200 buses
on its platform, appears to be defying the naysay-
ers. The company is now present in multiple
cities having completed 20 million rides in
January this year. It’s competing in the segment
with players like Hoppr, rBus and Cityflo.
If a big player like Ola with deep pockets found
it difficult to crack the market, how is a relatively
smaller player like Shuttl preparing to face the
headwinds? Indeed, does it have what it takes to
survive the rough and tumble of ride sharing?
Amit Singh, co-founder and chief executive
officer, Shuttl, says the key to the company’s suc-
cessful ride till now has been the team’s single-
minded focus on the three pillars of the business
— efficiency, reliability and scalability. “With lim-
ited infrastructure supporting the transportation
needs of people, there is a great trade-off between
comfort and affordability. However, the moment
one provides a user an assured seat and a direct
route to her destination, we get the solution to
address that trade-off. So, our fundamental job
is to match demand with supply,” says Singh.
Given the infrastructure constraints, last mile-
connectivity is a key demand of people in cities,
both big and small. “The new generation of cus-
tomers seeks mobility more than ownership.
Eventually, private vehicles will account for a
smaller share of kilometres driven worldwide as
a growing number of users adopt ride-hailing
and car-sharing services,” says Ashish Pandey,
managing director for automotive, industrial
equipment and travel, Accenture India.
Accenture’s global research shows that by
2030, revenues from manufacturing and selling
vehicles which is currently estimated at ^2 tril-
lion will be only marginally higher than what
they are today, and that the profits from car sales
60,000:
Average
CLOCKING daily ridership
MILES 1,200: Buses
in the fleet
STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com
right. This includes being precise with variables
like buses stopping at the designated pick-up
points on time, ambience (working air-condi-
tioner), cleanliness etc right.
As urban infrastructures become smarter and
better connected — with 5G on its way and intel-
ligent sensors becoming mainstream — intelli-
gence will become more pervasive, rather than
isolated, say experts. “Edge computing in and
around the vehicle will create new flows of data
and information to enrich AI algorithms. Internet
of things will give drivers continuously enhanced
experiences, from traffic jam-free journeys, to
smart vehicle charging and even the opportunity
to allow others to seamlessly share their vehicles,”
says Pandey.
That said, getting the unit econom-
will even shrink, from approximately ics right would be key to survival. While
^126 billion to ^122 billion. By contrast, deciding on its pricing structure, the
revenues from mobility services are company takes into account the cost
projected to soar to almost ^1.2 trillion that an average consumer incurs with
by 2030, with profits reaching as much the available mode of transportation
as ^220 billion. covering home-mile, middle-mile and
That is the future Shuttl is looking office-mile. For example, middle-mile
forward to. Established in 2015, Shuttl is cheaper with commuters having the
is leveraging technology to address the option of using metro and bus. The
need to move people efficiently and home mile turns out to be the most
affordably. At the moment, the focus is “Technology expensive where one ends up paying
on deepening its network and introduc- allows for deep ~30 for an auto even for covering a dis-
ing more buses on the road. Currently, learning and tance of one to two km. Using these
it runs 1,200 buses and clocks in 60,000 helps us meet pricing matrices as benchmark, Shuttl
rides every day. In 2018, Shuttl rolled consumer needs” has priced its daily two-way services at
out its services outside Delhi covering ~90 or so. It also offers monthly sub-
cities like Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, AMIT SINGH scription options to consumers to help
Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Co-founder & CEO, Shuttl them bring down the cost of travel if
Jaipur. they use the bus service regularly.
So, what is the fastest way to scale-up opera- The occupancy levels of buses also play a crit-
tions in multiple cities? ical role in running operations efficiently. The
“Our business is very demand responsive. It’s team targets occupancy levels of 80 per cent per
critical for us to identify the preferred time of bus. Being a shared service, passenger safety
travel of potential customers, determine and would be a key parameter on which Shuttl’s serv-
design optimum routes and stops along the way. ice will be judged. It uses in-house built apps
Here, technology allows for deep learning and wherein unique consumer identification codes
helps us meet consumer needs by getting the are issued to each traveller. Every time a user
product right.” boards a Shuttl bus, a buzzer rings out and the
Shuttl’s in-house technology team comprising driver concerned sees a right mark or cross mark
100 members focuses on developing machine on the driver app, ensuring that only an authentic
learning and artificial learning (AI)-based solu- user is boarding the bus.
tions to get the service-related part of its offering
35%: Women 12: Number of cities it operates $34 million: Funding
commuters in (B2B plus B2C services) till date; investors include
730: Total operational ~350-6,500: Cost for pass Amazon, Sequoia Capital
routes (B2B plus B2C depending on periodicity
& Lightspeed India
Partners
services) (5-90 days)
59

With experience centres inside its stores and a new loyalty programme, the brand is looking to engage more deeply with millennial customers
Fabindia battles for
loyalty amidst clutter
To counter the growing clout of indie labels, one of the oldest ethnic fashion brands looks to
reward the faithful, enhance the purchase experience
T E NARASIMHAN
I
n what is one of the fastest growing seg-
ments in the fashion category, ethnic wear,
Fabindia was once the only big brand with
a pan-Indian presence. However in the age of
e-commerce and social media marketing, it has
been caught in a storm of home-grown brands
and private labels from big retailers. So, in its
quest for relevance and appeal, the brand is tak-
ing a close look at its relationship with cus-
tomers, offering them loyalty benefits and a
better in-store experience.
It has to start with set up experience centres
in some stores. This includes a café and a design
studio, in addition to the regular fare of clothes,
organic food and furniture. Viney Singh, man-
aging director, Fabindia said, “The aim is to
provide a highly engaging experience that
builds a lasting relationship with our cus-
tomers.” In this way, he hopes to increase the
number of opportunities that the brand and
customer have, to engage with each other.
Driving the huge focus on the customer is a
sharp increase in the perceived potential of the
category. Ethnic wear (including sarees and tra-
ditional suits/fusion wear) accounts for a dom-
STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com
inant 74 per cent share of the women’s apparel
market and is valued at $14–16 billion. It is grow-
ing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate)
of 8 per cent and is expected to reach $27 billion
by 2025 according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC) report in 2018. The market is still highly
unorganised but organised ethnic wear pene-
tration is expected to reach 33 per cent by 2020,
the report said.
Given the gold rush, Fabindia is keen to
leverage the brand’s long association with the
market (it turns 60 next year) and ride the
expected upswing in favour of branded ethnic
wear. One step is expanding the circle of expe-
rience stores—it has just launched its ninth in
New Delhi-NCR and by the end of this fiscal is
planning to open 12 such stores, said Karan
Kumar, chief brand and marketing officer,
Fabindia. Currently the company has around
300 stores across 100 cities.
By doing this, Kumar believes, the brand is
building on its core strength and that lies in
brick-and-mortar. However he hastily points
out, this is not to say that the brand is not paying
attention to the digital marketplace. Nearly four
per cent of its revenue currently comes from
this channel currently. But Singh added, for a
60
brand to get high recall in a crowded market-
place, the store experience is critical.
Brand consultant, CEO Bijoor Consults
Harish Bijoor said that the company is clearly
looking to revive the joy of physical shopping.
“It is also a way of saying that e-commerce is
not experiential while physical stores are.”
While the physical experience is important,
the brand believes that it is also time to offer its
old faithfuls the benefits of a long association.
Its newly launched loyalty programme. Program
Fabfamily offers incentives on purchases (dis-
counts, special offers, exclusive events and so
on) offline and online.
This is its first loyalty programme. Unlike its
rivals, Fabindia has never had a rewards or incen-
tive scheme for shoppers. Do loyalty programmes
really keep customers coming back for more?
Does it create brand stickiness? Not so much said
Bijoor. “But the point is that it could keep 6-8 per
cent of the clientele coming back. It is a hygiene
factor today,” he added. Loyalty programmes
serve another purpose too. It helps keep a close
watch on the customer through the data she gives
up to the store. And if Fabindia wants to serve
the customer better, it has to know what she
wants.

MY FAVOURITE CAMPAIGN
Emotional treat
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR
Which do you consider your favourite
campaign and why?
My favourite television campaign is the
Google India campaign from 2013 which
featured Reunion and other films. I choose it
because it’s a human interest campaign, one
which is about people and their emotions and
it’s real and tangible. It touches people’s lives
and changes their perception. So that is why
there is a sense of permanency about the
campaign. It affects you. The Reunion is the
one where an old refugee from Karachi who
comes to Delhi and is missing his friend
based in Karachi. His granddaughter finds
the friend on Google and gets him to come for
his birthday. Then there is one about an old
man who is the first voter of this country and
is now 90-odd and is still voting. He thinks it’s
very important to vote and he is up in
Himachal somewhere. He thinks it’s very
important to vote and he is up in Himachal
somewhere. There are quite a few of them
which are exceptional and as a campaign, it
was very powerful.
What was the key takeaway from the
campaign?
The key idea was that Google enables you to
tell stories about unique people who would be
lost otherwise. Without Google, it would be
STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com
almost impossible to find relatives or friends
who are separated, people who are isolated in
little village and the like. Those stories should
come alive so the country also knows about
these people and sets examples by them.
Do you remember the campaign winning any
advertising award(s)? Do you think
advertising awards serve any purpose?
The purpose was to reward people who
created the advertisements but now awards
have become purposeless because the
agencies take the award and never give it to
the creatives. Now you get to hear “X and Y
creative team”. What does that mean? This is
because they are insecure, they feel that if a
young person wins an award for a brand, he or
she might get poached by someone else. So,
instead of securing the position for the
youngster, empowering him and telling him
this is where you grow and give them a plan
for that, they deny the credit. You are
obviously not creating the right environment
for him to stay.
Was there something else that could have
been done to make the campaign better?
I don’t think anything could have been done
to make the campaign better. Google has the
confidence to be able to pick its directors and
let them run with the idea without any
helicopter surveillance from the client.
61
MY TAKE
If a client could
make a movie, why
would he sit behind
a desk and try to
make the product
instead?
BRAND:
Google India
YEAR OF LAUNCH:
2013
AGENCY: Ogilvy &
Mather India
PRAHLAD KAKKAR
Ad film maker
Is less interference from the client the ideal
scenario... always?
The client is very important in the quality
of communication. For a creative person,
two and two is not always four, he aims for
22. If the client recognises a professional
and leaves the responsibility with him, the
professional will carry the responsibility
well to excel. But if you don’t have the
confidence in yourself or the executor, you
will then want to know everything that is
going on. That will kill the spontaneity of
that communication because it will become
something like the minutes of a meeting.
A good director takes the responsibility
of delivering a product which is far better
than what the client expects but there is a
risk. A client can come back and say that
the ad film was not according to the
storyboard that was agreed on and might
be nitpicking even if broadly, the product is
according to the storyboard. The story
remains the same but the director’s
approach and vision can be different. That
might make the clients insecure at times
and then they start to fiddle around with
the purity of the story. We have to
remember that if a client could make a
movie, why would he sit behind a desk and
try to make the product instead?
More on www.business-standard.com
- STRATEGY
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A long road ahead

Renault is hoping for an India turnaround with new launches and dealership
expansion. Will it succeed?
T E NARASIMHAN
TOP 5 PASSENGER CAR MAKERS
Manufactuer Domestic sales (units) Market share (in %)

I
n 2018, Renault India registered a
26.8 per cent fall in sales in a market that APRIL-MARCH APRIL-MARCH
grew by 8.4 per cent, according to a January 2017-18 2018-19 2017-18 2018-19
2019 Groupe Renault release. In most other Maruti Suzuki India 1,23,4571 1,28,7023 56.79 58.01
markets it posted stable to strong growth: In
Russia and Brazil, it logged 12-13 per cent growth, Hyundai Motor India 427,283 419,405 19.65 18.9
while in Europe it was around 1 per cent. Despite Tata Motors 135,430 131,387 6.23 5.92
the success of its compact SUV Duster, Renault
India’s revenue during the year fell 10.59 per cent Renault India 83,140 64,913 3.82 2.93
to ~6,904.3 crore against ~7,722.1 crore in the year- Volkswagen India 44,243 33,805 2.04 1.52
ago fiscal, according to media reports. Source: SIAM
India, evidently, has been a big disappoint-
ment for the company. Given this backdrop, the share of 5 per cent by 2022, up from 2.93 per cent which, in turn, will help in moving the volumes.
plans of its new India MD Venkatram currently. And he has a plan to meet that target. Its current numbers look like this. Renault India’s
Mamillapalle, who took over in March, appears He will focus on making differentiated products domestic sales between April 2018 and March
audacious to say the least. that will create new segments to avoid head-on 2019 stood at 64,913 units compared to 83,140
Mamillapalle has set himself an ambitious clash with entrenched players; the company will units during the same period the previous year
target: Break even in three years and grab market also focus on making the dealers profitable year (SIAM data). In three years the company

62
 STRATEGY
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hopes to take it to 150,000 units.
This will not be a cakewalk, and Mamillapalle
knows that. For one, the home market is begin-
ning to slow down. Overall retail passenger vehi-
cle sales in the country dropped by 10 per cent to
2,42,708 units during March 2019, compared to
2,69,176 units during same month last year,
according to Federation of Automobile Dealers’
Associations (FADA). For another, other manu-
facturers, too, have lined up an array of product
launches right after the Lok Sabha polls this year.
The company is unperturbed. India is not a
small country and passenger vehicle penetration
is low, which gives vehicle manufacturers enough
space to grow, says Mamillapalle. But there are
two major problems facing the company, he adds.
They pertain to its product life cycle — Renault
has had very few product upgradations, let alone
new launches since its India entry with first prod-
uct launched in 2011 — and then there is the
familiarity challenge. Two sides of the same coin
really, and to address this problem, Renault will
start with a slew of new products that will be
launched over the second half of this year and
next year, apart from giving facelifts to the Kwid
and Duster. Around five upcoming Renault cars
like Renault Kwid EV, Renault Duster 2020,
Renault Triber and Renault Arkana will be
launched in India in the coming months. Among
these five, there are two SUVs, two hatchbacks
and one MUV.
These models will help create new segments
and help the company double its sales, the com-
pany is confident. “We don’t have the energy or
the interest to attack Maruti or the other big boys.
BREAKEVEN STRATEGY
Product: Three new products in 2019-
20 to achieve the target of doubling
sales and attain a 5 per cent market
share
Guerrilla marketing: With an
aim to strike the consumer at a more
personal and memorable level
One team, one ambition: A
sharp focus on engineering,
manufacturing, suppliers as well as
dealers
Balance growth and
profitability: Focusing on making
dealer partners profitable
We will create our own segment. Let them chase
us, for which they would require at least two years
to bring out products,” says Mamillapalle.
It may be noted here that today, Renault’s
Duster, Kwid, Captur and Lodgy together address
only 24 per cent of Maruti’s overall portfolio.
Renault's new products will be designed, engi-
neered, developed and manufactured in India,
for India and India-like markets. “We will not
piggyback on global products to widen the net,”
says Mamillapalle, adding that the company has
a fair idea what the customer wants, but the chal-
lenge is to align its strategy with that expecta-
tion.
One of the other focus areas for Renault would
be communication. Mamillapalle says the way
to go is guerrilla marketing — keep spends low
while trying to maximise the impact. How? By
taking the consumer by surprise, making a deep
impression, aided by copious amounts of social
buzz. It will reach out to customers in conven-
tional and unconventional ways. Take Renault’s
hanging car installation at the Mumbai airport
which went viral in no time. This was inspired
by confectionery installations at global amuse-
ment parks. “At our scale we have to be low cost,
high impact. It is imperative to have continuous
conversations with customers, stakeholders and
target audiences, with apt story-telling and inte-
grative use of mediums,” he said.
Renault is growing its presence across tier II-
IV markets. It also running mobile showrooms
and workshops on wheels to reach a wider cus-
tomer base. The company has decided not to
increase the number of dealers, though it will
work towards increasing the outlet count through
the existing partners, focussing especially on rural
markets. Today, the company has around 120
dealers.
More on www.business-standard.com

63
 STRATEGY
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Customers want
intuitive solutions
Developers should spend time in converting their ideas into life rather than doing heavy
lifting on the infrastructure front, Jayakumartells Sangeeta Tanwar
The cloud market is crowded with
large technology companies such as
Amazon, Accenture, and NetApp,
taking the pride of place. How does
DigitalOcean hope to compete in a PRABHAKAR
market like that? JAYAKUMAR
Right from the beginning, our
Country director
objective has been to fill in the gaps DigitalOcean
in the cloud market by offering India
users intuitive and easy to use
solutions. When it comes to data
storage and security solutions, one of the key
challenges that we identified with regard to
existing cloud solutions is the complexity
involved. Our understanding of cloud is that
it has to be very intuitive which means that
developers should spend more time in
converting their ideas into life rather than
doing heavy lifting on the infrastructure
front.
Another challenge that we are committed
to addressing is developers’ concerns around
pricing. From a user perspective, clients want
the best performance at a given price. For
companies like us, it’s all about balancing
reliable, easy to deploy solutions with a better
price-performance bargain. A lot of the
established and big cloud providers are also
focused on enterprise solutions which means
that they need to have a large workforce to
deal with a particular problem. However, if
you are talking to a start-up or a small player,
they have limited resources and smaller
teams. This is another area where we step in
and offer complete infrastructure support
and project management handling.
What are the key trends unfolding in the
cloud space?
The move to adopt containers is a big
trend in the cloud space. As a technology
solution, containers help deploy software
applications, move data and the entire
networks quickly and reliably to a cloud-
supported environment.
For some time, organisations have been
talking about adopting a multi-cloud strategy
to work around a single-vendor lock-in
challenge. It’s no longer an option; it has
become a must-have approach for businesses
to scale-up.
Once businesses get into vendor lock-in,
the entire migration exercise becomes a huge
challenge. Containers help solve the problem
of migrating from the physical environment
to virtual. Earlier, people used to be sceptical
about security while considering migrating to
cloud. This is changing fast as they realised
that a lot of these concerns were just myths.
The new-age cloud solutions ensure that the
organisations’ security-related issues Our teams closely examine smaller
are well taken care of. Today, businesses’ network architecture, suggest
organisations are far more them the best security practices and help
comfortable with their regular them implement the solutions. We also help
applications as well as critical start-ups connect and pitch their business
application being hosted and moved plans to venture capital firms.
on public cloud.
You are also focused on creating
You have been working closely a strong developer
with start-ups. Is there a community…
perceptible shift towards By 2025, the estimated
cloud adoption? number of developers
There has been a sea change in the globally will be 100 million.
kind of companies that are being That’s as big an
built mostly in the start-up space. A opportunity that we are
few years ago, it was all about looking to go after.
building clones or what can be
described as a me-too business More on www.business-
model. Most start-ups in India were standard.com
trying to replicate and build on the
success of Silicon Valley companies.
Many of these did not take off and only a
handful succeeded. But today’s start-ups
are more conscious and committed to
solving local problems and are
moving towards customised
solutions and accordingly, their
requirements of cloud-led
solutions, too, are changing.
Also, unlike the Silicon
Valley companies, start-ups
and other businesses in
India look for additional
infrastructure and services
support and guidance as
they move from physical
infrastructure to cloud.
Indian companies tend to
look at some kind of
handholding while
migrating to cloud as
compared to companies
elsewhere.
You have a dedicated
programme, Hatch, for
start-ups to scale up,
righy?
We went through an
accelerator programme
which was beneficial and we
wanted to pass on the
mentoring and experience and
that is how Hatch happened. With
the aim of helping start-ups scale
up to be able to compete globally,
we not only give products to
promising start-ups under the
programme but also extend
technology mentorship to them.

64
 STRATEGY
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GUEST COLUMN

The last laugh in the long-run

Customer retention, rather than discount-led acquisition, will be the key to success

I
n the last two years, the battle between the cash-rich e-
commerce players has turned around from
customer acquisition to customer retention.
Marketplaces have started adopting huge cashbacks, promo
codes et al over and above discounts to retain valuable cus-
tomer base. Further, digital wallet players are getting trac-
tion from offline retail giants too to scale up sales and woo
customers. RAMAKANT
Although cashback has become the buzzword and is KHANDELWAL, XX
seen as an effective way for customer acquisitions vis-a-vis CMO, PAYBACK
discounts in today’s volatile or hyper-competitive market India
characterised by swift customer churn, brands need to look
at loyalty and rewards as a long-term sustainable strategy.
It will help keep focus on continuous customer engagement
and personalised experience for attaining customer retention and
building brand loyalty.
The practical reality of cashback is temporary gratification which
is short-term and involves purely transactional experiential behaviour.
With every e-tailer and brand going all out to woo customers, the
long-term way forward is to adopt well formulated customer relation-
ship or loyalty reward programmes to ensure repeat purchases and
thereby customer retention or stickiness.
Such loyalty programmes work on customer insights, apply busi-
ness and data intelligence to come out with the right personalised
shopping offers and deals for customers. Gift cards, frequent purchase
programme, point programme, rewards, offers, schemes, value added
services are all ways to strengthen the bond between the customer
and the brand. In long-term, loyalty programmes have helped thou-
sands of brands boost their sales and profits.
A successful loyalty programme thus will ensure new
customer acquisition and in keeping them for longer
period. Simultaneously, companies need to find new ways
to engage and reward existing customers. This will
encourage customers to remain on board and attract
further recommendations for the brand through social
media, word of mouth, effectively enhancing brand
recall and value.
Along with market dynamics, the ever-changing govern-
ment policies also play a key role in steering business strate-
gies, especially in consumer-centric sectors such as retail,
e-commerce financial services.. The recent policy changes
in e-commerce regulations announced by the government
with a focus on foreign-owned marketplaces have taken a
hit on the popular cashback and deep discounting practices of mar-
ketplaces to lure customers. This has forced big players to review
business models and think of novel ideas to work in line with regula-
tion aiming at fair play.
It is a basic fact that the implementation of loyalty programmes
directly results in a rise in sales automatically boosting revenues.
Remember, it is far more cost-effective to retain satisfied customers
than to consistently acquire new ones, as it can cost the company or
brand up to 25 times more than keeping the current ones.
Furthermore, existing customers spend 67 per cent more than new
customers. In short, customer loyalty really pays off — and customer
loyalty programmes end up paying for themselves.
With customers spoilt for choice owing to innumerable brands and
offerings out there, customer retention will be the key to success
rather than new customer acquisition.

STATSPEAK GROWING FAST

Euromonitor Sector(s) from which the respondents Where growth is most Where growth is
International were picked from (% of participants) expected to come from (%) least expected to
surveyed over come from?
100 senior
54 Private 5 Financial Innovating in new
83.1
sector (retail, products and services
leaders across
manufacturing,
services (retail
investment Increasingpenetrationin
26.5% M&As and
joint ventures
the private and
public sectors in
travel, banking, currentchannelsand 77.9
Southeast Asia
technology,
education)
insurance,
private equity) products 17.9% Exporting
to new
between 72.1 geographies outside
November 2018 5 Others Exporting to new
and February
25 Professional geographiesin Southeast 70.2 13.2% Southeast Asia
2019 to come up 11 increased
with its Public sector and other services (advertising Asia
65.6 investment in traditional
non-profit organisations agencies, market
“Southeast Asia Exploring new digital marketing and advertising
(government, trade research, HR
Business Leaders
associations) consultancies) Clusters where your top strategic priorities sit (%)
Report: Inside
Your Peers’ 2019
Executive 23 Where to play? 44 How to win?
Top three priorities for Southeast Asian Strategy execution
Agenda” report. Refine opportunities
This report
senior leaders in 2019 (%
records growth 71.7 59.8 8
expectations 25 What's How am I doing?
and factors
39.1 next? New Measuring
which these opportunities and tracking
leaders feel will identification performance
drive it. Growth Brand Cost-
building reduction Source: Euromonitor International

65

From ‘for sale’
to ‘for all’
OLX is undergoing a complete overhaul as part of a global
brand reform. Has it covered all the bases?
SNEHA BHATTACHARJEE
T
oday’s consumer no longer goes shop-
ping, but is shopping all the time and
everywhere. And in a truly global
online marketplace, competition is no
longer limited to local shops during regular busi-
ness hours, said a KPMG study.
OLX.in, which single-handedly created the
consumer-to-consumer (C2C) selling market seg-
ment in India, reckons that as a big opportunity.
A reason why it decided to diversify with gusto
after after almost 13 years in India. For starters,
OLX has acquired a job portal and launched a
chain of pre-owned car sales showrooms offline.
To make customers aware of its intentions, it has
also undertaken a rebranding exercise complete
with a new app, a sharp new logo and tagline.
All this will be supported by an advertising cam-
paign across television, print and digital in seven
regional languages.
Sushil Kumar, general manager, OLX India,
says a key focus area for the company is to inten-
sify customer-centricity by offering users a has-
sle-free platform. “Our research showed we had
to expand the portfolio of offerings to our loyal
consumers. Our new app will sharply target the
millennial population and offer everything she
wants,” he adds.
What does the recent acquisition of job portal
Aasanjobs and the launch of 50 CashMyCar
stores bring to the table? Since 2011, the firm has
aggressively targeted the “for sale” category and
very consciously developed a second-hand
goods vertical on the site. The buyout of
Aasanjobs resonates with that strategy. Says
Kumar, “We are looking to cement our position
in the jobs classifieds market in India. The blue-
grey segment in India is a 60 million workforce.
The acquisition will help us introduce more effi-
cient solutions to this segment given OLX’s mas-
STRATEGY
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KEY METRICS
Monthly active users
50 million
Monthly page views
6 billion+
Number of businesses
sive reach and scale.” on OLX: Over 70,000
The company’s joint venture Presence
with the Frontier Car Group to Across 4,000+ cities
foray into offline retail of pre- in India
owned cars will address the con-
venience-seeking customer who Key verticals:
needs a one-stop solution to sell Automobile, jobs, real
her pre-owned car. “OLX estate, mobiles
already has over 80 per cent
share in the pre-owned car market (online and
offline combined) in India and this acquisition
will enable us to strengthen our position. We aim
to expand our presence to over 150 outlets by
2021 across 40 cities,” says Kumar.
Kumar says that the offline stores for pre-
owned cars will mirror the growth of their online
platform. “Clearly, there is space for multiple
players in this market, but we are confident in
our strategy,” he adds. In India, 4 million pre-
owned cars (SIAM) are sold annually, which is
higher than the number of new passenger cars
which hit the road every year. The other players
include the likes of CarDekho, Carnation,
Cars24, Droom and Quikr Cars. Some major
players in the passenger vehicles market have
dedicated arms for used cars too.
Then there is a new ad with a snappy tagline
“set hai”. With 50 million monthly active users
already, the company aims to double the count
over the next 18 months. OLX’s new brand com-
munication reflects its new focus — the millen-
nials — “who are always on the move, seeking
for more choices and consuming more and more
content on their devices”. Remember, India will
“WE AIM TO EXPAND OUR CASH MY
CAR OUTLETS TO OVER 150 ACROSS
40 CITIES BY 2021 ” SUSHIL KUMAR,
general manager, OLX India
66
have 410 million millennials by 2020 (Morgan
Stanley). As millennials continue to enter the
workforce, their online shopping volumes are
expected to surge and even surpass the levels of
older generations.
Fast-growing competition, together with con-
sumer demand for richer seamless experiences
means that retailers need to rethink their strate-
gy. For many retailers, enhancing the online
shopping with technology such as augmented
and virtual reality is becoming at least as impor-
tant as offering personalised ordering, payment
and delivery options. To stay ahead of the curve,
the firm must hone its artificial intelligence (AI)
and machine learning (ML) capabilities.
Currently, it generates over six billion page views
every month and employs an array of technolo-
gies to make decisions faster based on the
pageview data. “We will leverage new ML tools
to iterate quickly on our products and offer more
customer-centric features to users,” says Kumar.
It has also spruced up the online platform.
Browsers will be able to see posts from far-flung
locations and not just posts in the vicinity; there
are more filters so that the content on the web-
site is more credible. Users can also report offen-
sive and spam content. “In addition,
there are real-time security tips for
buyers and sellers in the chat expe-
rience,” says Kumar. Other features
include voice messaging through
which users can quickly speak to
prospective buyers/sellers without
leaving the platform or sharing their
phone numbers, thereby ensuring
better privacy of their personal
details. “Customer-centricity plays
a key role since OLX is a peer-to-
peer marketplace,” says Kumar.
“Analytics is at the heart of our oper-
ations. Our teams track user behav-
iour on the platform and once we
have the data, we segment it further
to understand what users are actu-
ally talking about, the categories they are look-
ing for, the problems they are highlighting and
so on. We leverage this data to hone our capa-
bilities,” he adds.
N Chandramouli, founder, Trust Research
Advisory, says OLX’s move reflects rare confi-
dence. “Not many brands have the courage to
admit openly that it has changed because the new
generation did not relate to it in its old avatar,” he
adds.
All said, excellent customer support is the
number one loyalty-earning attribute for online
marketplaces. Can OLX ace the game?

McDonald's had closed over 160 restaurants in the north and east and has already reopened a handful with a limited menu
McDonald’s
comeback
challenge
After a short hiatus, the fast food chain is opening its
stores in a phased manner. Here are a few things it should
keep in mind
SNEHA BHATTACHARJEE
F
or many Indians who got their first
taste of a hamburger at a McDonald's
outlet, the shutdown last month of its
outlets in the north and the east fol-
lowing a protracted battle with Connaught
Plaza Restaurants, the entity that ran the
global giant’s operations in north and east
India, would have been a major disappoint-
ment. The good news is the brand will return
full throttle — some outlets opened with a
STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com
limited menu within 15 days of closure — in
a refurbished avatar in a few months, proba-
bly under the aegis of a new licensee partner,
say some reports.
India, one of the fastest-growing food serv-
ice market in the world, is crucial for the Oak
Brook, Illinois-based company, but its re-
entry will be far from a cake-walk. It’s just
like trying to find employment after dropping
off the job market for some reason — finding
the way back to a regular job is a mighty chal-
lenge, to say the least. The good thing is, the
67
firm has started opening its stores in a phased
manner; in that sense McDonald's hasn't been
off the market for too long.
So why are we saying a full-fledged return
won’t be easy? “It is not easy for an FMCG
brand to make a comeback if it has been out
of consumer’s reckoning for some time,” says
brand strategist and founder of brandbuild-
ing.com, Ambi Parameswaran. “You cannot
just bank on residual consumer salience to
create new demand,” he adds.
Plus there is the issue of keeping the
employees motivated. A protracted battle
between the owners and then closure of a
large number of outlets at one go might have
sent some very negative signals to many.
In any case, the going was getting tougher
for McDonald’s with every passing year. Not
just new competition, some old foes were nip-
ping at its heels. Take Domino’s Pizza, for
instance. In 2013, its local business left
McDonald’s behind to become India’s largest
fast-food brand. Around the same time, the
feud with its former partner, Vikram Bakshi,
scotched McDonald's India’s expansion plans
in the north.
Keep in mind that for any brand looking
to make a comeback in a market after a hiatus,
long or short, gaining the control it once
enjoyed can be cumbersome. Especially so in
a category that is fast growing and non-sticky
— in the sense that if the consumer doesn't
find the brand, she has no qualms moving to
the next one available — you simply have to
be present when the consumer wants you and
where she expects you to be. “For example,
soap brands like Liril and Cinthol have tried
many times to make a big-bang comeback,
but have met with limited success,” adds
 STRATEGY
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on the back of demonetisation as a trigger

and cashless behaviour as a sentiment,” adds
Bijoor. So the secret sauce is salience and
image recall. “Yardley managed to do that
with its deodorant, for instance. Colgate gave
fresh wings to a value-priced Cibaca.
Launched in the mid-seventies, Rasna came
back as a soft drink concentrate powder in
the eighties, at a time when the market was
dominated by carbonated soft drinks like
Thums up, Gold Spot and Limca. In the con-
sumer durable space, brands like Crompton
have made a good comeback after being out
of action for a period. I suppose a brand like
Sumeet mixer-grinder can still make a come-
back if it wants to, given the residual con-
sumer equity,” says Parameswaran.
Experts also say trust is a key element that
can revitalise a brand. But trust is as valuable
as it is brittle and enterprises "ought to be
careful not to junk that asset”, says Bijoor.
In sum, while putting together a comeback
plan a brand must “assess the mind and mood
of the consumer", as Shrenik Dasani, vice-
president, sparkling category, Coca-Cola
India & South West Asia, puts it. The brand
in question must not tie itself down in the
past. "The brand will have to let go of what
worked last time, and what did not. A com-
plete audit of the offering is important," he
adds. It has to be fresh and relevant and look
as fashionable and as real as possible.

GETTING BACK ON TRACK

Here’s a four-step guide to pulling off the perfect comeback
DON’T BLUFF: It is best to be honest about the reason for your time off the market.
Remember, people read newspapers and follow social media and every other channel
of information. And they have many. So it’s not a great idea to underplay the
problems — it never was.
DON’T LOSE TOUCH: If you are planning to come back to the market you just vacated,
stay in touch with it and the consumers that patronise your product or the category as
a whole. Update yourself with the latest trends and the technology relevant to your
functional domain.
KEEP THE FLOCK MOTIVATED: With turbulence all around there is a chance many
employees will be distracted and there will be resignations. Maintaining trust and
empowering the survivors is a sure shot way to minimise costs and realise the
expected gains.
HAVE A PLAN: If you are not thoroughly prepared, the return may not work out. So
before everything else, re-evaluate the brand’s potential and the needs and
demands of the consumers. What has changed in the interim? What can you do
better? A little planning always helps.

Parameswaran. Business Standard in 2018. What did it do in

Those who make a successful comeback
are often the ones that waste no time. For
instance, SpiceJet came back from the brink
in December 2014 when founder Ajay Singh
returned to take over the reins from Kalanithi
Maran of the Sun Group. The airline was shut
for just about a day to get its act together.
Another brand that made a tremendous
comeback after disappearing while it still had
almost 78 per cent of the category under its
belt was Maggi noodles. The June 2015 ban
on the product however turned out to be a
“blessing in disguise” for Nestle, the firm’s
chairman and MD Suresh Narayanan told
the 18 months that it was out of the market?
It relooked at strategy, built and launched
new products from scratch under the same
brand name, in the process keeping the
momentum going in the market.
“A come-back moment is a reality for every
brand,” says Harish Bijoor, founder, Harish
Bijoor Consults. While some need to stage a
comeback after experiencing flagging sales
or market share, some need to take a pro-
active pause to assess the market’s changing
dynamics. Fixing it before it’s broke, in a man-
ner of speaking.
“Look at PayTM. It made a big comeback

68

Google, YouTube lean in
on the learning culture
How-to videos and search strings are an indispensable part of the internet experience in
India, giving advertisers a unique opportunity to gain a digital edge
Source: Google Year in Search report, 2019
ROMITA MAJUMDAR
L
earning is to Google what sharing is to
Facebook, the one big differentiator for
Google and YouTube in the universe of
internet platforms. And this is the edge the
global giant holds over the rest, giving it lever-
age in the world of brands and advertisers.
“Indian consumers love video, and not just
for entertainment. They use it to search for,
learn about, review, and research products
before making purchase decisions,” said
Vikas Agnihotri, country director –Sales,
Google. Categories such as lifestyle, education
and business have shown 1.5x-3x growth in
the last two years, which shows how-to videos
are an indispensable part of the consumer life-
cycle.
People use YouTube to learn how to do
something, from “how to tie a tie” to “how to
be an Indian fashion designer” according to
YouTube. They turn to Google to search for
explanations around anything and every-
thing. In fact, 71 per cent of online video view-
STRATEGY
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ers go first to YouTube to watch videos to learn
something. According to Ipsos, 68 per cent of
millennials choose YouTube to learn some-
thing new.
For advertisers across categories — be it
pharma companies looking to push their over-
the-counter fare or a beauty company offering
a new shade of lipstick — these numbers are
a window in to the mind of the consumer. And
the search function thereby opens up a bou-
quet of opportunities. It lets them target their
communication, customise the offer and
reach the customer when the time is right.
According to Google’s Year in Search 2019
report, the number of searches from non-
metro areas is fast exceeding the metro
regions. Outside the big towns, people are
looking for products related to international
travel destinations, beauty and life insurance
more frequently than their counterparts in
the metros. The report also found that digital
hasn’t quite worked out for retailers, in the
sense that while users are learning and dis-
covering things online, there is still a need for
69
physical retail.
Ashish Mishra, MD, Interbrand noted that
the mainstream segments of a billion-plus
demography have a huge pent up demand.
“Demand is across professional growth oppor-
tunities through skilling and personal expres-
sion or indulgence realisations.
Understandably the former has a stronger
drive for the smaller towns while indulgence
and entertainment drives urban,” he said.
YouTube has used this insight to push itself
as a learning platform. In fact, an online
coaching centre is the top educational channel
in India with over three million followers and
over 30 live streamed videos every day. Its
poster boy for the learning space has been a
young railway porter who cleared a state civil
services exam by studying between jobs on
the platform. This is a big opportunity and
Mishra said, “Brands that can build purpose-
ful narratives that spawn real, relatable and
engaging content will build following and rev-
enue opportunities.”

Data enables relevance & context
Storytelling doesn’t have a leg to stand on in the absence of insight,
M A Parthasarathy tells Alokananda Chakraborty
With media fragmentation, people are getting
bombarded with content and advertisements
from all possible corners. In such a competitive
space, what is the right way to get your target
audience's eyeballs on your content?
The key elements of the strategy to get
eyeballs are relevance and receptivity. It is
critical to understand the consumers in a
sharper manner than ever before. What are
they consuming, when and why. Today there
is a plethora of data available from various
sources that gives us these insights into
consumers. Data around what people are
searching for, the content creators and
influencers they follow, the platforms on
which they consume the data, the nature of
interaction, and so on. This knowledge
empowers us to create content that’s most
relevant to our consumers — more
personalised, more topical and more credible.
It also helps us serve this relevant content to
consumers at a time and context where they
are most receptive to our message.
Which is more important, data
or content, to the future
of marketing?
While it may sound like a cliché, both are
equally important. A wonderful piece of
content may draw attention. But without the
right backing of data which tells us who to
target, when and in what context, it may not
result in actually moving the needle on brand
equity or business results. On the other hand,
we may have all the right data and insights, but
if that is not leveraged with powerful and
evocative storytelling that is in synch with the
brand, it will fail to make an emotional connect
STRATEGY
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What, according to you, are the top 3 mistakes
committed by organisations today in
leveraging digital marketing?
The biggest gap is in defining KPIs and
benchmarks for digital marketing activities.
With the ecosystem becoming so diverse —
video, search, social, native, influencer
marketing and ecommerce — it is imperative
to have an aligned view of what constitutes
success in what context. A related problem is
the lack of investment in understanding the
relationship between digital metrics and
business metrics. So agencies and marketers
tend to revert to trusted and proven traditional
media which is validated by econometric
studies. The final area which needs attention is
the creation of quality content that is
specifically designed for specific
environments. We need to invest in not just
repurposing, but actual re-creation of content.
With every brand incorporating the latest
technological advancements into their digital
media campaigns, what will help
organisations stand out and differentiate
themselves from the competitors in the long
run?
Technological advancements certainly give
companies and agencies a host of opportunities
or influence behaviour. to engage and delight consumers.
When the two are deployed in But success in the long run still
tandem, then we see real magic depends on how we use this
occur. Some recent examples from technology to address the basics of
Mindshare India which have won business.
global recognition are the work M A PARTHASARATHY We need to first leverage
done for the Lifebuoy “Adaptive technology to sharply identify the
Chief executive officer
Data Lighthouse” where infection- source of growth for the brands --
Mindshare South Asia
related data was obtained at a for instance, which cohort of
district level in near-real-time and consumers will drive the growth;
customised communication was served to where do they live.
consumers in those districts, and PepsiCo’s We then need to leverage technology to
partnership with the Rail Yatri app to target define the consumers better: What is their need
train travellers with customised food plus Pepsi state? What drives their behaviour in the
combinations. category? When are they most receptive to
communication and so on. Finally, we need to
How do you see the convergence of digital and leverage technology to create truly meaningful
TV playing out? and evocative brand experiences -– be it
Multi-screen behaviour of consumers is here through content, virtual or physical
to stay. The fluidity of content across screens experiences. Digital marketing is not just a
is increasing exponentially every day. We see media choice, it is a driver of business.
examples of content working across TV and Organisations need to leverage it in a holistic
digital screens, like the “No.1 Yaari” talk show sense across the purchase journey -- from
created for Diageo which was a major hit on brand building to creating intent to generating
TV as well as on a digital platform. At the same action and driving loyalty.
time we also see a lot of content repurposed
for the different environments — be it in Which area of the business do you see the
terms of duration, format most growth coming from in the next
or structure. three-five years?
One thing the digital medium enables, When we look advertising expenditure
which TV hasn’t been able to, is the ability to overall, we see digital spends growing at
target specific, addressable audience segments around 30 per cent which is more than double
based on behaviour (as opposed to pure that of the traditional mediums. This gives us a
demographic segments). But with new good indication of where the most growth will
advancements like programmatic TV on the come from. Within the digital space, we see the
horizon, TV should also give us to ability to maximum growth coming from the confluence
target such addressable segments. of data and content, in areas like programmatic
and performance marketing.
70

Hyundai Electronics
looks for gaps
The company aims to make inroads into the consumer
durables market in India by focusing on underpenetrated
categories
SANGEETA TANWAR
I
t is not easy to break into a market that has
more than two dozen players in the fray —
with a majority of them around for at least
a quarter of a century. A new entrant can either
hope to break through the ranks with technol-
ogy-led products or play the price card to dis-
rupt the market. As Hyundai Electronics, an
arm of Hyundai Corporation, makes its debut
in India’s ~1trillion (source: India Brand Equity
Foundation) consumer durables market, it
hopes to make the most of the strong technol-
ogy pedigree enjoyed by South Korean multi-
national. The company has rolled out a wide
array of products including television sets,
washing machines and refrigerators. In the first
phase of the launch; it plans to cover markets
such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan,
West Bengal, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha
in this leg.
The consumer durable market in India is
probably the most crowded globally. Global
behemoths like Sony, LG, Samsung and
Whirlpool dominate the high-end segment
while another dozen-odd brands crowd the
mid-to-lower end of the market. So is there
space one more player? What will Hyundai
Corporation do to swing the needle?
“There are a lot players in the market but
they are simply trading. Only a handful of
brands are engaged in meaningful R&D. There
is a gap in the market particularly in the tech-
nology-powered smart products space. We are
looking to tap these segments by offering con-
sumers products powered by the internet of
things and artificial intelligence,” says Akshay
Dhoot, chief executive officer (CEO), Hyundai
Electronics.
Hyundai Electronics sees immense head-
room for growth in the consumer durable
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industry which is expect-
ed to grow to ~ 3 trillion
by 2020, at 41 per cent We are positioning ourselves
CAGR between 2017 and at the lower-end of the
2020. It is estimated that premium segment
India would be the 5th AKSHAY DHOOT
largest consumer
CEO, Hyundai Electronics
durables market in 2025
from being the 12th
largest currently. Dhoot
and his team are looking to break through the
clutter by focusing on under-penetrated cate-
gories such as ACs, washing machines and
refrigerators. The penetration rates of ACs,
washing machine, and refrigerator in the coun-
try currently stands at 5, 18 and 10 per cent
respectively.
“With the increase in purchasing power and
the desire for an aspirational lifestyle, buyers
are no longer looking at products like ACs and
washing machines as luxuries; rather these are
considered a necessity. All these factors are giv-
ing a fillip to the consumer durable market,”
says an observer.
Given that multinational companies like LG,
Samsung and Sony are the flag bearers of tech-
nology, positioning and pricing will be key in
determining Hyundai Electronic’s fortune in
India. Talking about the company’s product
and pricing strategy, Dhoot says “We are posi-
tioning ourselves at the lower-end of the pre-
mium segment. We are not going to have a play
in the affordable segment.”
For example, Hyundai Electronics is offering
a 32-inch LED TV at ~13,000 but as consumers
upgrade and go for a smart TVs, the company’s
55-inch 4k TVs come with a price tag of ~47,000
to ~50,000. The pricing appears competitive as
similar product from the house of a Samsung
and an LG cost upwards of ~70,000.
Anil V Pillai, director, Terragni Consulting,
71
GROWTH OPPORTUNITY
 The size of consumer durables market in
India reached ~ 1 trillion (US$ 15.5 billion)
in 2017
 Sales of consumer durables increased 13
per cent in Q4 FY17, 20 per cent in Q1 FY18
and 16 per cent in Q2 FY18
 Around two-thirds of the total revenue
is generated from urban population and
rest is generated from rural population
Size of the consumer durables
market
Figures in (US$ billion)
FY12E 12.90
CY17 15.45
CY22F 20.60
Note: (F) Forecast, E – estimated,
CY – Calendar Year, FY – Financial Year
Sources: IBEF, Canalys, The Hindu, Edelweiss Research
says, “With players like LG and
Samsung dominating the premi-
um-end of the market, the lower-
end of the premium market appears
to be a sweet spot for Hyundai
Electronics to be in. The debutante
has an advantage in the lower-end
as it is backed by Hyundai
Corporation, a global player known
for its strong technology pedigree.”
The company would do well to tap
the huge growth potential offered
by tier ii and tier iii markets. Pillai
suggests Hyundai must address the
infrastructural limitations present-
ed by rural markets. The company
can leverage technology to offer
power-efficient products in markets
struggling with electricity shortage.
The company has chosen its
debut markets carefully. Dhoot says choosing a
market like Maharashtra is imperative for a new
player as the state is the largest consumer of
durable goods and electronics. It is also a market
where buyers exhibit high propensity to try out
new brands. Again, Hindi-speaking states like
UP, Delhi, Madhya Pradeh provide the company
with the opportunity to standardise its brand
pitch and communication message.
Taking cognizance of the value-conscious
buyer and the critical role played by after-ser-
vice in influencing Indians’ purchase decisions,
Hyundai Electronics has tied up with Flipkart-
backed customer service and assistance com-
pany Jeeves.
The company is working on ramping up its
distribution network by appointing multi-
brand distributors in every state. “Getting dis-
play space at multi-branded stores dominated
by leading players is not going to be easy for
the company. It will have to incentivise dealers
adequately to be able to create display space
for itself in stores,” says Pillai.
The company will manufacture 90 per cent
of the products on offer in India. It has out-
sourced manufacturing to third-party vendors
like Nainko and Phoenix. It plans to import a
few high-end premium products in the CBU
(completely built unit) form. It aims to corner 3
per cent market share over the next 12 month
with a turnover of ~575 crore.

Social media reverberates with
the roar of greasepaint marketers
Actors blur the personal and professional to drive the online
chatter for a string of newly released movies
URVI MALVANIA
A
new generation of actors is bringing
their social media skills and huge fan
followings to bear upon their movie
releases. Vicky Kaushal, Ranveer Singh, Alia
Bhatt, Sonakshi Sinha, Sara Ali Khan and
many others are going beyond the usual mar-
keting techniques of sharing a few songs or
posting updates on their movies, these actors
are keeping the greasepaint on as they turn
brand ambassadors for their movies on
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Take Ranveer Singh, who is probably the
savviest marketer among all. He keeps a
hawk eye on the team that posts stories on
his behalf on his Instagram account, moni-
toring every twist and turn to keep the inter-
est alive in his new release. For his recent
release, Gully Boy, he posted pictures of him-
self with the rappers profiled in the movie.
Just weeks before, he was posing in out-
landish costumes and striking outrageous
postures on his social media timelines for
another movie, Simmba. His co-star, Sara Ali
Khan dressed up in colourful attire and post-
ed that she was taking a cue from her ‘hero’
Ranveer Singh. Her personal post was linked
to the movie’s marketing hashtag.
Vicky Kaushal who has taken his time to
get comfortable with his social media avatar
turned ace marketer for Uri. He posted
videos with people from all age groups and
in diverse professions, all mouthing the
movie’s line How’s the Josh?
“Actors using their personal accounts for
subtle marketing is a good idea. They are tak-
STRATEGY
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ACTOR MARKETERS
| For Simmba, Ranveer Singh wore
outlandish costumes as did his co-star
Sara Ali Khan to create special Instagram
stories and videos
| For Uri, Vicky Kaushal shot a series of
videos with people from all walks of life
and across age groups mouthing a line
from the movie “How’s the josh?” So
popular did the line become that
interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal
also used it while presenting the Union
Budget 2019
| For Gully Boy, Ranveer Singh and Alia
Bhatt have been sharing intimate
details of the movie’s shooting
schedules and their experiences on the
set, building up the anticipation for the
release
ing ownership and they can do so
well. But there is a thin line to
tread in this case, mixing personal
and professional personal on
social media,” says Jagdip Kapoor
of Samsika. What he means is that
actors need to watch what they
say and do, because their lives are
being lived in the glare of social
media spotlights.
For now, however, actors and
movie producers are not too con-
cerned about the blurring lines.
Given the huge following that
actors command online and the
targeted approach that social
media affords, social media has
become the most effective mode
of movie marketing.
This also helps actors stay in
the news. Take for example the
case of Sonakshi Sinha who regularly posts
about the movies she is shooting for, even if next step should be figuring a way to include
their release dates are far into the future. a call to action. One must convert the aware-
Shraddha Kapoor does the same as does Alia ness to commerce and close the loop as
Bhatt. In this way, the young actors are using such,” says Kapoor.
their felicity with social media to generate
greater interest among younger audiences.
In other words, point out marketers, they are
building themselves up as brands.
Brand experts say that this works well in
an age where personal lives are increasingly
public. “It can be a boon and a bane. It pri-
marily depends on the content that is being
pushed through these platforms,” says Amit
Chandrra, chairman and managing director,
Trigger Happy Entertainment Network. “The
72
- STRATEGY
Piaggio enters
expansion phase
The firm is betting on its premium positioning and
technological prowess to do the trick
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR
I
n a market that is highly price sensitive and
where two-wheelers are primarily mass
market products, life was never going to be
easy for a brand attempting a premium
positioning. But Piaggio India credits itself for
having created a consumer segment on that
unlikely proposition and is confident future
growth will come from that same unwavering
resolve.
The company — which enters its seventh
year since a return to India — believes it has
successfully conveyed the message that its range
of Vespa and Aprilia scooters stand out in the
crowd and now is the time for consolidation and
growth. The strategy to achieve this growth
hinges on rapid territorial expansion, offering
premium user experience to both new and exist-
ing buyers through world class facilities, better
outreach, technology and customised solutions.
Having no direct competitor and a year-on-
year growth of 50 per cent in the last financial
year (2017-18) has left Diego Graffi, managing
director and chief executive officer, Piaggio
India, upbeat about the prospects of the com-
pany as it looks to hit a dealership count of 400
by the end of this calendar year, up from the
www.business-standard.com
250 they currently have. “Vespa is one
of the most recalled brands of scoot-
ers. In 2016, we introduced Aprilia
which is different from what we had
seen in the India market, a crossover
between a motor cycle and a scooter.
We are happy with the performance
of both the products based on the
consumer feedback from India.
Between domestic sales and exports,
we crossed one lakh products in 2018
which is close to our production “The premium
capacity in India,” he says even as he segment has high month will be the facility of a mobile
adds that the company has no inten- potential with
tion to enter the mass segment. the youth looking get the time to visit the service centres
So what exactly is its focus seg- out fordiscerning
ment? “The so-called mass market or global brands”
the commuter segment typically DIEGO GRAFFI
comprises the 110-cc market. We are
MD & CEO, Piaggio India
playing in a segment of the market
which is more high range. Our con-
sumers are those who are young and want to
distinguish themselves from the crowd. Vespa
is for those who want to enjoy their ride rather
than keep moving from one place to other. With
Aprilia, we are targeting consumers who want
to go for longer rides during the weekends,” he
says.
73
Such a description suggests that the compa-
ny has a very specific consumer profile in mind.
Will it be easy to find someone who fits that pro-
file and if yes, what gives the company the con-
fidence that the segment will expand? Graffi
says: “India is a young country with a growing
economy and increasing disposable income.
The premium segment has high potential with
the discerning Indian youth looking out for dif-
ferentiated global brands for their choices.”
And this is what keeps the company some-
what insulated from the slowdown that the oth-
er players have been experiencing for some time,
he adds. The recent months, too, have not
brought encouraging news for the industry as a
whole. “We are growing well due to the high
level of differentiation we offer, it helps us stay
unaffected by industry drops. While we see the
pressure industry is facing as a temporary phase.
Also, Vespa and Aprilia are growing by more
than 20 per cent over last year.”
There are some who disagree with such an
assertion or premise. Zubin Ponnappa, who runs
auto-tuning company Zubinn Design, says
scooter is still a commuter vehicle in our coun-
try, it does not technically come under the fash-
ion category. “The Piaggio scooters come in that
category. If that same motorcycle in Paris, it
would have been different. So a scooter like
Vespa is mainly a style statement. It does not
allow you to carry stuff on the floorboard
because of the bump at the centre and has low
resale value. These are things which consumers
look for here,” he says.
Graffi and Ashish Yakhmi, the head of
Piaggio India’s two-wheeler business say they
are looking for sustained growth when asked
about the prospects of continuing with the 50
per cent growth rate even as the numbers for
2018-19 are awaited. And while the company
sold over 100,000 two wheelers manufactured
in India in 2017-18 (74,704 units in India and the
others in exports), by 2020, it aims to saturate
its manufacturing facility in Baramati which
has a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles.
The higher percentage of the new dealer-
ships on the anvil are in north India where the
company has not done as well as it
has in the other three regions.
“We do not follow a pattern where
one dealer has multiple sub-dealers.
The look and feel of the showrooms
and the corporate identity is the same
across the world. The showroom and
the workshop are also together so that
the customer is not only enjoying the
experience at the time of buying but
also when she is using it,” says
Yakhmi.
One of its new offerings from next
service van for consumers who do not
due to their busy schedule. The new
initiative will help them get the serv-
ice at their doorsteps. In the initial
stages, it will be available only for cus-
tomers in the bigger cities.
The company will also launch
something called e-connect wherein the whole
experience inside the showroom can be viewed
on a tablet and where the company also tells
people what more to expect from Vespa and
Aprilia from the product experience perspective.
Through the app, they can order a service, buy
an accessory, or get service reminders.

Policing the crowds
with a social face
Grappling with unruly drivers, angry crowds and an unmanageable swell of cars, cops turn to
social media and humour to get their word across
(From left) Mumbai Police campaigns on Twitter for Women’s Day and against fake news,
the Bengaluru police campaign for public transport
SNEHA BHATTACHARJEE
A
few weeks ago, a strange sight greet-
ed people in Gurugram. Two gentle-
men strode its busy streets asking
people to drive by the rules or else
watch their lives dissipate in smoke, swagger-
ing along and dressed in attire that seemed
like a throwback to the 1970s. For those old
enough to know, the two were cloning famous
on-screen dacoit Gabbar Singh and his side-
kick Samba from the hit film Sholay; for the
rest, they were just people in fancy dress cos-
tumes asking people to follow traffic rules.
While the Gurugram Police took to the
streets to get their message across, the police
in Mumbai (4.68 million followers), Bengaluru
(555,124) and New Delhi (264,000) have been
active on Twitter, picking up popular themes,
memes and characters to deliver their mes-
sage in a funny and humane tone. Humour
works, as does the persistent use of social
media, say the cops who are busy learning the
new rules of the game.
“The response to our Gabbar-Samba cam-
paign was extremely positive. Our purpose
was served. We knew if we had to make the
people understand, it has to be through a
unique and quirky way,” says Himanshu Garg,
DCP, Gurugram Traffic. He adds that the
department is looking at more such initiatives.
STRATEGY
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The Mumbai Traffic Police
department is among the oldest
hands on social media. Their
one-liners are often in tune with
popular urban sentiment, typi-
cally drawing upon the events
unfolding in the city. On women’s
day for instance their handle
(@MumbaiPolice) tweaked the popular
saying ‘Behind every successful man is a
woman’ to say ‘At par with every successful
man is a woman’. After the huge box office
success of Gully Boy, it wrote: Everytime
someone shares a fake news, Bhag bhag bhag,
aaya share aaya share (#MCDon’tShare). The
line used a character (M C Sher) and lines from
a song from the film to drive home the mes-
sage.
T Chandramouli, founder, Trust Research
Advisory sees this as a trust building effort on
the part of the cops who are often the first
respondents to any form of tragedy on the
streets and people’s homes. “There is a loss of
connection with the people because of the lat-
ter’s fear of the police,” he adds. Sandeep
Goyal, chairman, Mogae Media also sees this
as an attempt to ‘talk with’ rather than ‘talk
to’ the citizens. “A well run social media han-
dle (like the one of CP Mumbai) ‘humanises’
the interaction between the people and the
force," he adds.
74
While the police
have shown remark-
able wit and alacrity
on social media,
some centres are
hamstrung by an
inherently bureau-
cratic approach. Also
given that these are usu-
ally initiatives led from the
top (usually the
Commissioner’s office), a lot
depends on the men or women in charge. For
instance, the Bengaluru Police put together a
good team for their social media handle but
that was disbanded when the commissioner
was transferred. “You have to make such
efforts sustainable,” says Chandramouli.
Social media is no longer a matter of
choice, says Goyal. “From the Prime Minister
to all of Bollywood to most cricketers, every-
one is on social media. So, the police have no
choice but to be there. It is just a question of
whether that presence is merely to tick the
box or the presence is one that is noted and
appreciated,” he adds. The Mumbai Police
have been quick to adapt to the medium, be it
using witty one-liners or responding quickly
to mishaps and road accidents or uploading
stories of their successes. But will these lead
to a stronger bond between the police and the
people? Now that is a question none wants to
answer.

The man
with three
simultaneous
careers
I’ve come across only one man
who was admired as a leader in
all the three careers that he
chose to run simultaneously,
writes Roy
S
ome people are revered
because they have one
successful career. Some
successful people transition
from one career to another. And
in each of those careers they
become one of the leading prac-
titioners. Admired by other lead-
ing practitioners of that career.
Admired by others who want to
join that career.
But I’ve come across only
SUMIT ROY
one man who was admired as a
leader in allthe three careers that he chose to
run simultaneously.
Theatre. Brandvertising. Social service.
Alyque Padamsee chose to join advertising
because he did not make enough of a living
out of his first passion. Theatre. But when he
joined advertising, he did not forget theatre.
In fact, he brought theatre into advertising.
And you could say, he brought advertising
into theatre. All his productions opened to full
houses. And then continued to run to full
houses long after most productions petered
out. Where most theatre people thought of a
play, he thought of a mega-musical.
Where most advertising people thought of
an advertising campaign, he thought of brand-
vertising. A term he invented to mean the many
ways that brands can be grown with an idea
that transcended conventional advertising.
When most people thought of working for
one NGO, for one cause, he chose to work for
many causes. And he brought into those social
causes his love for theatre and advertising.
A very large number of India’s elite know
he led a “Double Life”. After all, he even wrote
a book about it.
But millions of Indians will never know
how he made their lives a little better because
STRATEGY
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he actually ran a Triple Life. He just
chose not to advertise his third
career as much.
His heart belonged to India. A
secular India. An emancipated
India. A dowry-free India. A gender-
sensitised India. A cancer free India.
An AIDS free India. A drugs free
India. An India that drives on the
right lane...
Anecdotes about the social caus-
es he espoused and the not-for-
profit organisations that he volun-
teered his time for would need another book.
A typical day in Alyque Padamsee’s life,
while he was CEO of Lintas, had meetings
scheduled at his residence, in the car as he
drove to office, at his office, then at whichever
theatre he was using for his current produc-
tion. But don’t be surprised if the Art for C.R.Y.
meeting happened in his office, the review of
Lintas Delhi’s pitch for new business hap-
pened in the car and the pre-production
detailing for the Kamasutra shoot happened
at the theatre that he had to recce for his next
production. His appointments would start
from 8 am and would not end after 8 pm.
Very often he would bring his love for
social causes into his other two careers.
So his Romeo and Juliet became star-
crossed lovers who were Hindu and Muslim;
Lifebuoy became a brand that introduced
health clinics in rural areas; making condoms
sexy became a way to prevent AIDS; product
reveals at launch conferences not only had
huge theatrical impact under his wand, but
often revealed a social purpose, say, bucket
washing with detergents saved water.
By now you will have read several obituar-
ies about Alyque Padamsee. They would have
talked about the two careers he consciously
75
publicised. You would have been reminded of
the MRF Man, The Liril Girl, Surf’s Lalitaji,
the heart warming Hamara Bajaj series,
Kamasutra condoms and many other adver-
tising ideas that changed India.
You would have been reminded of Evita,
Jesus Christ Superstar, The Man of La
Mancha, Othello... and the role he played as
Jinnah in David Attenborough’s Gandhi.
But dig around in the Lintas archives and
you’ll find the talent he encouraged through
public service advertising. You might find a
poster on Gandhi inked by Imtiaz Dharker.
You might find an anti-dowry film that
likened grooms to buffaloes. Created in part-
nership with Madhu Gadakari (who also
recently passed away). You might find a movie
that got sugarcane vendors to come to Express
Towers to protest that the Lintas film showing
in movie theatres was ruining their business.
Once when he asked me to put together a
showreel of Lintas’s Public Service ads for a
guest lecture he was about to make, I cheekily
included the current commercials of Lifebuoy
(rural health), Kamasutra (prevention of
AIDS), Hamara Bajaj (national integration).
He had them removed at the rehearsal the
night before, but we had a good laugh.
That was a career that he chose not
to publicise.
Alyque Padamsee was a complex man who
did what he thought was the best for India.
No wonder he was conferred the title of
Padmashri.
The author is founder, director, www.univbrands.com
Roy worked closely with Alyque Padamsee as resource
planning manager at Lintas from 1987 to 1991.
Thereafter, Alyque Padamsee would come to Kolkata
to work with the English theatre group that Roy is
involved in in Kolkata, The Red Curtain.

Making the most of a crisis
The takeaways for corporate India from the successful handling of the Fani crisis
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR
T
he management of the ravages of a nat-
ural disaster and the process of reha-
bilitation thereafter is complex. It is a
collective challenge for those involved
to ensure that their efforts not only mitigate the
extent of current damage but also minimise the
likelihood of future disasters by addressing the
inherent vulnerabilities.
This rule applies equally to corporate disas-
ters from which recovery often seems long and
arduous.
The Odisha government's recent successful
handling of Cyclone Fani and its aftermath —
in keeping the loss of life and numbers of affect-
ed people to a minimum —offer valuable les-
sons in disaster preparation and quick response.
Business Standard spoke to a host of corporate
leaders to understand the takeaways for them
from the episode and three things stood out in
particular: The first is, to mitigate the ravages
of a crisis it is important to disseminate pre-
paredness information. This covers how a dis-
aster may unfold, the consequences, and the
plan for implementation of preventive meas-
ures. The second is examination of available
data. Looking at past disasters gives a fair view
of who are the most vulnerable and best ways
to reach out to them. The third, and probably
most important, is the value of unity. Times of
crisis demand that people work together and
develop common goals.
“This experience holds important lessons for
management professionals in terms of crisis
management, successful learning from past
experiences, the value of preparedness and prior
training, and in being nimble and adaptive,” says
professor Sanket Mohapatra, faculty member at
Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad)
and former senior economist at World Bank. He
adds that determination aside, the evacuation
effort in the aftermath of Fani reflects a result-
driven mindset and has shaken the prevalent
view of the government bureaucracy as being
“less efficient than the private sector”.
Aditya Ghosh, chief executive officer, India
and South Asia, OYO Hotels and Homes, feels
the episode highlights the merits of early prepa-
ration. “Preparation is key to good decision-mak-
ing and the strategy and planning that go into
predicting and navigating problems make all the
difference on execution day,” he says. He is lavish
in his praise for the Odisha state authorities han-
dling the Fani crisis. “The massive coordination
before, during and after the cyclone, especially
in terms of managing evacuation and relief logis-
tics has been exemplary. As a group of people
following a common goal, when we commit to
not just getting the job done but doing it in a way
that we set benchmarks and pursue excellence,
mountains move and magic happens.”
Umesh Dahl, CRO, LG Electronics India, rec-
ommends a case study to be made of the way
Odisha managed the evacuation and for him, the
first, timely warning is a key lesson. “We must
STRATEGY
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Different
agencies
combined
their efforts to
evacuate 1.5
million people
across 19
districts in just
12 hours
PHOTO:PTI
“Preparation is
KEY LESSONS key to good
decision-making
 Predicting and navigating problems and the strategy
make all the difference on execution day and planning
 Disseminate information on how a that go into
disaster may unfold, what are the predicting and
consequences and the plan for navigating
problems make
implementation of preventive measures
all the difference
 Times of crisis demand that people work on execution day”
together and develop common goals ADITYA GHOSH
 Sometimes just a Plan A isn’t enough, Chief executive
but an equally robust Plan B is also officer, India and
necessary South Asia, OYO
Hotels and Homes
give a lot of credit to the met department for mak- ment a valuable lesson in harnessing the power
ing an accurate prediction. Future sensing is a of the youth. “It was heartening to see the role of
skill by itself and that also helped all other agen- volunteers especially thousands of young people
cies to come together and fulfill their responsi- in Odisha who worked shoulder to shoulder with
bilities in a cohesive manner,” he says. the National Disaster Management Authority
Agility, focus and determination, and learn- and the local administration. It is important that
ing from the past are three lessons Moksh companies harness the potential and the spirit
Chopra, chief marketing officer, KFC India, has of innovation that millennials bring to the table.”
drawn from the evacuation effort. “Tourists in He mentions that at OYO, all employees are
coastal areas were advised to leave; shelters were referred to as OYOpreneurs since “we value their
stocked up with food, bottled water and other tenacity and the entrepreneurial spirit they
necessary provisions. At the same time, 300 embody”.
power boats, two helicopters and many chain Ghosh’s remarks also sum up most of the
saws were on stand-by to deal with the after- insights received in the pursuit of this article:
math. Preparing for every possible outcome is “Only great teams are able to deal with massive
essential to any planning exercise,” adds Chopra. changes; they can mitigate risks and rise up
Ghosh also sees in the Fani crisis manage- again.”
76

MY FAVOURITE CAMPAIGN
MY TAKE
Closing your stores on the biggest
shopping day is nothing short of
madness. To me, it is enlightened
madness
SNEHA BHATTACHARJEE
Which is your favourite campaign and
why?
I have many campaigns that are my
favourites. They provoke me and force me to
look at advertising with fresh eyes. Selecting
one becomes difficult. But for this
discussion, I’ll choose a recent example that
blew my mind. The campaign is called
#OptOutside. And the brand and advertiser
is REI, a popular retail chain in the US
known for its clothes, camping gear and
outdoor accessories. #OptOutside was truly
audacious. On Black Friday, the day that
America goes crazy buying stuff, the biggest
shopping day of the year, REI decided to
close all their 143 stores, encouraging
everyone and their staff to go outside and
have a good time.
The impact was most unexpected.
According to the company, the brand’s social
media impressions went up 7,000 per cent
with 2.7 billion media impressions in 24
hours, while overall the campaign attracted
6.7 billion media impressions, 1.2 billion
social impressions, and got more than 1.4
million people to spend the day outdoors.
Not just that, more than 150 other
companies joined REI to close their doors on
Black Friday, and hundreds of state parks
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BRAND: REI
YEAR OF LAUNCH: 2014-15
AGENCY: In house idea, Venables
Bell & Partners was roped in
later
opened up for free.
On what parameters did you base your
decision?
Sometimes you’ve got to break something to
make something. The #OptOutside
campaign did just that. It broke the notion
that advertising has to be about clever words
and images. It showed us that pathbreaking
communication can start with great action
and commitment within the company.
#OptOutside challenged the status quo to
reveal a new dimension of where
communication is going. It opened minds,
hearts and doors of perception.
What do you think was the key idea the
campaign was trying to drive home?
The campaign was what the company
believed in — their core values, their love of
the outdoors. So they shut their stores on the
biggest shopping day of America to reaffirm
their core value. It’s like taking the vows.
That’s commitment. That’s belief. That’s
standing up for what you live for. It wasn’t
about words, it was about action. People
loved this. Because it provoked everyone to
think about how they spent their time and
about what really matters.
Do you remember the campaign winning
77
JOSY PAUL
Chairman and chief
creative officer
BBDO India
any advertising awards? Do you think
these awards serve any purpose?
The campaign won everything — multiple
Grand Prix in every big international award
show. It got the biggest recognition in 2016 at
Cannes Lions — the Titanium Grand Prix.
These awards encourage the company and
the co-creators to continue to lead with
values and purpose. The campaign made the
brand internationally famous. It inspires
people like us, living in other parts of the
world, to do better. It’s impact lasts far
longer than the period of the campaign.
Sometimes because of the emotional
element in a campaign, there is greater
recall for the story than the product or
service advertised. Do you feel that was
the case with this campaign which had a
strong emotional connect?
I believe there is a powerful human truth and
purpose hidden in every brand, product or
service and it is our creative duty to find it.
The enlightened people at REI found it and
let it shine. It became a lighthouse for
everyone — the consumer, the competition,
the category and to all who are excited about
where advertising is going.
More on www.business-standard.com

Zooming ahead
on scooters
TVS has bucked the industry slump with a single-minded focus on profitability
TE NARASIMHAN
F
iscal 2019 was one of the toughest
for the two-wheeler industry, espe-
cially for scooter makers. For the
first time in a decade, sales dropped
due to demand slowdown across urban mar-
kets, thanks largely to price reduction by
motorcycle manufacturers focusing on the
commuter segment.
Against the overall gloom, TVS, the sec-
ond largest scooter maker, posted a gain in
market share — to 18.52 per cent of the
67,01,469 units market in 2018-19 from 16.36
per cent in 2017-18. That’s noteworthy given
that larger players, including market leader
Honda and the third largest player Hero,
reported a dip in their shares.
In volume terms, TVS Motor sold 12,41,366
units in FY19, compared to 10,99,133 units in
FY18, a growth of 12.94 per cent. In contrast,
market leader Honda sold 36,80,403 units in
2018-19, against 38,21,542 units the previous
year, registering a decline of 3.7 per cent, as
per Society of Indian Automobile
Manufacturers (SIAM) data. Honda’s share
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in the overall market dipped to 54.92 per cent
from 56.87 per cent. Likewise, the third
biggest player Hero MotoCorp also witnessed
a decline in market share to 10.73 per cent in
FY19 from 13.15 per cent in FY18.
Even in April 2019, TVS’ scooter sales grew
9 per cent to 97,323 units from 89,245 units
in the same period last year, says the compa-
ny. According to SIAM, TVS’ domestic market
share in April 2019 rose to 18.83 per cent from
12.95 per cent in April 2018, while Honda’s
market share dropped to 56.18 per cent from
64.07 per cent in the same period. Hero’s
market share dropped to 6.89 per cent from
10.60 per cent.
Now look at the big picture. SIAM says
scooter sales in India stood at 67,01,469 units
in 2018-19, against 67,19,909 units in 2017-18,
a decline of 0.27 per cent. In 2010, scooters
accounted for 15.6 per cent of the total two-
wheeler sales, which rose to 33.3 per cent in
2018. In the first three months of 2019, it
dropped to 31.6 per cent.
Two factors have impacted scooter sales.
First, the rising cost of ownership — by 10-12
per cent led by fuel prices and insurance cost.
78
There has also been a significant price reduc-
tion in the commuter bike category, which
has, in turn built up pressure on the scooter
category, K N Radhakrishnan, director &
CEO, TVS Motor, explained during a recent
earnings call.
A related factor is the reduced liquidity
among NBFCs, which means there is less
money to be lent to finance purchases.
So what’s TVS’ secret sauce? TVS Motor
continues to outperform the industry led by
launch of new products with exciting fea-
tures and competitive pricing, says Kotak
Securities. TVS, which consolidated its posi-
tion amongst the top two-wheeler manufac-
turers in the country in recent years, says
quality and product offerings are the two pil-
lars of its market strategy.
First let’s look at the product strategy. TVS
has lacuhed a slew of products in this market
in recent years. Its first scooter brand was
the Scooty launched in 1994, followed by the
Wego (2009) and the Jupiter (2013) for the
mass market. In between, it also launched
the Scooty Zest to strengthen the Scooty
brand. In less than five years, Jupiter man-
 STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com

aged to hook 2.5 million customers and today BRIGHT SPOT

boasts of a customer base of over 3 million.
SCOOTER /SCOOTERETTE
The company launched two editions of the
brand — Jupiter Classic and the newest, Domestic sales Market share
Jupiter Grande. Manufacturer (in numbers ) (in percentage)
Now TVS is strengthening the portfolio April April
for the aspirational customer, who wants per-
formance and features and wishes to also 2018 2019 2018 2019
make a style statement. The TVS NTorq 125, Hero MotoCorp Ltd 70,072 33,771 10.60 6.89
launched in February 2019, has all that and
Honda Motorcycle &
marks the company’s foray into the 125-cc
scooter segment. The brand crossed 100,000
Scooter India (Pvt) Ltd 423,532 275,198 64.07 56.18
unit in sales in under six months of launch. India Yamaha
The features on the TVS Ntorq are a segment Motor Pvt Ltd 30,392 26,817 4.60 5.47
first, though the price — at ~58,252 ex-show-
Mahindra Two “With urban demand likely
room, Delhi — is on par with competitive
brands like the Honda Grazia and the Suzuki Wheelers Ltd 363 0 0.05 0.00 to pick up this year, we are
Access 125. Piaggio Vehicles Pvt Ltd 6,859 5,880 1.04 1.20 confident scooterisation and
With these two products — Jupiter and scooter category share will
Suzuki Motorcycle pick up pace”
NtorQ — TVS Motor is in a sweet spot —they
have helped the company to significantly India Pvt Ltd 44,203 55,935 6.69 11.42
K N RADHAKRISHNAN
increase its scooter market share, besides giv- TVS Motor Company Ltd 85,586 92,251 12.95 18.83 Director & chief executive officer,
ing it an image uplift. Total 661,007 489,852 100.00 100.00 TVS Motor
While they were essentially aimed for
rural markets, scooter have increasingly Source: SIAM

found appeal among urban cutomers, as they

are both multi-use and convenient to
manoeuvre. “With urban demand likely to
pick up this year, we are confident that
scooterisation and scooter category share will
pick up pace,” says TVS’ Radhakrishnan. He
says growth will pick up in the rural markets
led by a pickup in demand from urban areas.
“We will do much better than the market and
will delight customers with our new launches
in 2019-20,” says Radhakrishnan, without
sharing details of the new launches.
Suppliers and analysts who track TVS indi-
cate the company might be looking at a 125-
cc version of the Jupiter to take on competi-
tion. Competition in the segment is going to financial year, says Radhakrishnan. The com-
intensify because as many as five new prod- pany unveiled the Creon electric scooter con-
ucts are expected to hit the market this year. cept at the 2018 Auto Expo.
Hero MotoCorp just launched the Maestro
Edge 125, India’s first scooter with fuel injec- More on www.business-standard.com
tion technology, and the Pleasure+ 110,
strengthening its scooter portfolio. Markus
Braunsperger, chief technology officer, Hero
MotoCorp, says with the introduction of three
strong products, the company has laid out a
strong road map to accelerate growth in the
scooter segment.
TVS is also planning to launch its first
mass production electric scooter in India this

79
 STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com

back get fatigued. Technology has dramatically

GUEST COLUMN changed the way we work — a global study car-
ried out by Steelcase revealed that there are nine

For a world-class ambience new postures at the workplace.

As workplaces continue to move away from
extremely formal settings, there is a blurring
of commercial and residential lines while
Tier-II cities are embracing emerging workspace designs as many designing them. Areas such as lounges, con-
ference rooms, patios, work cafés and other
companies move in collaborative spaces that are not pri-
mary work settings, are gaining sig-

I
ndia's phenomenal economic growth in
recent years has seen the rise of tier-II cities
as preferred office locations for a number of
Indian and global corporates. Considering the
host of benefits that these emerging cities offer
— economical real estate and government sup-
port, for example — this doesn't come as much
of a surprise. In the last decade, organisations
primarily from the IT, IT enabled services, phar-
maceuticals, and banking, financial services and
insurance industries, along with automotive
manufacturers have been setting up workplaces
in these cities.
When it comes to talent, it's clear that
employers are aspiring to hire the best for these
offices. However, getting leaders and managers
to move to tier-II cities sometimes proves to be
a challenge for some organisations. Besides
compensation packages, companies are creat-
ing workplaces in tier-II cities that are designed
to attract and retain employees. Whether it's
the way offices are constructed, the interiors
planned, or the kind of furniture used, corpo-
rates are ensuring that their employees nificance. These are the areas that
across cities find workplaces that are employees usually like to spend time
not just aesthetically appealing but also in to recharge and rejuvenate or col-
offer the same ambience and comfort laborate and engage with each other.
as tier-I cities. For instance, The relaxed feel of these spaces is
Mastercard's new office space in complemented by ancillary furniture
Baroda is designed to accommodate like lounge chairs, stools, benches,
1,000 employees. sofas, coffee tables and bistro tables.
A very clear trend that has emerged PRAVEEN RAWAL This furniture plays a significant role
in the new workplaces in tier-II cities is Managing Director, not only in furnishing an organisa-
the emphasis on employees’ comfort Steelcase India tion's less-formal settings but also in
and well-being. Around the world, there and South East supporting a range of postures. The
is a growing realisation of how crucial Asia idea is to create a sense of familiarity
employee well-being is — there are and comfort for the employees.
enough studies that prove that healthier employ- Much like in tier-I cities in India and around
ees are more productive, creative and innovative. the world, conservative environments are break-
Workplaces, therefore, are being designed keep- ing away in tier-II cities because they aren't fungi-
ing in mind employees’ physical and mental ble. Companies are interested in creating flexible
well-being. environments that are quick to change and adapt
We've also seen the demand for better seating - for example, workspaces that can cater to growing
options go up. It is a well-documented fact that or shrinking teams according to changing man-
when people remain in one position for a few dates, or a menu of different workspace choices
hours, muscles and ligaments supporting the for different work modes.

Worldline India has come up with the India Digital Payments Report; an analysis of payment trends
STATSPEAK across traditional channels and new payment methods ranging from credit and debit cards to mobile
wallets for the period between January and March this year. The report also analyses the consumer
DIGITAL DIVE spending pattern across all categories based on the transactions facilitated by Worldline India which
has over 1 million merchant touchpoints across the country.

~1,323
The average ticket
size on POS
terminals 75%
for debit cards The share of
top six banks
~3,427
The average ticket size RBL Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank,
on POS terminals HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Corporation Bank
for credit cards — in the total POS terminals in the country

The number of point of sale

3.72 million terminals count in March 2019 925 mn Total
debit cards in
10 mn The total
number of credit
64mn The total
number of debit
BREAK UP circulation in cards India added cards India added
India (March between March 2018 between March 2018
2.4 mn 2019) and March 2019 and March 2019

1.1 mn 47 mn Total $1 trillion The 349% Increase in

70,000 credit cards in estimated size of the the number of
circulation in digital payments transactions done on
India (March market in India by UPI between March
Private sector Public sector Foreign 2019) 2023 2018 and March 2019
banks banks banks Source: Worldline India

80
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The less complicated are the more agile

Marrying music, gaming, content with communication, media and data can be a game
changer in India, Barua tells Sneha Bhattacharjee
You have been in the industry for over 20
years. Could you share three major changes
you have seen in media in the last five years?
The industry has become far more inclusive,
innovative and dynamic, and witnessed a
complete evolution in media consumption
and habits. This has resulted in a demanding
and an extremely aware consumer. One of
the major changes is that the mobile has
become the first screen for many. Across the
country, irrespective of who you are — the
world is now on the mobile. It is also
amazing, how age or education is not a
barrier anymore for consuming in the world
of digital. It has opened up channels of
conversation, education, infotainment,
entertainment, gaming and so much more
just at a swipe or click of a finger. The direct
impact on the society is — empowerment, a
friend in loneliness and boredom, a
knowledge assimilator, the power of staying
connected in this dynamic world, and
independence. It is truly a new world.
Then take the rise of e-wallets and their
impact. I find this a stupendous change for a
country like ours. Many of us have adopted
all forms of e-wallets and have become
comfortable with them. Look at the number
of need based functional apps that lie on
your smartphone and see how many are
linked to wallets and e-transactions.
Next, I will talk about voice search and
the rise of vernacular content. This is clearly
a game changer. Voice search is so incredibly
powerful. This makes us a bit lazy no doubt
but the empowerment and ease is so truly
ahead of what we could have imagined.
Coupled with vernacular adaptability, it has
penetrated far and wide and enabled people
to consume content as and when they feel
like, in their own confinement with ease and
comfort.
sectors and geographic regions to share population and all age profiles are behaving
resources and knowledge that inform the and consuming content. In all categories —
development of free cybersecurity tools for sports, entertainment, news, movies — we
SMBs. have had a massive upheaval of the content
tsunami with video aiding it. Video today
The low entry cost of social media is has become part of mainstream media.
obviously attractive to small businesses,
but many are still reluctant to use it. Is it Media and creatives — should they work
something you believe they should all together? Are you in favour of or against
engage in? integration?
Yes, it is extremely impactful. It builds Our group philosophy is, better together.
communities that give us targeted and Does it help, give us an advantage, is it a
focused marketing. I have seen from differentiator? Yes it is. An integrated
experience that a lot of these small agency and philosophy is unique in today’s
businesses hesitate since they have certain fragmented world of creative and media.
preconceived notions that we as media When we work together we produce better
evangelists must encourage and enable our synergy of ideas, thoughts based on data,
clients to adapt to engage with more consumer understanding that is robust and
frequently. it works well for both.
Some experts say video is the More on www.business-standard.com
flipchart of the future. Do you
agree?
Video is very much the “here”
and “now” and the greatest
form of engagement. Video
content has revolutionised
the way the world and the
Indian diaspora,
RANA BARUA
Chief executive
officer, Havas
Group India

What is Havas Village? Will you bring it to

India? How will it operate?
Havas Village is a single building comprising
the creative and media together, all under a
single P&L —while boasting of a unique and
unparalleled entertainment offering
through our partnership with Vivendi. We
have 57 Villages across the world with
another four opening in 2019. We have three
villages in India in — Mumbai, Gurugram
and Bengaluru. Each of our agencies is
individually focused on becoming the best it
can be, but can draw on the additional skills
and expertise within the Village and from
our parent company Vivendi.

How socially active do you think the C-suite

really needs to be?
Given the connectivity and access today, a
multi-layered cybersecurity defence is the
best — and the only — way to keep fraudsters
at bay. We have joined with Microsoft and
Citi, among others, as a founding member of
Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI), an initiative
that convenes business leaders from across

81

Inox is screening the
on going Cricket
World Cupon
25screens across
the country
Life beyond movies
Here's how multiplexes are dabbling with alternative
content to counter rising taxes and diminishing footfalls
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR
A
t the fag end of 2018, the govern-
ment brought down the GST rates
on cinema tickets costing up to
~100 to 12 per cent from the earlier
18 per cent, while tickets above ~100 would
attract 18 per cent GST against 28 per cent
earlier. This bought some relief to the indus-
try which had been reeling from a high tax
burden including various local body taxes.
That in turn meant higher ticket prices and
lower footfalls, which led some players to
scout for new ways to generate incremental
revenue.
Multiplex market leaders PVR Ltd and
Inox Leisure Ltd have both been experiment-
ing with a whole range of alternative content
over the past few years, witnessing a healthy
growth in what is still a relatively small seg-
ment within the overall leisure business.
Their approaches towards the add-on offer-
ings presents an interesting contrast and a
lesson for the wannabes.
The broader category of non-studio con-
tent includes music, documentary screen-
ings, film festivals and of course, sports. The
discerning consumer is drawn to the theatres
for both — a big screen experience and to be
part of a congregation of like-minded people.
Market leader PVR (screen count 781) is
working towards making it a sustainable rev-
enue stream, while Inox (583) is looking at
such events as “largely and purely consumer
delight and brand building initiatives”.
When Dharmesh Datta, vice-president,
marketing, PVR Group, recounts the compa-
ny’s journey with alternative content, he
STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com
does so from a certain vantage point. He was
hired in 2014, the year PVR started dabbling
with alternative content, and he was given
the mandate to promote the genre. “Since
the concept was popular in Europe and the
US, we initially tried to experiment with
what worked there. We tried ballets, musi-
cals, the Royal Shakespeare theatre and
Broadway type stuff but a select few showed
up.”
What found traction among consumers
was contemporary events rather than clas-
sics. From a select few in the initial days, the
admissions went up to 50,000 last year with
contemporary concert shows with the likes
of One Direction, Justin Bieber and BTS
mostly during weekends. “A surprise was in
the form of art/museum exhibition films that
appealed to the parent-child audience,” says
Datta.
Talking about the programmes that have
worked for Inox, Alok Tandon, chief execu-
tive officer, says, “Sony BBC Earth conducted
the theatrical launch of their ambitious doc-
umentary Dynasties at Inox multiplexes
across the country. Events like film festivals
are also allowing us to engage with our audi-
ences with some high quality feature films.
We see a lot of potential in hosting meetings,
training sessions, workshops and seminars.
We have also played host to book and product
launches, yoga sessions and musical events.”
That said, the number of screens is con-
stant and one has to play the mainstays —
films — on them. How then are these events
managed? Datta breaks it down with an
example that also helps to understand the
revenue opportunity that such experiments
82
FULLSCREEN MODE
 Sports, documentaries and music
concerts remain the most popular
 While T20 cricket, whether IPL or
international matches, is popular,
opinion is divided on ODIs since the slots
take up eight-nine hours and would
mean foregoing more movie shows
 Anime, book launches and live stand up
comedy are emerging as new categories
 Traction is coming mainly from the
bigger cities
 Input costs are lower as there are no
minimum guarantees etc to be paid
 Developing a model with universal
appeal remains a challenge
create: “Say six shows of a film is playing in a
cinema hall with 100 people turning up for
each show. So 600 people are watching that
film in a day. Now if we reduce that number
to five shows, still 600 people will come with
each show catering to an increased count of
120 people. But for the sixth show, which I
have replaced with a comedy show, even a
hundred turn up, they are all incremental
admissions.”
Jehil Thakkar, head of media and enter-
tainment, Deloitte India, looks at the other
side of the coin: “You can scale the alterna-
tive content only up to a point. And that is
not a steady source of revenue. Despite the
encouraging reception, it is only a few per-
centage points on the top line at the maxi-
mum.” Back of the envelope calculations
indicate, these events would add about 8-10
per cent to the total revenues for exhibitors
who are trying really hard.
But that doesn't bother someone like
Tandon. “We are aiming to build a stronger
connect with the audiences through these
unique offerings,” says Tandon. “Ticketing,
as we always believe, is a function of content.
Content is the new ‘hero’ and as long as the
content is performing well, ticketing rev-
enues will flow in on its own.”
So the tangible benefits for the host? “The
100 new people will also bring extra revenues
in food and beverages and also improve the
ad sales potential.” “And this is where the
resource optimisation of the theatre busi-
ness, which mainly comprises screen and
seats, will happen,” Datta says.
More on www.business-standard.com

Brands plot a digital footprint
around the ICC World Cup
Brands sidestep traditional sponsorship routes to ambush their way into the
tournament, aggressively target the online banter around the big games
URVI MALVANIA
C
ricket is not only a religion in India,
it is also the most, expensive sports
property for advertisers in the coun-
try. With the advertising spots for
the June 16 India-Pakistan tie selling for as
high as ~20 lakh for ten seconds, only a select
few can afford the platform. Digital however
has opened up a whole new route for guerilla
advertising and a host of brands such as
Zomato, HDFC Ergo, Nilkamal Plastics, Bajaj
Allianz Life, Dabur, among others are step-
ping in with memes, witty puns and photo
captions to leverage the huge interest with-
out busting their ad budgets.
The India-Pakistan match, which coin-
cided with Father’s Day provided the perfect
opportunity. Twitter recorded 2.9 million
tweets about the much awaited one-day
international (ODI), and all brands had to
do was find engaging ways to enter the con-
versation. Some such as Bajaj Allianz Life
married the two big events of the day to
come up with a Facebook post about cele-
brating a father-child ritual of cheering for
STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com
Team India while watching an India-
Pakistan match.
HDFC Ergo used humour to celebrate
India’s unbeaten run against Pakistan in the
ICC World Cup. It showed an image of a
father and son playing carrom, with the
score reading 6-0 father to son. The copy
read, fathers don’t tire of playing with their
children, no matter how many times the
child loses. Its competitor, Acko General
Insurance, is an on-air sponsor for the World
Cup.
Another brand sneaking its way into the
games is Zomato. It is running a cashback
offer based on the users’ predictions for the
day’s match. It tweeted that 54 people had
predicted that Pakistan would win, followed
by the line “Some people just don’t want to
win cashback” in a smaller font. Rival
Swiggy is advertising heavily on television
and was associated with the Indian Premier
League 2019.
Jagdeep Kapoor, founder, Samsika
Marketing Consulting says, “While it is good
when brands enter current conversations,
they have to make sure what they are saying
83
(Above)ITC’s Yippee brand of instant
noodles and(below) Zomato used
witty punchlines and evocative
imagesto drive the online chatter
around the India-Pakistan game
is relevant not only to the event, but also to
their own personality. Also they must ensure
that the exercise in no way compromises the
brand’s credibility.” Brands must also be
sure about their reasons for going digital or
wanting to be associated with cricket, he
adds.
Sandeep Goyal, founder, Mogae Media
says the digital has helped blur the lines
between official and unofficial brand part-
ners. While paid advertising will always have
its advantages, brands now have a window
of opportunity to engage with a big ticket
event, without spending big bucks. “We’ve
seen it happen with Pepsi and Coke (on TV)
in the late 90s. Now the medium has
changed. Paid advertising will ensure reach.
Moment marketing will be effective only if
you have a very good creative,” he says.
He also believes that digital media offer
brands more opportunities to do what a tra-
ditional brand such as Amul has perfected
over the years, in an offline environment.
But despite that, most brands still have a
long way to go before they can master the
art of topicality as Amul has.
 STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com

SALES MIX & EBITDA MARGINS

Branded textile Segment summary
Sales EBITDA Sales volume
FY (~cr) margin (%)  Suiting
2014 2,056 20.0  Shirting (mn metres) Growth
2015 2,545 17.5 56
2016-17 4%
2016 2,702 17.3 19
2017 2,714 14.1 2017-18 58
22 18%
2018 2,915 15.7

The company logged Product sales mix (%)

sales worth ~848 crore 3
in the branded textile Made to
segment in the third Measure
quarter of the current 78
Suiting
financial year, 10 per 19
cent higher than the Shirting
previous year. The
enhanced sales have
Sales channel mix (%)
been driven by volume 24 Others 38
growth in domestic Wholesale
15
business mainly in the 23The
Multi-
trade channels. Raymond
brand
Leveraging digital tools, Raymond has effectively reduced sourcing and delivery
Source: Company outlets Shop
cycle from 80 days to 15 days

Raymond reorganises
November 2017 was estimated at $150 billion.
The market is expected to touch $223 billion by
2021, growing at a compound annual growth rate
of 12.2 per cent between 2009 and 2021.

supply chain
On its part, Raymond is gearing up to make
the most of the growth opportunity that the mar-
ket offers.
First and foremost, the company has started
working on stock management. It is working to
The biggest gains have been reducing time lags along the make its MTA supply chain leaner. At present,
MTA comprises 1,050 never-out-of-stock SKUs
chain and freeing up working capital (stock keeping units) that contribute 50 per cent
to the company’s sales volume. These SKUs are
SANGEETA TANWAR Raymond Ltd, says, “The textile business has available with dealers on an auto-replenishment
been known for its long supply chain and prod- basis guided by daily sales monitoring. These

F
or most branded textile players, sourcing
and supply chain management are key cogs
in the wheel. As locations and capacities for
manufacturing multiply, more companies are
moving away from focusing their efforts on plant-
level production planning and are adopting a
demand-driven approach — to try and manage
demand more efficiently. Aligning production,
delivery and the entire sales channel with that
mindset has become make or break. And time is
of the essence in all this.
Textile major and fashion retailer, Raymond
Group is reorganising its supply chain to meet
these new challenges. Leveraging digital tools,
Raymond has effectively reduced life cycle for
products which are now Made-to-Available
(MTA) from 80 days to less than 15 days in busi-
ness-to-consumer segment. A shorter supply
chain helps the textile player react faster to mar-
ket trends and frees up working capital. In
financial year 2017-18, the company clocked
~2,915 crore in sales in the branded textile seg-
ment witnessing a 7 per cent growth over FY
2016-17 when sales stood at ~2,714 crore. Riding
on its digital capabilities and retail expansion,
Raymond is eyeing double-digit growth in the
textile business over the next few years.
Sudhanshu Pokriyal, president, textiles,
uct lifecycle. It’s no surprise that our reaction
time to respond to popular fashion trends is
slower as compared to say a Zara or an H&M
which are into fast fashion.”
To survive and grow in the business — if you
consider yourself not just a textile player but a
fashion brand — it is important for a player to
understand trends every season or what is ‘in’
and what is ‘out’. S Swaminathan, chief executive
officer and co-founder, Hansa Cequity, says,
“Unlike in the past, product and fashion lifecy-
cles are becoming shorter and shorter.
Accurately predicting the design in vogue can
reduce the cost of doing business. It also helps
predict market trends and sales patterns accu-
rately and therefore get better conversions per
footfall across stores.”
The competitive landscape of textile and
apparel business in the country has changed
drastically over the last few years. Raymond is
up against domestic players like Siyaram’s, Vimal,
Grasim in the fabric market. It also faces stiff
competition in the branded segment from the
likes of Marks & Spencer, H&M and Zara. The sil-
ver lining is that country’s textile market is poised
for tremendous growth offering space for numer-
ous brands to co-exist and grow. According to
industry sources, India’s textile market as of
products are made available to the dealers within
48 hours of the placement of an order.
The company claims that over the last few
months, it has managed to reduce its MTA port-
folio by almost 33 per cent. Pointing out the
advantages of reducing the MTA portfolio,
Pokriyal, says, “The moment we have an effec-
tive and fixed (limited) MTA portfolio, it helps
us reduce the lead time for sourcing. And lead
time reduction improves the business’ ability to
react to demand.”
As demographics and lifestyle choices
change across metros, tier 1 and tier 2 markets,
there is a critical need to speed up the fabric-
to-fashion cycle across the country. “The data
or information about demand, availability, and
reduction in inventory carrying costs can make
a big difference to the profitability of the busi-
ness. Real-time data can be a huge competitive
advantage for the textile business to understand
trends and recalcitrate manufacturing and
design strategies,” says Swaminathan.
The goal is to reduce the wholesaler’s forecast
error as regards to MTA SKUs, therefore freeing
up working capital stuck in inventory and ensur-
ing better stock turns.
More on www.business-standard.com

84

When fashion goes
eco-friendly
Aditya Birla Group’s Grasim is pushing Liva fabric through its
eponymous fashion line. Will that restrict the brand’s growth?
SANGEETA TANWAR
A
re fast fashion and sustainable
fashion mutually exclusive? Not, if
you wish to make that the USP of
your brand.
At a time when the ready-to-wear industry
is increasingly being driven by fast fashion,
there is a small yet growing tribe of con-
sumers who are rooting for sustainability by
opting for eco-friendly fabric and clothing
lines. Looking to tap this segment of “the
conscious consumer” and making sustain-
able fashion a mass proposition, India’s
home-grown textile major and Aditya Birla
Group company Grasim is giving a major
push to its fibre business. With the objective
STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com
of building on the success of its four-year old
consumer brand Liva, made out of eco-
friendly fabric, the company has introduced
a new variant of the fabric, Livaeco, with a
higher eco-quotient. To match up to the com-
petition put up by global fast fashion brands,
Grasim is focusing on offering consumers
more choices in terms of fabric and design.
According to various industry estimates,
the domestic textile industry in India is pro-
jected to grow from $150 billion in 2017 to
$223 billion by 2021. What’s interesting is the
slow yet growing demand for sustainable
fashion within the segment. The State of
Fashion 2017 report, citing Global Lifestyle
Monitor, shows that 65 per cent of the con-
sumers in emerging markets actively seek
85
out sustainable fashion versus 32 per cent or
less in mature markets. “Usually, people do
not associate sustainability with fashion. For
many, if a fibre or a product is sustainable it
may not be fashionable. By introducing new
fibre variants and more design choices, we
want to tell the buyers that sustainable can
be fashionable too,” says Manohar Samuel,
senior president, marketing at Grasim
Industries Ltd.
The company has put the learnings and
consumer insight gleaned from its global and
Indian consumers to come up with the
Livaeco line. The textile major notes that con-
sumers in Europe and United States are far
more aware about the existence and the need
to adopt sustainable fashion. Its internal
research in India shows that only 2 per cent
of the consumers talk about sustainability in
a passionate way. They go out of their way to
purchase sustainable products. In the true
sense they are the evangelists of sustainable
fashion. Then there is another large section
of buyers, almost 40 per cent, who are aware
about climate and environment-centred
causes/events. They want to adopt sustain-
able clothing but are clueless as to how they
could go about it.
Rutu Mody-Kamdar, founder-director,
Jigsaw Brand Consultants, says, “Sustainable
fashion is a small market. It has niche players
like Nicobar and Gummy Bear. However,
going forward it’s a segment that holds huge
 STRATEGY
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WEAVING ON
A look at some key numbers
for Grasim
~52,000 cr Grasim’s revenue for
nine months ended Dec 2018
20 per cent SF (Viscose staple fibre)’s
share in Grasim revenue
3,800 outlets Liva has a retail
network present in more than 250
cities in India
Global Brands using Viscose: 100-
plus; includes M&S, H&M, C&A, GAP,
Abercrombie, Fitch

potential. That’s the reason some of the fast

fashion brands like H&M and Zara have start-
ed their sustainable clothing brand lines.
Aditya Birla Group’s Liva and Livaeco has to
compete with these players. And they have
an advantage as there is no other home-
grown player in this segment.”
The textile major is focused on converting
its huge set of captive consumers of Liva to
push Livaeco. To help consumers equate sus-
tainability with fashion, the company has
roped in designers like Anju Modi, Wendell
Rodricks and Gaurav Jai Gupta to make gar-
ments from its Livaeco fabric. Making the
fabric accessible to the masses, Livaeco will
be available in 300-plus exclusive W stores,
select large format stores and multi-brand
outlets across India.
The company has a lot going for it. Ashita
Aggarwal, professor of marketing at SPJIMR,
says, “In the fibre2fashion business, the
product complexity in the value chain
becomes higher. The parent company,
Aditya Birla Group, has competitive advan-
tage in the natural fabric category and today
it is the only firm which has an integrated
value chain. This gives them cost advantage
and more control over the chain.”
However, she adds, in a business as
dynamic as forward fashion, inventory man-
agement is not easy. Achieving economies
of scale is a challenge as designs have to con-
stantly change. This requires complex
inventory management while keeping the
costs low. Recognising this challenge, the
company is working on innovations on the
fabric as well as the end-product front.
“With shorter fashion cycles and increasing Abercrombie & Fitch. apparels. Would they be open to the co-
consumer preference for lighter, fluid, skin- At Grasim Industries' pulp and fibre busi- branding option there? Or would Aditya
friendly fibres, we are now innovating more ness division, Birla Cellulose, the total vis- Birla Group sell fluid fabric as commodity
in the knit category. Moreover, unlike cose production has risen to 1,250 tonne per to these manufacturers,” asks Aggarwal.
woven, with knit, we have greater opportu- day, from 650 tonne per day five years ago. Some observers say many Indian con-
nities to put up autumn and winter collec- Birla Cellulose’s viscose is currently used in sumers still don’t understand the viscose-
tions. Knit offers us the opportunity to 35 million garments as compared to 1.8 mil- based natural fabric market. They think
improve market share,” says Samuel. lion in 2015. According to experts, having everything apart from cotton and silk is
In the pulp and fabric segment, Grasim the same brand name from fibre2fashion — processed. Hence, there is a need to create
Industries is looking to leverage its status the ingredient and the end product — helps awareness, change perceptions and urge
as the leading manufacturer of viscose, the in leveraging equity across the value chain consumers to spend on a new kind of fab-
natural fibre which goes into making the but can also be restrictive. “The textile major ric.
brand Liva. Globally, viscose as an ingredi- may lose on the business-to-business mar-
ent for making eco-friendly fibre is used by ket — where other manufacturers buy Liva
brands like M&S, H&M, C&A, GAP, fabric for production of their own brand of

86
 STRATEGY
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Brands look for balance

on the gender track
Even as advertisers attempt a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of gender,
marketers and consumers say there still is a lot left to do
AMRITHA PILLAY

A
n ad by ICICI Lombard shows a group
of women clapping their hands and
singing in unison at the Kumbh Mela,
all wearing special gloves that help early diag-
nosis of a set of illnesses. Women, the ad says,
rarely take care of their own health and it is
time to change that.
Colgate-Palmolive has released an exten-
sion of its ‘andar se strong’ (inner strength)
campaign with M S Dhoni and his wife Sakshi
where the couple talks about strength in the
face of adversity. Both describe the inner
resilience of the other.
In the controversial Surf Excel ad for Holi,
a young girl protects her friend from the
onslaught of colours to help him get to the
mosque in a clean pair of clothes
Women’s health, equality between couples
and courage among girls are some of the
themes being aggressively pursued by brands.
Also women protagonists are finding a bigger
say in categories such as furniture, durables
and auto that were largely helmed by men.
And even in jewellery ads (Tanishq, for
instance), women’s roles are being sharply
redefined.
Ashish Mishra, managing director of
Interbrand India sees this is a sign of gender
recognition. “Many high involvement cate-
gories like realty and durables have begun to
have women in key roles now,” he said.
According to Mishra, one of the first hints of
change came with the Godrej Interio ad where
a couple (Sam and Meera) decide on the right
furniture for their home. “Many categories
have followed suit since. And most have the
woman being portrayed as the smarter of the
two,” he added.
Change is evidently in the making, but yet (From left) The ad by ICICI Lombard raises the issue of women neglecting their health, Colgate-
marketers and consumers in a survey con- Palmolive gets Sakshi and M S Dhoni to talk about inner strength
ducted by Kantar believe that these are baby
steps in a world where women have tradition- them in a more equal role—in India, almost where men are seen as traditional purchasers.
ally been relegated to categories such as 60 per cent television ads target only Eswaran sees the Airtel advertisement, where
health drinks, jewellery or household goods. women—the targeting is led by stereotypes, a young woman advocates the use of the net-
Consumers also said that in spite of the the report said. work, as being truly progressive. But most of
changes advertisers are still working within What are brands getting wrong or why are the rest he said simply want to avoid being
stereotypes. In India, 67 per cent male and consumers sceptical of the efforts being offensive.
62 per cent female participants said, “The way made? The report says that brands are failing on
my gender is portrayed in advertising in my “People move faster than media and adver- gender targeting. “Gender targeting should
country generally is completely out of touch tising,” said KV Sridhar founder and chief cre- not be an either/ or decision. Even the cate-
with reality. Globally, according to the report ative officer Hyper Collective who believes gories which are perceived to be female dom-
(Adreaction, Getting gender right), 76 per cent that most brands are indulging in mere inated, males do play a key role in decision
of female consumers and 71 per cent of male tokenism on gender. Prasanna Kumar making and vice-versa,” it said. Advertisers
consumers believe that advertising is com- Eswaran, vice president, Creative have to be bolder believes Sridhar. “All my life,
pletely out of touch with the nuanced gender Development Programs’ in South Asia for I have faced resistance to suggestions of break-
shifts that have taken place in the past Kantar believes Indian companies are missing ing away from stereotypes. Clients hide
decade. While it may be true that more ads out on the opportunity of identifying women behind the fact that they are mirroring socie-
are now talking about women and casting as influencers for categories like automobiles ty,” he said.

87
 STRATEGY
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‘Data can get

you only to a
certain point’
Some of the challenges Facebook
faces are less about data and more
about questioning the business
model, BETH COMSTOCK tells
Shubhomoy Sikdar

What do you mean when you say

“strategy is a story well told”?
I mean that you have to be able to paint a BETH
picture or have a vision of a new idea, of COMSTOCK
something different that you are trying Former vice chair
to make people to do. You have to be able of General
to tell them what’s in it for them, what’s Electric & author
exciting about this future and what is it
going to take to get there. As a storyteller,
I came to appreciate the value of just
telling your strategy like a story after I found
that too often in business, we just talk about
the numbers and market position which don’t
always get people excited to join us. They buy
from you or partner with you only after you tell
them some kind of a story about the future you
are building together. In my latest book
Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and
the Power of Change, I challenge people to tell
others why they are in business, what is the
value of their products.

You advise to choose instinct over data while

many successful business models from the
recent past have been built using algorithmic
patterns. Your take?
I am not against data at all but when I say
that choose instinct over data, I am speaking
specially to established companies where
they are looking at data before they make a
move into a new area or induct something
new. I think we need more business people
who trust their instinct. Data can only get
them to a certain point and then they are
going to ask what’s next or new.
Even the new companies which are using
data will have to ask these questions in the
future. Look at Facebook, some of their
challenges are less about data and more
about questioning the business model, the
unintended consequence of such a model.
Imagination or innovation may not always be
found in-house. How can senior management
get new talent on board without causing a
great deal of friction within the set up?
That is one issue I talk about in the book. There
are gatekeepers who do not let you go through
the gate as they don’t want to imagine a
different world. The management will have to
work around it, find people within the
company who welcome change. However, you
do need to bring people from outside who have
different ways of thinking. Breaking the ice
does not mean that you need a big budget. It
can be achieved with something simple like
getting everyone to watch a video.
In the startup environment, the top
management often changes and those who
take over have their own ideas on how to run
the company from there on and might
demand some radical changes in the way they
function. How does one adjust to these
changes at the top?
It’s already happening in a lot of places. More
and more companies are realising that when
they acquire a startup, they bring new energy
and perspective and they are closer to the
markets. Let’s not get our bureaucracy in the
way. When you acquire a company, you have
to spell it out why did you acquire the com-
pany, what are the values you bring and also
adapt some of the things in the new culture
that might work for you. Often, you are taken
over by a bigger company and look to scale.
Don’t assume that everyone in the established
company doesn’t get it.
You have worked with some of the top media
companies. What according to you is the most
effective way of dealing with fake news in this
age of intense competition among
broadcasters?
As a journalist, you have to work extra hard
and people will have to ask more questions.
This is to find different perspectives on the
same story. A journalist should not be calling
the same sources all the time. Readers
themselves have a lot of responsibility rather
than just saying that a piece of news is fake
news. They have to develop their own diverse
point of view. They cannot just rely on news
sources. They have to ask questions such as
where can I learn more about this. So there is
responsibility on the journalists’ side and
there is responsibility on the readers’ side as
well.

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TVS shifts up a gear

With renewed focus on a largely unorganised market, the firm is hoping to become India's
largest on-demand mobility service provider
T E NARASIMHAN

T
he $8.5 billion TVS Group — best known
for its scooters, motorcycles, auto com-
ponents and and logistics — has
renewed focus on another arm of its
business. And that is TVS’ aftermarket solutions
company, TVS Automobile Solutions (TAS). A
part of the group’s 109-year-old dealership and
distribution arm TVS & Sons, TAS generates a
handsome ~2,000 crore in revenues annually.
Sensing an opportunity in the largely unor-
ganised market, the company is repositioning
itself as a one-stop solution provider by aggre-
gating the unorganised garages and integrating
their array of aftermarket services to offer stan-
dardised and speedy service across the country.
It already offers service, breakdown and accident
assistance round-the-clock, pan-India.
To become India’s largest on-demand mobil-
ity service provider, expanding its physical infra-
structure won’t be enough. So TAS is bringing
all stakeholders — distributors, retailers and
garages — on a single digital platform. All this Ensuring mobility
may sound easy, but it is a humongous effort TAS: Infrastructure and beyond
in an industry where margin is thin and com-
petition from the unorganised sector is ram- 6,000 partner garages
pant.
Besides hopping on to the digital bandwag-
27cities with own response vehicles
on, TAS’s offline strategy rests on two pillars — 31,000 break-downs
expand geographically, while offering cutting- handled per month
edge technology. “We have taken the leadership
in transforming Indian automotive aftermarket 60% repair done on site
by creating an ecosystem of retailers, garages RESPONSE TIME: 35-45 minutes
and fleet wherein each stakeholder is benefited
in terms of growth, efficiencies and profitability Entrepreneurship and innovation are the key  Women assist for women drivers
by actively participating in the value creation for propositions that TAS is offering partners to get  Manages nearly 60,000 vehicles
end customers,” says says G Srinivasa Raghavan, over expansion hurdles including taxis
executive director of TAS.
But first, imagine the complexity involved. digitally, something many roadside garages may  India’s largest e-catalogue with over
The independent aftermarket comprises full-ser- not be able to handle. 1,00,000 components SKUs
vice franchisees, outlets dealing in over-the- Entrepreneurship and innovation are the key
counter parts, workshops and garages. They could propositions that TAS is offering partners to get
be located in far-flung areas, with very little in over such hardships. Its franchisee model will the largest in the world, outside North America,
terms if quality control. That said, the opportunity encourage entrepreneurship, while digital inno- says Raghavan.
is immense. The industry is estimated to be vation will help make partners self-sufficient. “Our Under MyTVS, the company caters to owners
around ~55,000 crore and is growing at around 8- strategy is simple. Let the customer drive or use of a range of car brands. There are over 400 entre-
12 per cent every year. Aftermarket comprises of the car, we will take care of the maintenance and preneurs under this structure like Mukesh Sethi,
vehicles that have gone outside the dealership service,” says Raghavan, adding that TVS has been an apparel manufacturer from New Delhi, who
community to a completely fragmented market in the automotive aftermarket business for more decided to take the franchise of MyTVS in 2017
services by a combination of retailers, distributors than 100 years now and it “understands vehicles, to make money from his unproductive land.
and garages. components and the eco-system better than any- Sethi now services a whole range of brands —
There are about 30-35 million cars and body else”. from Maruti to Mercedes — and promises turn-
600,000 CVs outside the warranty period, which As far as the physical retail model is con- around of a vehicle in about three days, against
need to be serviced. On an average, a truck owner cerned, the idea is to aggregate all participating 9-10 days earlier.
spends around ~1.75 lakh and a car owner spends CV retailers under one banner —PartSmart, while The story is not about passenger cars alone,
around ~30,000-40,000 per year on services, says for garages for passenger vehicles, the umbrella MyTVS also caters to around 70,000 fleets in
Raghavan. The industry is taking the first steps brand will be MyTVS. India and another 14,000-15,000 in Saudi Arabia.
towards being organised since the price gap This franchisee model has brought a large Take Arun, partner, Core Logistics, for whom TVS
between the organised and the unorganised sec- chunk of mom-and-pop service providers under Fleet Services manages nearly 400 vehicles. He
tor is narrowing after the introduction of the the umbrella of organised service. Today, it has says his bottom line has “improved considerably”
goods and services tax. For example, taxes for more than 300 PartSmart stores across the coun- post the tie-up with TVS because truck utilisation
parts like filters have fallen to 18 per cent from try and is looking at increasing the number to has gone up by 20-25 per cent.
around 30 per cent earlier. The other major reason 1,000 by 2020. This will not only make TAS the
being that vehicles are getting more connected biggest organised service chain in India, but also More on www.business-standard.com

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GUEST COLUMN

Humble yet locally relevant goods they stock up. For cus-
tomers, it is the convenience of shopping that
is the key. The biggest arsenal for kiranas is
their business model; it is much simpler to

indomitable
set up a kirana shop with lesser stock keeping
units (SKU) vis-à-vis a retail store with huge
capital cost and inventory.
Kirana stores fuel a culture of entrepre-
neurship and any effort that boosts entrepre-
Technological solutions will bring kiranasinto the mainstream of neurship will create employment opportuni-
ties. Hence, it is essential to empower them,
e-commerce revolution upgrade their traditional methodologies and
train the store owner and staff with

W
ith the new policy guidelines for e-
commerce players, the battle to woo
customers by burning billions and
the era of unsustainable deep discounting
might soon change. In recent years, the cost
of customer acquisition for online retailers
have soared higher leading to huge cash burn
rate and mounting losses. The new policy
may lead to e-commerce players making
course corrections in their operations and
structures, and eventually may lead towards
a more profitable and sustainable business
model for them. At the same time, it will safe-
guard the small businesses and traders, espe-
cially the kiranas against predatory pricing
that was affecting their livelihood.
Government of India’s policy intervention
has facilitated a more level-playing field for
these businesses and created a non-discrim-
inatory and competitive environment.
In India, close to 12 million small mom
and pop stores — kiranas —dominate the
domestic grocery retailing with a whopping
90 per cent share. After agriculture, it is the
largest source of employment generation and
livelihood for millions of local
entrepreneurs that bridge the gap
of employment challenge in our
country. Some of these kiranas
are so popular that you have gen-
erations of a family shopping
from them. The online disruption
has been hurting their profitabil-
ity for some time. But despite the ARVIND XXXXXXXX
competitive battleground of MEDIRATTA XX
swanky supermarkets, modern MD & CEO, METRO
retail and e-commerce players, Cash & Carry
the kirana eco-system have con-
tinued to fight back. So what makes these
local kiranas stores thrive and remain ever-
green?
People in India still rely on their neigh-
bourhood kiranas for their daily essential
needs. A runner from the local store does free
delivery for a small product pack in less than
an hour. They even provide a handy credit
facility to their regular customers. You can
never beat a kirana owner’s understanding
about the consumption pattern of a local
community, their accessibility and variety of
assortment selection, planograms —
effective product placement, for them
to improve their margins.
There are several technological
solutions to mainstream kiranas. The
more sustainable solutions being
digitisation, modernisation and a
remodelling of stores, POS (point-of-
sale) billing, app based digital pay-
ment, back-end integration of
kiranas, competitive pricing with dis-
counts for them to stay relevant in the
retail landscape. The POS system
enables kiranas to track sales, revenue,
inventory and customer preference like any
modern retailer. Digitisation is just one step;
there is much more the industry can do for
these stores to thrive and complement online
businesses.
However, despite the influx of technology,
we as customers still prefer a human inter-
face. Kiranas enjoy a deep level of trust and
personal relationship with their customer
which is a key differentiator for them to dom-
inate the consumption market.

STATSPEAK 2billion The total number of domestic and

international trips taken by Indians in 2018
TRAVEL GOALS Travel expenditure by Indians Share of online booking in 2018
 in $ billion Figures for 2018 Reasons customers don't book online
(% of respondents among online users)
$94 44 Lack of trust in
36 billion portal/payment system 56
Total
Better pricing offline 47
14 Lack of touchpoints 37
According to the recently released ‘How Cancellation policy
Does India Travel’ report released recently, Transport Lodging Consumption (other T&C) 31
the travel and tourism industry in India is

$136billion
experiencing a boom and is only going to
get stronger in the next couple of years.
Consumption spending break up
Compiling numbers and sharing trends The estimated annual amount that 20 %
from 2018, the report suggest that the Indians will spend on travelling in 2021 Recreation
boom has been fuelled largely by the
digital ecosystem that helped travellers
plan, research and discover new places
13 %
Expected CAGR at which the travel and
48 %
Shopping
and craft their identities on social media. tourism industry will grow in 2021
The report also found that spending on
32 %
lodging remains low as many Indians
prefer to stay at either at their relatives’ or 25 %
Share of online booking in 2018
Food
friends’ homes or low priced hotels. Source: Bain & Company and Google India

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We are moving from ‘facilitation’ to ‘flow’

We are gearing up to enable the exchange of diverse monetary flows and different kind
of interactions across the world, Rajamannar tells Sneha Bhattacharjee
Given the way digital payments
have taken off in India, what does
the market look like from where
you stand?
There are a few places in the world RAJA RAJAMANNAR
as exciting and interesting as India
when it comes to digital payments. Chief marketing &
communications
The country registered about 20.3
officer & president,
billion digital payment
healthcare, Mastercard
transactions in FY17-18. However,
over 90 per cent of payments in
India are still in cash. This is a huge
opportunity that Mastercard is trying to
address. The government is committed to
Digital India and we are partnering with it by
increasing the acceptance of digital payments
and continuous consumer and merchant
education. I believe that much of this growth
will be in tier 2 and 3 cities in India, especially
from first-time users. The increase in the
number of point of sale terminals — from 1.6
million in 2016 to over 5 million today — will
also play an important role in this. The
increasing awareness, new forms of digital
payments such as contactless, and policy push
make India a great market to play in for us.

How has the Indian consumer's perception

about the use of plastic money changed in the
post-demonetisation era? Have their
(credit/debit card) use come down from the
peak they saw in that period? What does that
say about your industry?
Demonetisation was a game changer. It
created an immediate reason for people to
experience the ease, safety and security of digital
payments. The result was a fundamental
behavioural shift from cash to digital payments.
The numbers suggest that card usage has grown
substantially since demonetisation. Even in the
future, cards will be an important mode for
digital payments.

Software and payments are colliding. What

does it mean for players like you?
I strongly believe that digital and physical
convergence is no more fiction but reality. In
this new world, digital and physical, both work
in tandem. For example, a consumer may see a
product in store, do a bit of online research,
and pay using an app. The entire journey
needs to be seamless. Industry estimates
suggest that India will have close to 800
million smartphones by 2022. Think of all
these devices as means for online search,
shopping, making payments, and accepting
the same. For a global fintech company such as
Mastercard, this is an opportunity to leverage
technologies such as internet of things (IoT),
artificial intelligence and machine learning,
biometrics and wearables to create cutting-
edge payment solutions.
How big a problem are delinquencies or non-
performing assets for credit card brands in
India? How are you addressing this problem?
As a trusted partner in payments, we see our role
as enablers in reducing cyber delinquencies to
the minimum. As far as cyber delinquencies are
concerned, safety and security is our number
one priority. We have invested over a billion
dollars in the past three years alone to make the
industry safer. The investment including our
recent acquisitions of NuData and Brighterion
has helped us develop advanced fraud detection
and prevention tools. For example, Safety Net is
an artificial intelligence based tool that
constantly surveys the Mastercard network for
any signs of large scale attacks and is designed to
intervene and resolve any such attacks.
Given the connectivity and access today, a
multi-layered cybersecurity defence is the best
— and the only — way to keep fraudsters at bay.
We have joined with Microsoft and Citi, among
others, as a founding member of Cyber
Readiness Institute (CRI), an initiative that
convenes business leaders from across sectors
and geographic regions to share resources and
knowledge that inform the development of free
cybersecurity tools for SMBs.
Will the cell phone eventually replace credit
and debit cards?
As I said earlier, digital and physical
convergence is becoming a reality faster than
we expected. In India, the growth of
smartphone users and the falling cost of
internet data will be a major driver of this
convergence. Smartphones have caused a
fundamental shift in consumer demand and
the way that they interact with merchants.
Paying for things has evolved from swiping
payment cards to tapping, waving our
smartphones, punching payment details, or
using a wearable ring. Globally, Mastercard is
accepted at over 50 million merchant
locations, in various forms.
More on www.business-standard.com

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Always ready
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR

S
ince the time it entered the Indian market
in 1995, Samsung Electronics has played
the premium card to secure its position as
the top durables manufacturer in the
country. But as the premium market expands and
As competition heats up in the top end of the durables many more global players with cutting-edge tech-
nology throw their hats in the ring, how is the
market, here's how Samsung plans to defend its turf Korean company gearing up to justify its premi-
um tag?
Samsung identifies “Indianisation”, com-
pelling innovation, reduced consumer griev-
ances and imparting better product knowledge
as areas it has worked on in the past few years.
Together, these factors have differentiated the
company from the competition and have
ensured maximum bang for the extra bucks con-
sumers put in in its range of products — from
stronghold panel televisions to the more recent
entrant air purifiers, says Raju Pullan, senior
vice-president, consumer electronics, Samsung
India.
The Indian consumer durables market is
pegged at ~63,000 crore with half of it being pre-
mium (Industry sources, November 2018).
Samsung, by the virtue of being the market lead-
ers in two of the biggest categories — television
and refrigerators — and also in microwaves,
claims it is the overall market leader. While it has
dominated the television category for the past 13
years, the company ended the last quarter of
FY18-19 as the number one in refrigerators, says
Pullan.
He also advises to read beyond the numbers
and points out to Samsung’s presence in cate-
gories to which people will move after upsizing.
“For instance, in television, consumers are swiftly
moving from 32-inch screens to the 40-plus inch-
es category. Also, previously consumers were
looking mainly at HD products, of which we have
a large range, but we have moved to the UHD
and QLED segments where growth is happening
much faster than before; in fact, it was more than
40 per cent in those segments in the last financial
year. The trend was visible for the past two-three
years,” he says.
While Samsung has been adding more prod-
ucts according to consumer demand, it also feels
it has delivered on the innovation front for better
value to consumer. “The family hub or the large
refrigerator is priced in the range of ~2.5-2.75 lakh
and we were surprised to see the demand for it.
Despite the high price, our research says, con-
sumers look at this product not because of the
capacity but because of the convenience these
products deliver,” says Phullan. The company
also credits the new financing schemes in the
market for helping consumers upgrade faster
The company has also been mindful of the
specific Indian needs while introducing new
products. “The ‘masala dry’ feature in some of
our microwave ovens is very specific to India.
Similarly the flex washing machine has been
made keeping in mind that in India people like
to hand scrub their clothes. In refrigerators, again,
the consumption patterns from east to west and
from north to south are very different, so we
launched the 5-in-1 refrigerator with different
load sizes. For example, in north India the con-
sumption of non-vegetarian food is low, so they
need less of freezer area while in other parts it is
just the opposite.”
India’s quick adoption of 4G and cheapest data prices provides the company an opportunity as well Two weeks ago, the company unveiled its new
as a challenge to roll out products that help the consumer use technologies such as internet of range of smart TVs saying they are about “unbox-
things in their daily lives ing magic everyday”. “This comes from a lot of

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Indianised consumer insights. For So how efficacy of its many service centres
instance, many Indians use their tel- would the much but also because of the remote
evision systems to play music. So we awaited advent Where Samsung is No. 1 access service where the con-
have a TV that offers loud and better of 5G networks  Television sumer can call and the solution or
sound to double up as a music box, alter the game? the knowledge is provided over
 Refrigerator*
has specific features to shuffle and Pullan says the the air.
make playlists and even play music IoT-based bene-  Microwave Siddharth Shekhar Singh, asso-
with the screen switched off. There fits are being Where it’s second ciate professor (marketing), Indian
is another called PC on demand as offered in televi- School of Business, opines that val-
Washing machine
in many Indian households the sions from the 32 ue creation and value extraction
father usually carries the family’s one inches model Lagging in are integral to generate a premium
laptop to office and comes back too onwards. Earlier Air conditioner positioning and over time,
late. So this feature helps the kid who only a select few *in Q418-19 Samsung has been able to hold on
is at home and has computing needs
“Many of our recent television sets
Source: Company
to this quality. Trend watchers also
to complete his homework. The tel-
and upcoming had it. “After say that while the smartphone
evision can be used as a computer
launches come from acquiring voice market has been getting tougher
where the projects can be completed
a lot of Indianised assistant Bixby we have been for Samsung, in consumer electronics a true chal-
by the kid by getting into the
consumer insights” using it in many of our devices. lenger, like some of the Chinese phone compa-
Microsoft browser. The demand for RAJU PULLAN We have something called the nies, is yet to emerge.
air conditioners with copper con- Senior vice-president smart hub which seamlessly Moving ahead, the company aims to strength-
densers is very high in India. So we consumer electronics connects all Samsung devices. en its market share in categories where it leads
have added more such products in Samsung India This talks to the fridge, locates and intends to become number one in the fully
our range so that adoption in con- the missing products after automatic washing machine category where it is
sumer households increases.” scanning with in-built cameras currently at number two. Air conditioners is one
Even after two decades of presence, India and can even place orders on delivery apps sens- area where the company admits it has a lot of
remains an emerging market (EM) for Samsung, ing supply needs. You can even instruct the catching up to do. “In television as a category, we
albeit the biggest EM globally. India’s quick machine when to start washing clothes from a are at 30 per cent and plan to take it to 35 per
adoption to 4G and cheapest data prices pro- remote location. Within the 5G realm, things will cent by the end of this year. In the UHD, 4K seg-
vides the company an opportunity as well as a speed up further,” he says. ment where we have 35 per cent, our intent is to
challenge to roll out products that help the con- Phullan claims that “consumer feedback on take it to 40 per cent,” Pullan says.
sumer use technologies such as internet of things concern points have gone down drastically” in
(IoT) in their daily lives. the last three-four years not only because of the

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PhonePe, Paytm look to

knock down the age barrier
Pitching ease and convenience instead of discounts and offers, mobile wallets
go all out to woo the silver generation
NIKHAT HETAVKAR

A
amir Khan impersonating a genial
grandfather with an all-white mop of
hair tells his rather talkative grandson
that he always plays safe, be it tackling a spin-
ning ball in a game of cricket or making pay-
ments via the Flipkart-owned mobile wallet,
PhonePe app. Paytm’s campaign with the
tagline ‘Kisi ki life ka Paytm bano’ (Become
somebody’s Paytm) targets seniors too. The
ads show younger users helping older men
and women conduct simple tasks on the app.
In the first flush of growth, young Indians
were the power beneath the wheels of the dig-
ital payments ecosystem. Now, with the mar-
ket more cluttered and the need to expand the
footprint more acute, digital wallets are focus-
ing the lens on an older demographic say
experts. Also, the companies point out, the
true impact of technology is better understood
among a more dispersed age band today than
it was ever before, which makes it an oppor-
tune moment for brands to build their appeal.
“With the growing popularity of the
Internet, the older age group is increasingly
becoming more aware of the benefits of tech-
nology. They are also becoming more conver-
sant with digital and willing to ‘sample’ a lot
more of it for their everyday needs,” said
Jaskaran Kapany, vice president, Marketing,
Paytm.
The Paytm ads seek to address misgivings
among older users, hence the focus on bill
payments, booking movie tickets and the safe-
ty of the technology used. Safety is a common
subtext; even the Phonepe ads talk about the
hassle-free and safe nature of payments.
“In India, it is important to have different
demographics. Since the younger population
is more aggressive, brands initially tend to
focus on them. Wallets have exhausted their From left: Aamir Khan advocates the convenience of PhonePe while a young girl shows an older
possibility with the young and now are climb- woman how to navigate the Paytm app
ing up the pyramid towards the older genera-
tion,” said brand expert Harish Bijoor. He
added that the younger generations with the offering similar services with AmazonPay or irritate users.
higher volumes help to start a business while the mushrooming of community-focused pay- Both Paytm and PhonePe said that their
brands target older generations and higher ment systems, pure mobile wallets are strug- app is user friendly and specified no plans for
value transactions as the market matures. gling to differentiate their offerings while a simpler version for senior citizens, for the
Both Paytm and PhonePe said that their building an appealing value proposition. And moment. Until then, adding a dash of grey to
advertisements are age agnostic and reflect in this endeavour, cashbacks and gimmicky their advertising is what they hope will do the
ease of payments for all sections of the popu- offers could well turn people off or create a trick.
lation. However experts see this as more of an perception that wallets are frivolous experi-
age-specific communication, a move to ments.
enhance brand appeal among a generation Underlying the current communication
sceptical about transacting online. “The narrative is a deeper problem, point out
younger generation cares about offers but the experts Standalone wallets are struggling to
older generation wants speed, reliability and stay relevant, they said. Loyalty is low among
convenience,” said Bijoor. young users and the constant shifts in tech-
Mobile wallets battle lack of trust, low tech- nology have meant that the apps are rendered
nological skills and clutter in the Indian mar- redundant even before they can deepen their
ket. With big retail brands such as Amazon footprint. At the same time, frequent updates

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‘Social media plays a role in

sustenance of linear TV’
A pay TV business is more local than an OTT, Davey tells Vanita Kohli-Khandekar
You spent £6 billion on content last year. How do you decide
what to buy?
Right now our priority is regional production. So in Italy, it is
shiny floor shows — Italy’s Got Talent, X-factor, and
MasterChef. Because free TV has never done well. We took GARY DAVEY
them to a higher level of scale and glamour. In Germany, it is
Managing director,
drama. The German TV market is very good with TV movies, content, Sky
drama series. It has never been good with long arc, complex
stories, with lots of characters. Babylon Berlin (2017), our
drama series, is set in the Berlin of 1929, with a big budget (€40
million). The first two seasons had 16 episodes, and season three is due
this year. In the pay TV business, if you want to be a success, you don’t
want to impose. In Italy, Germany, all the international operations are
committed to serving local consumers.
Netflix’s head of content Ted Sarandos spent $8 billion on content last
year. How is your job different?
Ted’s starting point is the global scale, he looks at global data; mine is
local interest to be relevant and deeply authentic. We know in real time
what people are watching. Therefore, our mission is more audacious
than free TV, and more local than OTT. In the UK, for instance, our big
priority is comedy, authentic British comedy. A lot of it will not travel,
may be less profitable. But we are a pay TV business; we don’t need to
be global. He has to. Being authentic and local in each country and
then being global is tough and expensive.
Among sports, entertainment and movies, which works best
from a return perspective?
Sky started very heavily reliant on sports and movies. But we
were never sure where entertainment fitted in. Now
entertainment (drama, comedy) is the third leg. We ask our
consumers, “are we providing content worth paying for”
weekly, monthly, for each programme… in different ways.
that is why there is a race, a rush to build direct-to-consumer
relationships. In the end, the consumer will settle for a small
number, so a shakeout is due.
What has been happening to the content production
industry? Has that changed?
Content costs have been rising by 10-15 per cent a year. They
are driven up more because of consumer expectation of
quality. The TV viewer today is a sophisticated consumer —
cheap sets, sloppy productions are gone. Lazy production is brutally
punished. People say that competition increases costs. But in
drama/comedy, nobody can have a monopoly on ideas. Though the
volume of original content has quadrupled, it hasn’t stopped the
development of great TV content. I don’t think we are running out of
ideas.
You have worked in the TV industries across Australia, UK, US, Asia,
what are the learnings?
The common need is to understand local culture and to be able to
adapt to that. In India, for instance (Davey was CEO of Star TV from
1993-1999), we couldn’t use the existing TV industry as a benchmark
because there was only Doordarshan. Therefore, we had to do
something completely different instead of
doing Western programming in a culture
we didn’t understand. All we could
bring was the production technology
constructively to people who
understood the local culture. So,
there was a lot of trial and error —
it was a combi-nation of external
expertise plus local content.

Is there yet a problem of plenty (on content)?

I don’t believe in something like too much choice. What
we will get better at is how we present, recommend. We
don’t offer all the content and say “consume it all”. We
don’t think of consumers as millions of people
consuming content. In every household, a consumer is
seeing a different product.

Isn’t that what OTTs are doing?

I have been a Netflix subscriber for years. I don’t understand
why they recommend some of the stuff they do.

Does linear versus on-demand change what content is

consumed? Don’t you still need that one big hit?
We have been on-demand for 13 years now (since 2006), we
understand on-demand. But linear is still a powerful opportunity
to showcase content. A household (mum, dad, kids) has different
needs. It is very unusual to be able to satisfy those needs with
one show. Therefore social media plays a role in the
sustenance of linear TV because everyone wants to
be part of the conversation.

There are so many OTT apps.

Shouldn’t someone be aggregating
them? Play the role that TV
distribution firms played with so
many channels.
Customers are not going to
embrace infinite number of apps

95

Playing in the big league
Here’s how the new IPL sponsors are hedging their bets
SHUBHOMOY SIKDAR
W
ith the sheer weight of the runs he
scored in his first ever Indian
Premier League (IPL) season this
year, Englishman Jonny Bairstow
awed many and ensured that in future, too, fran-
chisees keep a close eye on him. Much like the
cricketers, there are new brands that associate
with the IPL every season and like Bairstow, try
to leave an indelible impression on the Indian
consumers.
The 12th season of the annual gala has seen a
host of new brands jumping into the bandwagon
as broadcast and/or streaming sponsors or tying
up with individual teams. From a global beverage
giant with past history of cricket sponsorships to
a service start-up taking a calculated risk and
even a brass band that plays in weddings; each
has reasons to believe that the IPL is just the right
platform that combines correct timing with the
best reach and is the one-stop solution for a
diverse range of brand goals.
The viewership numbers, even during the
league stages, are flattering and in touching dis-
tance of the overall figure from last year (411 mil-
lion versus 414 million). While the growth in
viewership is consistent, according to figures
released by the broadcaster, Star Sports, after
the first four weeks, the fine print shows more
women and children watching the league this
year. For the brands, it means more target groups
even as their individual views of looking at it are
different.
Asha Sekhar, vice-president and chief digital
officer, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia,
STRATEGY
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WHO’S
WATCHING?
411 mn cumulative IPL viewership
in the first four weeks
414 mn IPL’s total reach last year
10.1 mn average impressions for
women (15 and above) watching IPL
this season (15 % more than 2018)
4.5 mn average impressions for
children (aged 02-14 years) watching
IPL this season (29% more than 2018)
* Source: BARC (TV + OOH), only match telecast hours
considered, total average impressions as measured on BARC
emphasises the brand’s ongoing attempts to
transform itself into a total foods company and
explains how an IPL association helps the brand:
“Sports events like IPL provide us with the scale
to target specific audiences in the most relevant
time of the year, enabling a segmented approach
in reaching out to the right consumers, in the
right markets, with the right brands,” she says.
Star shared a list which included Phone Pe,
Mobile Premiere League, UrbanClap and Voltas
as the other new entrants for this season as broad-
cast and/or streaming sponsors for the 2019 edi-
tion of the Vivo IPL.
Lucrative as it is, associating with the league
comes at a huge financial cost, especially for
brands like UrbanClap, an on-demand home serv-
ices start-up that is still some distance away from
the consolidation stage. “We had never consid-
96
ered IPL before primarily because of the amount
of investment involved. But this time, we have
built the infrastructure to sustain the demand
which would come from an association with the
league,” says vice-president (marketing),
UrbanClap, Rahul Deorah.
Given that the cricketing event is on at the
peak of summer, the company it pushing its air
conditioner (AC) servicing capabilities in its adver-
tisements. And while the viewership among
women and children has registered a healthy
growth, Deorah feels the IPL is the best way to
reach the Indian male and so the kick-off with a
“male-centric” service. “Consumer insights have
validated this as a majority of the bookings are
done and followed up by men.”
The company tracks factors such as how
many extra app installations are coming at the
end of each ad and how many extra bookings are
coming. He claims that the average daily app
installations during the IPL days have gone up
three times since the launch of the new campaign
and on some days, it has even touched 3.5x. He
predicts it to settle down anywhere between 2
and 2.5 times by the time the season ends.
Then comes the individual team sponsorship
which is less in terms of the money involved but
is far more in the sheer numbers. Five of the
eight franchisees, who shared the figures of new
associations, have anywhere between one and
six new sponsors backing them this year. K.
Shanmugham, CEO of Bairstow’s team
Sunrisers Hyderabad, said, this year the team
has a new principal sponsor in Coolwinks.com
and three other sponsors and such support
gives extra motivation to the team to win the
championship.
Experts such as KWAN Sports CEO Indranil
Das Blah say while the broadcast or presenting
sponsors have a broad leverage, individual
teams can play tactically and avoid being over-
shadowed by players with deep pockets.
“Brand presence anywhere is important. For
example, if Manyavar is at the back of the KKR
helmet, it is more than a logo presence. Again,
for example, if you are teaming up with Royal
Challengers Bangalore and if you are lucky
enough, you can get almost half a day with Virat
Kohli and at ~2-3 crore and that's a great value
and that's what the IPL gives you. If you are to
rope in a Kohli or a (MS) Dhoni you will have to
spend upwards of ~10 crore but if you invest
smartly with an IPL team, you are getting them
for less than half that amount,” says Das Blah.
Some associations are rather puzzling. Take
the case of Colors, a Hindi general entertainment
channel (GEC), whose logo Mumbai Indians
players are sporting on the back of their jersey.
This is the first time Colors has associated it with
the league but isn’t a GEC teaming up with crick-
et that eats into its daily-soap led viewership a
tad strange?
Nina Elavia Jaipuria, head, Hindi mass enter-
tainment and kids TV network, Viacom 18 Media,
acknowledges this paradox as a “reality” that no
GEC broadcaster can run away from. “Rather than
ruing the lost viewership, it is prudent to associate
with it and make sure that they benefit from it.”
More on www.business-standard.com
 STRATEGY
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Brands use humour, ply causes to

keep politics out of election pitch
McDonald’s, KFC, Samsonite, Benetton and others play safe even as they look to maximise
brand salience in election season
URVI MALVANIA

H
ow does one keep the brand chatter
active and buzzing in election season
and yet steer clear of controversy?
Check out the brands that are doing
just that. McDonald’s campaign
#MakeYourChoice has a bunch of irate cus-
tomers demanding what they ordered instead
of being dumped with the choices made by
the restaurant staff, only to be told that if they
don’t vote, they lose the right to choose. KFC
has twisted the brand’s tagline of ‘Finger
lickin’ good’ to ‘Finger inkin’ good’.
Smart lines, humour or wrapping a cause
around the message helps keep the narrative
neutral say experts. But is this effective, they
ask. “Consistency is key when you take up a
cause. Brands may use a topical ad as a means
for a brand refresh, but increasingly, brands
are making an effort to stand for something.
So to jump onto a topic just to grab eyeballs,
or win an award is not effective,” said Sandeep
Goyal, founder Mogae Media.
Brands need to stay topical to be present
in customer conversations online and stay rel-
evant amidst the daily din of political cam-
paigning. Hence the use of satire and humour.
Take the Berger Paints ad, for instance, which
uses satire to drive home the political incom-
petence and cynicism around us.
“There are three ways to get into election
themed advertising. One way is to urge people
to vote. Another way is to stand up for causes
and a third way is to use election as a backdrop
for a humorous ad. The first one is the safest
and most effective since the brand isn't seen
as taking a side, and at the same time is doing
something for the consumers' benefit. On the
other hand, the most dangerous strategy
would be the second one as the brand may be
seen taking sides in an election, which may From left: McDonald’s tells people to exercise their choice or suffer the consequences while Berger
not sit well with its audience. Humour, while Paints takes a dig at political incompetence
effective as a means of communication, may
not be the best option for an issue like election against each other and make wild promises,
since it adds an element of frivolity to the an inked finger slips into frame and shuts
whole message,” said Harish Bijoor, founder them up. The tagline runs, ‘Show them who
Bijoor Consults. has the power’.
In the recent bunch of ads around elec- Titus Upputuru, creative head, Taproot
tions, some brands have attempted to stay as Dentsu that conceptualised the ad says, “We
close to real life as possible. For instance, the were really excited because we wanted to bust
McDonald’s ad is based on an on-ground acti- the myth about power. The typical farce is
vation in one of its outlets. The ad also drives politicians claiming that they can do this or
home the apathy that Indian voters show dur- that for the public; they seem to portray that
ing elections and the dangers thereof. It ends they have the power to give us what we need
with a line that says that in 2014, 280 million and decide what we should eat, wear and
Indians gave up their right to choose, followed believe. Power actually lies in the hands of the
by the message, “We all want a government voter, because he or she decides who should
of our choice. But we don’t want to go out and govern and serve the country.” As for the
choose.” brands, it lies with the consumer.
Apparel brand Benetton has a campaign,
#UnitedByVote that focuses on how real pow-
er does not lie with the political parties but
with the public. In the ad, as politicians rage

97
- STRATEGY
Small is
big for DHL
Here's how the global No. 1 logistics firm
is taking Indian SMEs to the world
SNEHA BHATTACHARJEE
A
fter agriculture, the micro, small and
medium enterprises (MSME) sector is the
second-largest employment generator in
the country, employing 120 million people. With
38 per cent contribution to the nation’s GDP and
40 per cent and 45 per cent share of the overall
exports and manufacturing output, respectively,
it is easy to see why India is gung-ho about their
potential.
While most among these MSMEs agree that
international exposure is vital to realise the
potential, data shows that awareness about new-
er markets to logistical bottlenecks and regula-
tory hassles — the list of factors that deters these
enterprises from taking flight is rather long.
DHL Express, global market leader in the
logistics industry, is looking to bridge this gap
in the ecosystem. The reason is not far to seek.
SMEs account for 70 per cent of DHL’s business;
sector growth implies significant, if not propor-
tional, growth for the logistics solution provider.
To this end, the company's strategy hinges on
three factors — leveraging its wide national and
global footprint, boosting outreach by building
presence in smaller markets and expanding
existing capabilities.
But why would MSMEs care? Logistical
expenses typically make up 8-10 per cent of
the total cost for these firms, so most of them
are continually trying to tame such costs. As
logistics and transportation expenses take a
larger bite out of every sales rupee year on year,
it is but natural they would evaluate the bene-
www.business-standard.com
fits of going global against the overall cost of
doing business. With a cost-effective logistics
system, they can enhance operational efficien-
cy, improve scalability and, therefore, cus-
tomer satisfaction.
Network and coverage are the two big assets
every good logistics player brings to the table.
Till about 20 years back, DHL was largely car-
rying trade documents and small low value
samples for exporters. Today, its clients
include SMEs across sectors such as textiles,
garments, handicrafts, sports goods... you
name it. Its network spans 220 territories and
together with Blue Dart Express, it covers over
700 cities and towns within India. This means
it has the widest footprint with a focused pres-
ence in important SME clusters. “We have a
total of 53 facilities in India with a presence in
both metros and non-metros such as
Aurangabad, Madurai, Surat, Roorkee,
Jalandhar etc. In areas where we do not have
a direct presence, we connect through the net-
work of Blue Dart Express,” says Sandeep
Juneja, vice-president, marketing and sales,
DHL Express India.
In the last two years, DHL has opened new
service centres for direct coverage in 20 key tier
"Our aim is to cover the length and
breadth of the country instead of
focusing on a particular region"
SANDEEP JUNEJA, vice-president, marketing and
sales, DHL Express India
98
1 and tier 2 markets. Juneja attributes this to the
increasing movement of manufacturing to tier
2 and 3 cities. Last year alone, DHL Express
launched six facilities in tier 2 and 3 markets.
“Our aim is to cover the length and breadth of
the country and enable trade pan India, instead
of focusing on a particular region. We will set
up a base wherever we see a demand or even a
potential opportunity,” says Juneja.
Tapping “potential opportunity” may also
entail educating prospective manufacturers and
sellers about the potential in the first place.
“When we see such avenues for growth, we shall
proactively set up a base and guide people
through the process,” he adds.
A significant part of the ~850-odd crore
investment DHL has committed to India has
been used to build its presence in smaller mar-
kets and expand its capabilities to support
SMEs. The company has designed various out-
reach programmes specifically for this pur-
pose. Take Yellow Yatra, a platform that gives
SME customers access to experts in cross-bor-
der e-commerce ecosystem. The company
also offers a footprint of over 600 retail service
points where a customer can walk in and ten-
der a shipment.
Apart from beefing up its network, DHL is
also working on closing the loop — that is, offer
end-to-end solutions. So it manages not just
deliveries but also pickups and is easing up cus-
toms clearance processing in India and the des-
tination country. In short, the focus is on speed-
ing up a product’s international movement.
“Through our electronic shipping solutions,
businesses can prepare documents pertaining
to shipments, comply with GST requirements
and e-way bill in India, and easily track con-
signments for easy retrieval, if needed,” adds
Juneja.
Knowing that the entire process might over-
whelm an SME, DHL is also working with
industry bodies to make it as hassle-free as pos-
sible. It is working closely with the Express
Industry Council of India and customs author-
ities on reforms such as elimination of paper-
work in the clearing of shipments. Its on-
demand delivery (ODD) platform enables
sellers to offer their customers a range of flexi-
ble delivery options. “Today, 70 per cent of all
our e-commerce shippers/exporters are using
ODD services. The tool can also be integrated
with the seller's website, giving them a distinct
edge over competitors,” says Juneja.
More on www.business-standard.com

Inside a Big Bazaar store in New Delhi, brands jostle for space on the shelves
Brands go back to
the basics in stores
With 68 per cent of retail trade spends barely yielding
results, Nielsen says domestic companies need to go back to
the drawing board to fill the gap
VIVEAT SUSAN PINTO
T
here is a wall of purple and blue amid
the clutter of products in supermarkets
across Mumbai. Food major Mondelez,
which manufactures and markets the
Cadbury brand of chocolates and Oreo brand
of biscuits, is virtually going for the jugular
within stores as rival food companies up the
ante. Purple-coloured Cadbury chocolates and
blue-coloured Oreo biscuits are visible just
about everywhere in shops and supermarkets,
blocking out new launches by competitors
such as Mars, Ferrero, Nestle, ITC and
Britannia.
While firms such as Mondelez, say experts,
understand both the relevance as well as sig-
nificance of in-store branding and marketing,
many don't. A just-released report by market
research agency Nielsen says that 68 per cent
of retail trade spends barely yield results and
that domestic companies need to go back to
the drawing board. Coming at a time when
consumer goods companies are putting more
“feet on the street” to directly reach retail
stores, the wastage is inexcusable.
Sujoy Das, head, sales force activation and
effectiveness at Nielsen, who has authored
the report on in-store strategies by companies,
STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com
east see a greater percentage of spends going
to general trade.
Nielsen says that nearly 60 per cent of ini-
tiatives on the shop floor never get executed
at all, many of them stuck at the back end or
within intermediaries in the value chain.
What is therefore needed is a strong monitor-
ing mechanism.
“Brands should establish an independent
and comprehensive tracking system to meas-
ure in-store activations. This can then be
linked to store-level sales performance, ulti-
mately delivering a complete understanding
on the return on trade spending,” Das says.
He adds that brands need to measure the
says that nearly two-third shoppers in South outcome of the money they spend in stores
Asia including India plan their purchase deci- as well as the compliance of execution norms.
sions within stores, making it a critical last- “Easy-to-access and easy-to-use monitoring
mile battleground. “So, while the good news tools can help derive greater insights and
is that shoppers don’t actually make up their enable brands to make decisions faster,” he
minds when entering a shop, the opportunity says.
as well as the challenge is to stand out in the Experts also say companies could use arti-
clutter,” he says. ficial intelligence and machine learning to
With manufacturers as well as retailers monitor in-store investments better in select
(thanks to their private labels) fighting for stores.
shelf space , there is barely room for error, say
experts. N Chandramouli, chief executive offi-
cer of consumer insights firm TRA, says,
“Since there are more brands chasing retail
space today, it is literally a suppliers' market.
Retailers expect good trade margins from
companies for display, while manufacturers
have to maximise shelf space.”
Industry estimates peg the spending on
retail trade at around 30 per cent of the total
marketing and sales budget for most con-
sumer goods companies. Depending on the
size and mix of channels used by a firm,
spends on general and modern trade vary
from city to city. So, southern states, for
instance, say experts, see a larger portion of
trade spends apportioned to modern trade by
companies owing to a stronger presence of
the latter, while states in the north, west and
99
 STRATEGY
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‘Discounting
is not equal to
loyalty’
We will differentiate on service,
availability and price, Chearavanont tells
Shubhomoy Sikdar
The organised retail market in India is very small but despite the
resultant room for growth, do you feel the pace at which it is expanding
is still slow? If yes, share reasons.
Most observers would suggest that the organised retail market in India
has been growing at a slow and steady pace. Despite that, based on the
recent growth trends, India is expected to become one of the global retail
hotspot accounting for market size of $1.1 trillion by 2020. Furthermore,
the modern retail market in India is expected to double in size over the
next three years. By 2030, India is expected to be the third largest con-
sumer market.
For business-to-business (B2B) players like us, India offers a great
opportunity. With a captive base of 12 million retailers and a growing
Hotel/Restaurant/Café (Horeca) segment, India makes for a high potential
market. Also, with the rollout of reforms like GST, RERA, etc., the envi-
ronment is conducive to the growth of organised retail in India.

You have set up three stores in India (all in the Delhi-NCR region) in the
last one year. What have been the lessons here so far and how have you
used those insights?
We have had an incredible journey in India so far. For LOTS, India is a
crucial focus market because it is undeniably a global hotspot and
offers us tremendous opportunities for expansion. In the last one year,
our learnings about the market have helped us to further strengthen
and localise our retail strategy in the country. The most important
learning comes from our understanding of Indian customers, which is
a very heterogeneous group with diverse backgrounds and buying
behaviours. In spite of this, we have realised that the core requirements
of professional customers remain hinged on three aspects:
Service, availability and price. Our in-depth research about
the Indian market has given us insights about customer expec-
tations that are similar to those in Thailand.
We are bringing the best practices from Thailand in the Indian
market. We have opened stores close to our customers so that TANIT
we can champion the cause of convenience and offer speedy CHEARAVANONT
delivery service. We have achieved good customer satisfaction helped us convert customers into avid brand ambassadors.
with our delivery turnaround time spanning anywhere between
Managing director Keeping this core value in mind, our delivery service consists
LOTS Wholesale
24 to 36 hours, almost on par with e-commerce players. of an unloading facility at the shop, free packaging support at
Solutions
Another unique learning about the Indian market has been the store, early bird programme for Horeca, easy return and a
in the technology space. Unlike Thailand, Indian consumers highly enabled call centre with a stringent turnaround time
are digitally savvy and at LOTS, we have ensured that through digital for addressing all complaints. We have begun witnessing results in the
intervention, we ease the purchase process for our members. For this, form of a strong organic growth in the member base for each of our
we have launched a business development application for our sales stores.
force team and are in the testing phase with our e-commerce site.
Also, we feel that our members connect with us better when we run Deep discounting is the most popular way of customer acquisition
customised campaigns that specifically address their business needs. today. Do you think here you can match up to the other big foreign
We saw great participation of our members in the Kirana Karnival fes- players or even the big Indian companies?
tival and the beverage festival, amongst others. This strategy not only Deep discounting and huge cash burning models have turned into a
helps us in business but also creates excitement in the community of trend to ensure customer acquisition. However, we feel that this route
LOTS. is not sustainable in the long run because it is transactional in nature.
This strategy does not instil loyalty in the customers. Also this phe-
Is the challenge only from the offline players or do you feel the push is nomenon is an e-commerce play which focuses on “massification”
coming from online and omni-channel partners as well? What is the strategies over quality. We understand the needs of our professional
specific strategy to deal with them? customers and offer them the most competitive pricing all year round.
Today, the business model can be disrupted at any stage. Impeccable
customer service is at the core of our philosophy. This strategy has More on www.business-standard.com

100

Upsetting the
applecart
Honda is betting on product and price innovation to zoom
ahead of its No. 1 rival
The company feels the BS-VI fuel regulation will push the prices of products
across the spectrum upwards
T E NARASIMHAN
T
he road map is clear for the country's els in its portfolio, it wants to
No. 1 scooter maker, Honda
Motorcycle and Scooter India
(HMSI) — to become the No. 1 player
in the world’s largest two-wheeler
market overall. The company says it has been
at the job for quite some time, only now the goal
appears within reach. Its get-to-the-top strategy
rests on two pillars — targeting new categories
with innovative product offerings and assuring
hassle-free service to the end consumer. It
sounds cliched, but the company says that's the
best way to service discerning buyers in a rapidly market looked completely differ-
growing market.
Currently, Hero MotoCorp leads the two-
wheeler market with a 36 per cent share while
HMSI is next with a 27 per cent market share.
These two are followed by TVS with 15 per cent.
HMSI is the leader in the scooter category with
a 56 per cent share, according to Society of
Indian Automobile Manufacturers’ January to
December 2018 data.
What makes the company upbeat is its per-
formance thus far. The milestone of crossing 40
million units in a short span of 18 years and log- was a huge draw among women — today
ging average annual sales growth of 3.5x in the
last four of those 18 years have spurred HMSI to
enhance its capacity by 600,000 units by the
end of the next fiscal. While the Indian arm of
STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com
the Japanese two-wheeler compa-
ny has over 20 two-wheeler mod- “While the first-time
buyer continues to
widen its repertoire and offer focus on mileage and
choices in all categories — mass price, the 100cc
and premium, family vehicles and scooter segment will
performance bikes. It hopes to use grow and challenge
cutting-edge technology to predict the motorcycle
features and demand. category”
Activa is a good example to
Y S GULERIA
illustrate this. Over the last few
Senior vice-president, sales &
years, scooters have been out-
marketing, Honda Motorcycle
selling bikes but when HMSI and Scooter India
launched Activa in 2001, the
ent. Activa launched in India at a time when
automatic scooters were considered luxury and
Bajaj scooters were the trendsetters. HMSI
came along and offered exactly what people
were looking for — Honda’s trusted engine and
better mileage/performance. Its promise of 60
km per litre mileage was unthinkable a decade
ago when scooters could barely ply 40 km on a
litre of petrol. Design-wise it was a hit — it
appeared mid-way between a heavy-duty
motorbike and a nimble moped. No wonder it
almost a third of Activa riders are women.
“We decided that the product must be con-
venient and for the entire family. It must meet
the requirements of many more members of a
101
household if it hoped to beat a motorcycle to
make its place in the family,” says Yadvinder
Singh Guleria, senior vice-president, sales and
marketing, HMSI.
The brand helped HMSI increase its cus-
tomer base and gave it confidence to step into
the motorcycle segment, which it did with the
premium 150cc CB Unicorn and 125cc CB Shine
(now India’s largest selling 125cc motorcycle)
and finally into the 100-110cc mass segment
through Dream Yuga.
The company also made huge investments
on innovative features and it is reaping the ben-
efits. It was HMSI which introduced the combi-
brake system with the equaliser technology in
2009, something that would go on to become
mandatory a decade later. The same goes for the
tuff-up tube in 2010 which prevented immediate
deflation of tyres in case of a puncture. “We never
shied away from investing on innovative prod-
ucts. This gave us an edge,” says Guleria. Another
of its winning features was the convenient lift-
up covers — you could open the cover off an
Activa like the bonnet of a car.
All this helped HMSI to build trust in its early
days. The company gained its first 10 million cus-
tomers in 11 years. The next 10 million customers
were added in the next three years. In effect, the
first 20 million customers were added in 14 years.
The milestones in this journey include
expanding production from 1.6 million units
annually from just one plant to 6.4 million from
four, entry into the mass motorcycle segment
in 2012 with Dream Yuga, setting up of the new
technical centre for faster development of India
specific models in scooter and motorcycle,
among others. With NAVI, the
company tried to serve a new seg-
ment of customers, the fun-loving
youth which was looking for
something different than a scoot-
er or a motorcycle. In simple
terms it offered the convenience
of a scooter but the style quotient
of a motorcycle with a customi-
sation option. India’s first utilitar-
ian scooter Cliq is also one of its
kind.
The market has also changed
dramatically over the past decade
and a half. From a meagre 10 per
cent in 2001, scooters have now
grown to almost 32-33 per cent of
the total two-wheeler market,
denting the share of the 100cc
motorcycle category in particular.
Scooter sales hit a speed breaker
last year, but Guleria says just it is
a temporary setback.
He backs his claim saying
while the first-time buyer continues to focus on
mileage and price, the 100cc segment will grow
and eventually challenge the motorcycle cate-
gory. “With Cliq, Honda has challenged the
domain of the 100cc bikes. It is a baby step
though,” says Guleria.
The company’s stronghold is the south and
the west. Next it will head to the markets where
it has a smaller presence. One segment where
the brand is not present is the sub-~40,000 seg-
ment. The company feels the BS-VI fuel regula-
tion will push the prices of products across the
spectrum upwards and there won’t be any sub-
~40,000 product in the market left.
More on www.business-standard.com

Brand BIC Cello
rewrites India story
The company has set up its largest stationery plant in the
country and is pushing its presence both online and offline
NIKHAT HETAVKAR
B
IC Cello refuses to be penned down by
competition. In the cut-throat sta-
tionery market in India, where margin
of error is thin, BIC Cello stands tall. It is the
leader in the ballpoint pen or ball pen market,
ahead of rivals such as Reynolds, Lexi, Linc
and Luxor, company executives said.
To put things in perspective, the branded
writing instruments market in India is esti-
mated at ~2,200-3,000 crore. The ballpoint
pen segment constitutes the largest chunk, at
70 per cent, followed by gel pens at 20 per cent
and fountain pens at 4 per cent. The balance
6 per cent is luxury pens, say industry
experts.
BIC Cello was formed after French sta-
tionery major Société BIC acquired Mumbai-
based Cello Pens in 2015. Since then, the BIC-
Cello combination has allowed the firm to stay
ahead of archrivals such as US-based pen mak-
er Reynolds, which split with partner and
India licensee GM Pens (based in Chennai) in
2016. Reynolds is now distributed by Flair
Pens, based in Mumbai, since 2017. The two
compete head-on globally as well.
Industry experts say that the strategy by
BIC to retain local brand Cello, which has high
recall value, has paid off. India remains one
of the top focus markets for BIC, with 10 per
cent of its stationery business coming from
STRATEGY
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its way to India as well, said experts.
The global major’s newer range of products
such as markers, gel pens and mechanical
pencils have also found their way into India
in the last three years, targeting college stu-
dents as well as office goers. However, school
students remain BIC Cello’s backbone, some-
thing it is conscious of and has no plans to
move away from despite pressures to trade up
and target older age groups.
“India is a young market with 310 million
students. This segment is growing at 1.7 per
cent per annum, which is equal to
the domestic market, Peter Van “India is a young the population of the US.
Den Broeck, BIC's senior vice market with 310 Education is part of BIC’s DNA
president, Middle East, Africa & million students. and brand ethos. Our focus on this
India, said. The size of the market, The education category also ties in with the larger
in addition to a growth of 8 to 10 segment is a big interest of the Indian government
per cent annually, makes it very focus for us. It is on education,” Broeck says.
attractive from a business per- part of our DNA The drive to increase topline
spective, he said. and brand ethos“ has also seen BIC Cello focus on
Having tasted success with the PETER VAN DEN distribution aggressively. In the
Cello acquisition so far, BIC, say BROECK last few years, the firm has
experts, could leverage the brand Senior vice president, BIC increased its presence both online
further as the pressure to sustain and offline and intends to build its
sales momentum increases. The network across both channels.
ball has been set rolling with BIC While Cello remains the bigger
Cello setting up its largest stationery plant in brand of the two, the company is paying heed
the country this month in Vapi, Gujarat. With to BIC too. Besides targeting regular stationery
the launch of the factory, the firm will now outlets, the company is also pushing up in-
have a total of seven units in India — five in store branding, in its drive to improve recog-
Daman, one in Gujarat and one in nition at the point of sale. Battle lines for BIC
Uttarakhand. Cello have clearly been drawn.
“Our core strengths lie in manufacturing.
And what we want to do is to industrialise the
making of high-quality pens in India,” Broeck
said. Globally, BIC is known for its attention
to detail when producing pens. BIC Cristal
ballpoint pens, its flagship brand, are recog-
nised for their ease with which consumers can
write from the start to the end. The precision
comes due to founder Marcel Bich, who,
alongwith business partner Edouard Buffard,
redefined the pen market in Europe and the
US. This precision in manufacturing will make
102

Mondelez takes
on biscuit rivals
Eyeing a bigger bite, the company aggressively targets the
mass market
TE NARASIMHAN
W
ith the chocolate market secure
in its pocket, Mondelez India is
aiming to take a bigger bite of the
estimated $5 billion (around
~35,000 crore) biscuit market in the country.
The company’s strategy rests on two pillars —
one, push Oreo as a popular option in the pre-
mium end of the market and two, make two-
year old Bournvita biscuits and its recently
launched variant Bournvita Shakti, snacking
choices in the mass market segment.
It is not uncommon for mass players to climb
the ladder of aspiration and hope to be bracket-
ed with premium products; but Mondelez India
is happy to go top down. It started out with a
premium offering in 2011 and after building up
Oreo to be reckoned among the top three
brands, the company has decided to have a go
at the mass market. “There are legacy players
who are 100 years old, 70 years old. Given that,
what we have achieved with Oreo in eight years
is phenomenal,” says Sudhanshu Nagpal, cate-
gory lead 1(biscuits), Mondelez India. India is
now the 5th largest market for Oreo globally and
one of the fastest growing. Overall, Mondelez
India has 1.6 per cent of the biscuit market in
STRATEGY
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“There are legacy
players who are
70-100 years old.
Given that, what we
have achieved with
Oreo in eight years is
phenomenal”
SUDHANSHU NAGPAL
Category lead (biscuits),
Mondelez India
India, according to industry estimates.
Expect a lot more action around Oreo in
terms of formats and targetting as the brand
goes beyond wooing kids. The company is
planning a tie-up with Hindustan Unilever to
extend Oreo into ice creams. The brand has
been extended into the choco-bakery segment
103
under the biscuit category with the launch of
Oreo Dipped at a price of ~20 for a unit pack
(~60 for a multi-pack meant for modern trade).
Choco-bakery is a cross between biscuits and
chocolates, which the company claims is a new
trend. This would be a third platform for the
brand to operate on. As an advertising profes-
sional, who has worked with a rival brand,
points out, biscuits are moving away from the
narrow hunger-satiation proposition and look-
ing for a play in the larger indulgence and treats
space.
“So, it’s not about biscuits or chocolates, it’s
about giving the consumers the right dose of
gratification and that’s the space where this seg-
ment is growing,” he adds. The company has
been tracking the online response to Oreo
Dipped since its launch in December 2018 to
get a perspective on the brand’s potential.
Within the first three days of the brand’s pre-
view, it logged 4,000 reviews on Flipkart, of
which 3,600 were five stars. “That’s not the kind
of response Flipkart has ever got on a new
launch in the foods category. So we got lot of
consumer positive love,” claims Nagpal.
While these products are aimed largely at
the customer in a metro or a tier-I city, in the
coming months the company will turn its atten-
tion to the mass market, which accounts nearly
50 per cent of the biscuit sales in India, with
Bournvita Shakti. “We will accelerate premium
with the right intervention on Oreo and
Bournvita and apply some of those lessons to
take Bournvita Shakti mainstream,” says
Nagpal.
If it were to do that, Mondelez will have to
turn its attention to a market that has been its
blind spot — the rural market ‘where so far
Mondelez had a weak play’, agrees Nagpal. The
company launched the ~5 pack in January. It
also has ~10 and ~25 packs and a large “tiffin”
pack for sales through modern trade. “We
never had a ~5 biscuit, which is a price
point that constitutes about 50 per cent
of the biscuit market today. In rural
exclusively, it’s even higher. So that’s
where we decided that we would have
a Bournvita Shakti which would talk of
the same value, health and taste prom-
ise but offer better value,” he said.
Major companies operating
in the biscuit market of India
are ITC Limited, Britannia
Industries Limited, Parle
Biscuits Private Limited, Surya
Food & Agro Limited and Unibic
Foods India Private Limited. The
organised biscuit market accounts for more
than 70 per cent of value share in the overall
Indian biscuit market. The sector is expected
to surpass the revenue figure of ~400 billion by
2023. In the biscuit segment, Mondelez India
is competing with the likes of Britannia and
Parle.
The brand will see more investments in
terms of marketing, strong sales efforts, addi-
tion of outlets, and in creating more in-store
visibility. It is present in nearly 480,000 rural
outlets and 884,000 urban ones. “In our trade
visits, we have seen lot of excitement,” says
Nagpal.
With all these developments, the biscuits
category, which was growing at 2X of Mondelez
India overall for the past few quarters, expects
to continue the dream run for the next couple
of years or so.
 STRATEGY
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economy of the 21st century. This is why engi-

GUEST COLUMN neering simplicity is of utmost importance.
For any enterprise, dealing with the emer-

Why simple ideas are great gence of 5G, internet of things (IoT), edge com-
puting and more, is leading to a situation of
increased complexity that requires a relook at
how network operators design and deploy their
As we build the networks of the future, the key will be eliminating IT infrastructure. Advanced networks are some
of the most resource-intensive IT operations
complexity and for IT operators, the challenge posed by
this is often difficult to work with.

I
n today’s digital era, customers are more
demanding, knowledgeable and empow-
ered than ever. They want applications that
are personalised to their specific needs, any-
where and anytime. Their expectations from
products and services are compelling network
operators and engineers to devise solutions that
are similar in nature to consumer apps and can
function according to demand while delivering
the highest quality.
Due to these developments, backend net-
works have become more complex than ever
whilst operating under unique operating con-
ditions. They must seamlessly cater to a multi-
tude of consumer demands across multi-cloud
and multi-device environments. While the
cloud is powered at its heart by the data centre,
it also places immense pressure on this data
centre to function smoothly and profitably.
Network operators are thus investing signif-
icant resources towards scaling their infrastruc-
ture in a cost-effective manner to meet these
enterprise and consumer demands. This is lead-
ing to the usage of complex pro-
gramming languages and highly
skilled developers. Additionally,
human-machine interactions have
also now come into the mix to fur-
ther complicate matters. While the
future appears promising due to the
emergence of self-driving networks,
the reality is that we have a long and
winding way to go in order to
achieve such a future.
As organisations and network DINESH VERMAXXXX
Managing director, India
operators strive towards building
& SAARC, Juniper Net-
such an infrastructure, engineer-
works
ing complexity often impedes
their ability to respond. This
forces them to relook at their network infra-
structure and operations, and work towards
making them as simple as possible. As we
move to a more complex world, rising degrees
of complexity can hinder innovation and neg-
atively impact its rate of adoption and the
trust that users ultimately have on the digital
Whether they must perform mainte-
nance work or move new services to
the cloud, they are required to divert
hours and money towards opera-
tions. Thus, the simpler the better.
Engineered simplicity can great-
ly lower operational complexities,
make network infrastructure more
secure and also lead to innovative
services as enterprises transform
themselves in the digital era of 5G
and IoT.With simplified architecture
and self-driving networks, enter-
prise IT operators can thus simplify
the management and the opera-
tional complexity of a network
through automation, intent and machine
learning.
Modern IT operators are realising that they
now need a flexible network architecture that
can be easily "sliced" into isolated networks that
eliminate the inherent complexities of tradi-
tional IT.

STATSPEAK The data-guzzling addiction to smartphones is often

blamed for loss of productivity but mobile phones will
DIALLING continue to have a significant impact on economic growth
and will remain crucial in addressing social challenges in
many parts of the globe. As 5G is now upon us and brings
GROWTH with it the promise of a host of exciting new services, the
boundaries between mobile and the wider digital
ecosystem is rapidly blurring which is creating new
opportunities. Mobile internet adoption is making its
presence felt by contributing to the UN’s Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), finds a new report The Mobile
Economy 2019.

Estimated productivity contribution 5G will contribute $2.2 trillion to the global

$1.1trillion from mobiles economy over the next 15 years (in %)
Economic value that the global  Economic value (in $ bn) % of GDP 6 35 Manufacturing
mobile ecosystem generated 2,810 4.85 Agriculture
2,600 2,710 & utilities
in 2018 2,480 4.8 & mining
2,270 2,370
4.8 4.8 4.8 4.75
4.6% 2000 4.7
of global GDP generated by 4.7 14
mobile technologies and 4.65 ICT &
trade
services in 2018 4.6
4.6 4.6 29
4.8% 4.55
16
Professiona
l & financial
(estimated) of global GDP 4.5 Public Services
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 services
generated by mobile
technologies and services by Mobile ecosystem's funding of the public Mobile industry's contribution to some of
2023 sector through general taxation (in $ bn) the 17 UN's Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) (Score out of 100)
14mn Mobile services VAT, sales
taxes and excise duties
190 Goal 2015 2016* 2017*
Number of those directly Quality education 46.2 2.8 1.4
Handset VAT, sales taxes,
employed by the global 90 Climate action 39.1 4.9 2.9
excise and customs Total
ecosystem
510 No poverty 37.7 2.6 1.3
duties Corporation taxes
17mn on profits 90 Gender equality 39.1 1.5 0.4
Jobs generated through Reduced inequalities 36.1 2.0 1.0
Employment taxes & 140
through related industries social security * inprovement Source: GSMA Intelligence

104
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Digital media game will change

completely in five years
Innovations are not happening in India and that’s a challenge that we need to address
as an industry, JATIN MODI tells Sangeeta Tanwar
How has the advertising landscape in India
changed with the rise of digital media?
Advertising in India is hardly seeing any
retainers. Advertising as we know traditionally
is today restricted to few industries such as
telecom, banking, financial service and
insurance, and e-commerce. If we look at other
industries, we will hardly find them on
television (TV). Almost every industry apart
from the above mentioned advertisers is going
on to digital media instead of TV.
Companies now understand that they need
to be on digital media in order to reach out to
the fragmented audience. For example, if you
are in publishing, you want to reach out to
people through LinkedIn and other digital
platforms. The always-on nature of advertising
is changing.

Is there a proportionate increase in the

marketers’ digital media spend?
Undoubtedly, the influence of digital media is
increasing. But even now, digital accounts for
less than 15 per cent of the total marketing
spend by advertisers. Five years back this
figure was less than 5 per cent. If we look at the
United Kingdom, 12 years back, the spend on
digital was less than 10 per cent and today it is
more than 50 per cent.
For a country like India, a 10 per cent jump
in marketing spends on digital in less than
five years is a big thing. Reliance Jio coming
in and providing internet access to 280
million people who never had access to
internet changes the game completely. The JATIN MODI
next five years will see the game for digital
media changing completely with
marketing spends going up to 30 to 35 per
cent.
To what extent are digital advertising
companies in India leveraging new-age
technologies like AR, VR, and AI?
The technologies including augmented
reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are
starting to pick up in a substantial way. Look
at the industries like hospitality, real estate
and automobile, where your intent to
purchase is driven by experience. Players are
using AR and VR to deliver superior
consumer experience. As regards to artificial
intelligence (AI), I believe AI per se is not
working. Most companies are doing machine
learning and saying they are doing AI. AI is
not yet mature.
We have done a lot of work on messenger,
voice interactive using AI for our clients. But
algorithms can only support such work to a cer-
tain extent. AI is set to mature quickly globally
as well as in India. In the next five years, the
technology will evolve substantially and we will
reach a point where consumers need not interact
with a bank executive at all. Chat
bots will be trained to carry out
Chief executive real-time conversations, they will
officer, FrogIdeas be trained to understand the con-
text of a given situation. Going for-
ward, many services will move
into computer-aided services. All this will come
about as the AI industry grows and matures.
Algorithms will become more sophisticated,
their applications will be clearer and they will
become stable over time.
What are the categories that spend big on dig-
ital and which industries are still playing
catch-up?
Marketers across product categories have a
clear understanding of the potential of digital
media and the deliverables that digital
marketing promise. For others, they need
upgrades, informed conversations to internally
make a case for digital marketing and
budgetary layout. There are clients who are
spending more than 50 per cent on digital and
are very mature in what they want. Industries
like BFSI and retail are more advanced and
more sophisticated in what they want
compared to other industries. Digital spends in
FMCG category need to go up. There are
industries that are still spending less than 10
per cent on digital. Technology companies are
changing and moving to digital quickly. The
business-to-business (B2B) segment is also
changing fast. B2B players are taking out
budgetary outgo from exhibitions and events
and putting it into digital.
What are the kind of solutions that marketers
are looking for
from digital?
The first area is corporate reputation — that
is, how you build and sustain it. Corporate
disasters are no longer breaking in
newspapers, they are breaking on social
media platforms. As a marketer my priority is
how do I make sure that damage done to a
brand gets contained. People are used to
managing reputation in print and TV.
However, response management,
mechanism, methodologies and procedures
are not well-defined for online. The second
area relates to generating awareness and lead
depending on what business one is in.
Marketers are asking how do I get clear cut
return on investment from my marketing
initiatives? The focus here is on driving brand
awareness/consideration.
More on www.business-standard.com

105
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In top
GEAR
Volvo is looking at a bigger
share of the luxury vehicles
market in India riding on a
wider footprint and class-
leading services
TE NARASIMHAN

S
wedish luxury car maker Volvo, which
has been present in India for about a
decade now, has set its sights on cap-
turing 10 per cent of the share in the
Indian luxury car market by 2020 up from the
current 6 per cent. Nothing out of the ordinary,
just that luxury vehicle manufacturers found
the going much more challenging in India last
year than many other markets. While the year
2018 looked promising initially, they ended it
in the slow lane as factors such as high import
costs and the depreciation of the rupee togeth-
er with a severe liquidity crunch pulled down
consumer demand. Total volumes stood at an
estimated 40,688 units, up 3 per cent from
38,989 units in calendar year 2017.
Volvo says it will achieve its target with a
clear-cut strategy that rests on rapid launch of
new products, expansion of its dealership net-
work and providing class-leading services.
Volvo Car India’s Managing Director Charles
Frump says the company continues to be in
the investment phase, with India being one of
the key growth markets for its.
The luxury car market in India is dominated
by German brands, with Mercedes alone com-
manding over 38 per cent share, followed by
BMW and Audi. The Tata Group-owned JLR
has a little about 11 per cent of the market,
which was barely 1.5 per cent of the 2.5 million
unit domestic car market in 2018.
What has made Volvo India so upbeat is its
performance last year. The company recorded
the highest growth rate among all luxury
automakers in 2018, albeit on a much lower
base. It sold a record 2,638 units, up 30 per cent
YoY (2017 sales: 2,029), led by the XC60 and the
XC40 sports utility vehicles. Interestingly,
Volvo India crossed the number of vehicles it
sold in 2017 in the first 10 months of 2018, post-
ing sales of 2,194 units (up 40 per cent) during
the same period.
Looking ahead, Volvo set up a new assem-
bling facility — an important decision to be
more cost-competitive — in October 2017. The
company plans to bring all its new models to
India within six to eight months of their global
launch. These are all new-generation cars that
boast of Scandinavian design, state-of-the-art
technology and radar-based safety systems
that it hopes will resonate with the luxury cus-

106
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LUXURY CAR MARKET IN INDIA  (Units sold in 2018)

15,538 11,105 6,463
4,596

2,638

348
“Locally assembling the plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles distinguishes us from our competitors
and this capability should benefit
Mer- BMW Audi Jaguar Volvo Porsche the brand”
cedes- Group Land Rover CHARLES FRUMP
Managing director, Volvo Car India
*Estimated, ** BMW 10,405, Mini 700, (Source AUTOCAR INDIA)

tomers' preferences.
Electric vehicles will be one of the growth
drivers for Volvo Cars, as it aims to be the mar-
ket leader in the luxury electric cars segment.
To achieve this vision, the company will start
assembling hybrid-electric cars in India start-
ing this year, followed by assembling 100 per
cent electric cars. It helps that the Indian gov-
ernment has recently reduced the customs
duty on the import of components for electric
vehicles from 15-30 per cent to 10-15 per cent.
“Locally assembling PHEVs (plug-in hybrid
electric vehicles) distinguishes us from our
competitors and this capability should benefit
the brand,” said Frump.
Volvo plans to start local assembly of the
plug-in hybrid variant of its premium SUV, the
XC90, from its Bengaluru plant by the year-
end. The facility was set up in 2018 to compete
more aggressively in the Indian luxury car mar-
ket. Locally assembled Volvo models already
account for 60 per cent the company's sales in
India. Volvo's global vision is to have a million
electric vehicles by 2025 and India will be one
of the major markets to fulfil this vision, says
Fump.
Next comes the issue of reach. Volvo Cars
has increased the number of showrooms from
15 to 25 in the past three years. Besides big met-
ros, the company is also trying to cultivate tier-
1 and tier-2 cities — including Calicut, Indore
and Raipur — in the hope that they will con-
tribute significantly to Volvo’s growth.
The third aspect is customer service, which
is an important part of the company’s customer
retention strategy. Recently the company
launched the Volvo Personal Service (VPS) in
Chennai and Hyderabad which it says would
“redefine customer care in the luxury car seg-
ment”. This after-service model will be rolled
out across the country sooner than later, says
Frump. “VPS is the next level of differentiated
service that Volvo Cars is rolling out globally.
The key benefit of VPS is a reduction of waiting
time for customers by at least 50 per cent,” adds
Frump. It also enables the technicians to have
direct contact with customers thereby having
clearer communication-flow both ways. Last
year, Volvo opened its first part warehouse in
Mumbai to ensure that the turnaround time
for spare parts is cut to the minimum.
All these efforts are backed by a series of
branding and marketing activities on the
ground. Its contact programmes are aimed to
sensitise the target audience about issues
regarding safety, environment and responsible
driving, through which the company hopes to
develop a positive disposition towards the
Volvo brand.
The Swedish carmaker is expected to launch
the new S60, which is pitched against the new
BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C-
class, by end-2019.

107
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GUEST COLUMN

A potential game changer

T
oday’s buyers are smarter,
knowledgable and more
informed. The old adage
“people buy from people”, may still
have some relevance, but it is fad-
ing fast. Today’s technology
becomes rapidly obsolete by the
next dawn. Success in such a ASHOK DHARXXXX
dynamic and rapidly changing President & CEO,
environment demands a new and ExpenseAnywhere
forward-looking approach in the
way we behave and businesses manage their
operations and ensure competive advantage.
At its core lies the transformation that is
being constantly shaped by technologies
such as machine learning, artificial intelli-
gence, augumented and virtual reality,
blockchain, etc., to create and provide a
greater value for the clients.
In such a backdrop of digital transforma-
tion, businesses need a critical review and
assessment of their operations for efficiency
and profitability. This puts the corporate
chief financial officers (CFOs) and the
finance departments, interestingly enough,
in the middle of it.
Today’s CFOs have become key to leading
digital transformation and process optimi-
sation in their organisations. Current day
finance departments are no longer simply
tasked with ensuring compliance, allocation
of budgets, balancing and closing of
books. Their focus has shifted more
towards driving greater value and
operational efficiencies by gaining
insights powered by real-time ana-
lytics, automation of manual and
repetitive processes, rethinking
strategies that deliver process opti-
misation and cost savings.
In such a scenario, corporate
spend management inadvertently
emerges as the ripest sector for digital dis-
ruption. It is indeed an irony that even today
in over 90 per cent of organisations, the two
major aspects of accounts payable — the sup-
plier invoice management and business trav-
el and expense management —continue to
be predominantly paper-based and manually
managed. Even though many of these com-
panies may have spent considerable sums in
upgrading and updating many of their
accounting and ERP systems, accounting
departments are still buried in paper and
manual processes.
Business travel in India continues to expe-
rience double-digit growth year-on-year
basis. The Global Business Travel Association
(GBTA) puts the size of business travel in
India at $45 billion for 2019. Considering that
over 90 per cent of that money will be
accounted for through paper-based mecha-
nisms, imagine the potential for misreport-
ing, omission and outright risk and fraud. In
fact, it is estimated that businesses lose to
the tune of $1 billion annually on account of
expense-related fraud. Market research has
shown that in more advanced countries, a
single paper-based expense report can cost
up to $30 to process. In India, these costs are
about half as much depending on the organ-
isational approval and audit processes.
Implementing automated solution can not
only reduce processing costs by almost 40
per cent and processing time by about 80 per
cent, but can also remove the potential for
fraud or misreporting. There is not only mon-
ey, but time to be saved here.
Then again, outright automation might
not yield the value businesses are
seeking.Deploying automated solutions can
only deliver desired impact when CFOs
match context with technology. There is no
“one-size-fits-all” approach here.

STATSPEAK
Total retail market (2018)
CONSUMER CHOICES (%)
7.1 Jewellery
It is natural for a huge market as money that understand them 9.8 Apparel & 9.2 Consumer & accessories
India, comprising 1.2 billion and provide them with footwear durables & IT 3.7 Health &
people to be diverse in its experiences they seek.It captures entertainment
preferences and choices. As the interesting trends on how the 2.7 Home décor
name suggests, Deloitte India's millennial is the key focus of the & furnishings
Unravelling the Indian Consumer market today and how more 65
report tries to understand the segments are looking at an Food & 2 Beauty &
preferences and demands of this organised play in the coming grocery personal care
market. years. 0.5 Others
The report finds that the E-commerce, led by
consumers will only bless those technological change, will play a Millennial population Retail format (%)
businesses with their time and crucial part. (in millions)  2017  2021 (projected)
Traditional
India 440 88
Size of retail Growth of retail market (%) Brazil 75
65
market in India Offline organised segment
(in $billion) 9
China 415
18
12 22-25 e-commerce
795 billion (estimated) USA 81
3
1.2 trillion UK 15
3
(estimated) *Source: Deloitte India

108

Audit continues to be
considered a taboo
Advertisers and agencies do have a lot of data but in silos. This data is not talking to each
other, SODHANI tells Sangeeta Tanwar
Indian advertisers together spent over
~60,000 crore (Pitch Madison
Advertising Report 2019) on different
media last year. What are the key audit
and transparency issues the industry VINEET
needs to address?
At 12 to 14 per cent per annum, India is
SODHANI
one of the fastest growing advertising Chief executive
markets. Over a period of time, officer
television has become the biggest Spatial Access
media, print is becoming smaller, and
digital media is growing. Interestingly, in terms
of media spends, digital as a platform is
becoming bigger than outdoor, radio and
cinema put together. Again, ~60,000 crore is a
lot of money in the advertising market. With
the emergence and growth of multiple media
platforms, the traditional structure of two or
three key players including a client, an agency
involved in closing a deal is changing.
STRATEGY
www.business-standard.com
Today money passes through too
many hands. Multiple players are
involved in a deal. The changing
media landscape calls for an
additional level of checks and
balances to make sure that advertiser
money is well spent and diligently
documented. From the audit and
transparency perspective, there are
broadly two things that need to be
checked. First, the advertising money
is being spent at the right place (right media
platform) and at the right price. Increasingly,
clients (advertisers) need an independent pair
of eyes to tell them whether they should be
present on say ZEE TV instead of Star Plus and
whether they bought IPL at the right price.
So why is media audit still a taboo?
The truth is audit is considered a taboo. The
very word and the exercise itself continue to
raise eyebrows. However, slowly, the
advertisers’ perspective is changing.
More and more brands are coming
forward to seek external advisory to
ensure that their advertising money is
well-spent and tracked. For firms like
ours, while carrying out media
audits, the objective is not to find
mistakes but to ensure there are no
mistakes.
How has the media audit and
advisory space evolved over the past
five years or so?
While we started offering audit
services about 15 years ago, audit as an
independent function-business
is a fairly nascent industry.
109
Until four years ago, we were among a handful
of companies offering independent audit
services. In the last few years, we have seen a
number of smaller players enter the space. The
emergence and fast growth of digital media
and the lack of transparency in tracking
advertising spends and the effectiveness of
digital media have led to the rise of smaller,
independent firms specialising in audit.
Given the growing size of the audit industry,
big consultancy firms like PwC, Deloitte and
KPMG, which have been traditionally known for
carrying out statutory audits, too have started
offering media audit services. The entry of
smaller players in the market is going to expand
the scope of offerings in the audit industry. Look
at digital media. On an average, there are seven
players involved in closing a deal. A lot of studies
say that 50 per cent of money spent on digital
goes to middlemen. At one level, while the
advertising spends on digital are growing, the
need for audit to ensure that the money is well-
spent is going to increase too. All this augurs well
for the audit industry.
Are smaller independent audit companies
equipped to leverage technology? Because
technology is make or break in this business...
Media or marketing is one of the few sectors
and functions where a fast moving consumer
goods company like Hindustan Unilever
knows what kind of money and on which
media a competitor like Procter and Gamble is
spending. All this is possible because there are
agencies and tools that track advertising
spends and identify programmes and
properties on which money is being spent.
Competitors can even track the frequency of
advertisements appearing on traditional
media like television, print and radio.
With so much data at the industry’s
disposal, we should have been far more
technology savvy but we are not. Even today, a
huge amount of our work is done with the help
of excel sheets. A lot of data is captured, the
viewership, media spends and sales numbers
are out there. But they are available in silos. This
data is not talking to each other. Only a few big
companies have what you call a single window
view to see, compare and analyse this data
which is available at one place at the click of a
button.
So what is the way ahead?
Unfortunately, smaller companies continue to
be oblivious of the advantages that digital
technology has to offer both at the client and at
the agency end. The challenges
notwithstanding, things are changing slowly.