India's best marketers

Connect real good. Or, the consumer disconnects. Never was this maxim truer than over the past year as India and the rest of the world went into a recession. The Congress party’s connect plan, Rahul Gandhi, clicked and won over the masses. Gritty telly-queen Rakhi Sawant made no bones about what she is and what she wants. She won audiences for the channel NDTV Imagine and stardom for herself.

Most companies who managed to feel the pulse of “real India, and Indians”, survived. Every marketer understood that the consumer was seeking value and looking at the fundamentals more than the emotionals: “This was not a year when branding strategy could have pushed products on esoteric promise. Hence, toothpaste with oxygen, or television that refreshed the eye would not have found takers,” says Harish Bijoor, Brand Strategy Specialist & CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults.

Tough times have stressed the return to the basics—the four Ps of marketing: product, price, positioning and placement (or distribution). These, of course, refer to the products. However, the rise of service orientation has made marketers look at three more Ps that form the lynchpin of marketing strategy: process, people and physical evidence.

This year, we seek to bring up names of marketers who did well, in especially difficult economic times, and have showed the value of getting real. As is the tradition, Business Today brought together an eminent set of panellists to shortlist “India’s Best Marketers”. Our panel this year had Y.L.R. Moorthi, Marketing Professor, IIM-Bangalore; Jagmohan S. Raju, Joseph J. Aresty, Professor Chair, Marketing Department, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; Nabankur Gupta, Brand Specialist & Management Consultant; Harish Bijoor, and Arvind Singhal, Chairman, Technopak Advisors. The tricky thing about choosing the best nine from a list of marketers is “not all companies that make money make noise and vice-versa,” says Moorthi.

Companies that pushed the envelope and addressed different markets did well. “There has been growth in the Tier II, III & IV markets. Rural markets grew, while the metros stagnated. Hence, the ‘P’ standing for ‘placement’ in marketing played a very crucial role in the growth strategy of companies,” says Gupta. Product was the hero for Samsung Electronics, which has worked to offer breakthrough technology at a price that makes sense to consumers. It offered Indians products at the same time that it offered them to the global users. Aircel decided to grow in these bad times but managed to cut through the clutter with its branding and value-loaded offering. Even public sector majors like BEML and LIC did not lag.

In fact, brand is tipped to play a far bigger and more strategic role for companies once the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) come into play in India. “Starting April 2011, valuations of brands will have a significant role in company valuations,” says Gupta.

Companies will now have to report the growth in brand valuations and this places the onus of brand building squarely on the top brass. The writing on the wall is clear. “You really want to separate the men from the boys in marketing? The best time to do that is in a recession,” says Moorthi.

SAMSUNG
First Among Equals

Don’t be fooled by his calm exterior: inside, B.D. Park, Director-Telecom, Samsung India Electronics, could be preparing to unleash the next tornado of cutting-edge products in India in step with their global launch. So far this year, Samsung has launched 35 models of mobile phones in India, with the touch-screen Star becoming the No. 1 selling model within three months of its May 2009 debut.

At last count, Samsung had launched 225 products this calendar against a total of 200 last year.

In many ways, Samsung has changed the market paradigm at the higher end of the consumer electronics and appliances market even as rivals were fighting the price battle.

Although a global leader in consumer electronics, Samsung was initially seen trailing LG Electronics in India by overall sales. “But it is closing that gap effectively with technology breakthroughs and products customised for Indian needs,” says Anoop Kumar, a past president of the CEAMA who heads C-NET Communication India.

“Samsung was the first to launch LED TV globally and it also keeps in mind the requirements of Indian consumers… They have an exclusive 32-inch (LED TV) for Rs 69,000 for this market as many people here do not have very large rooms but still want the best,” says Sachin Mehta, a multibrand dealer.

“Our target has been to lead in the product innovation space and we also try to be relevant to consumers with what they need here,” says J.S. Shin, President & CEO, Samsung South-West Asia HQ.

Samsung is already No. 1 in most categories and is not going to be content with the No. 2 slots elsewhere. As Aamir Khan puts it in the Samsung advertisements: "Next is what?"

—Shamni Pande

AIRCEL
Rapid Rollout

What does a regional mobile-telephony player 11 years behind the pack do to go pan-India? Till 2006, Aircel was operating in just two circles and had around 2.2 million subscribers. When Malaysian telecom major Maxis Communication acquired Aircel in December 2005 and decided to expand across India, it chose to highlight valueadded services (VAS). “We were 11 years late in most circles and…we had to be the first mover in marketing,” recalls Gurdeep Singh, Chief Operating Officer, Aircel Ltd.

So, Aircel’s ads focussed on what people can do with a mobile phone—pay bills, book tickets, network with friends. Then, it launched the Pocket Internet—buy a card for Rs 99 and enjoy unlimited Internet browsing for a month without any download-based charges—and myAircel, giving access to social networking sites like Facebook. Monthly subscriber additions have doubled from 600,000 six months ago to 1.4 million today.

—N. Madhavan

RAHUL GANDHI
The Party’s Trump Card

Ok, so it is a bit of a stretch to extend the cola-and-detergent variety of marketing to the colourful world of politics. Admitted, politicians do not sell themselves to voters like companies vending fairness creams and potato wafers. Even so, political parties and contestants, consciously or subconsciously, make what can be called a sales pitch which voters accept or reject.

So it was for the Congress party in General Elections 2009. The heritage party hurled at voters its pet issues ranging from good governance and stability to secularism and lined up its star personalities—Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as Mr Clean and Party President Sonia Gandhi as The Leader, but it is Rahul Gandhi who was refreshingly new and unique to the Congress’s “marketing strategy”.

In the run up to the elections RG— as he’s called—did not seem as cutting edge, but the result finally proved that he has added a whole new exclusive constituency, the youth, to the Congress’ voter base. In the 38-yearold, the Congress already had a political scion gifted with a glorious smile, winning charm and recognisable second name. In him, the grand old party has now also found youth—an unmatched edge.

Women troop in droves to his campaign meetings. His winning strategy doesn’t rely on genealogy or nature's bounty alone for connecting with young Indians. He asks them to reclaim their space in politics. Eschewing promises and blame games, he holds out freshness, sincerity and positivity, all of which command a huge premium in the “market” for votes. The Congress isn’t at any point short of fresh young faces, but RG has found connect with his audiences. This transition from Rahul Baba to Rahul Bhaiya has become the clincher.

—Puja Mehra

VIRGIN MOBILE
Whacky Communication

Quirky and cheeky are terms that describe the TV commercial where a teenaged girl tricks her parents into letting her go to Goa with her boyfriend. First, she announces to her stunned parents that she is not interested in boys. Then, the girl takes a call from a guy and tells him she is not interested in going to Goa with him. Parents, terrified at the prospect of a gay daughter, push her into the Goa trip. Daughter: mission accomplished.

This is just one of a series of Virgin Mobile India commercials that went on air in April 2008, when the service provider entered the market. The industry had several players, but not one of them aimed solely for the youth. “We discovered that the youth made up 55 per cent of the user market,” says Prasad Narsimhan, Chief Marketing Officer, Virgin Mobile India, “That’s why our commercials narrate real ‘harami but lovable’ stories.”

A survey showed that youth made twice as many calls, spoke for twice as much time on the phone and sent 2.5 times the number of SMSes as the rest of the (urban) mobile users. So, Virgin offered subscribers the option of “getting paid to make calls” lowered STD call rates and gave free and unlimited music downloads, among others.

Its approach continues to keep the brand associated with the youth of urban India and product innovation: it has achieved a 92 per cent awareness and 69 per cent consideration a year since its launch.

—Anamika Butalia

LIC
Daddy Cool

The Life Insurance Corporation’s headquarters building in Mumbai is getting a swanky look. But the work is being done at a snail’s pace (it began six years ago).

T.S. Vijayan, Chairman of the public sector insurance behemoth, has reason to be unperturbed by the slow progress. “Our nearest competitor is today less than one-tenth of our size even after 10 years of competition,” he says.

And in the first five months of 2009-10, LIC’s share increased to 67 per cent from 60 per cent in 2008-09. “We can always be happy with a little more,” says Vijayan.

That statement is the key to LIC’s latest marketing initiative: not an ad campaign, not branding, but people. In April 2008, it decided to give a select band of its agents the title of Chief Life Insurance Advisors (CLIAs), and task them with appointing and mentoring agents, hitherto the prerogative of development officers.

LIC has named around 8,000 agents as CLIAs. Even as private sector players try to reach more customers, LIC could end up with another army: each CLIA can appoint five agents a year.

“They have already brought in nearly Rs 700 crore of business last year,” discloses Vijayan. This year’s target: Rs 3,000 crore.

—Anand Adhikari

Ghajini
In Your Face

Aamir Khan starrer “Ghajini” created waves by raking in Rs 90 crore worldwide on the first weekend of its release. But, much before that, the film’s marketing had created waves with Aamir’s buzz-cut, tattoos, pumped up muscles and menacing look. Staring down from billboards, at us from TV screens.

Aamir, who had led the marketing team along with producer Madhu Mantena, Studio 18 and Spice Marketing & PR, told BT: “The key to marketing any film is to be honest …. And tell the audience exactly what you have made.”

“Secondly, how and what we communicate…, what kind of deals we do is very important. And how we get the consumers excited to consume our product is the key,” he says.

Ghajini threw up some surprising feedback at the audience testing stage: it cut across demographics, genders and age groups. But there were challenges.

“Entertaining and comedy films ruled the charts. Action and heavy films were out. Ghajini was an action film with elements of romance in it,” Aamir says. The solution: make the action exciting, give it a designer look, add a twist to attract audiences.

Then, Ghajini was mainstream Bollywood masala, contrary to what he had been doing for years.

Says Aamir: “The first message I wanted to send out was to prepare the audience for what they are going to be seeing. So the first promo had to be hard….”

The promo highlighted the film’s physicality and Khan’s new look. The in-cinema promotions had ushers at multiplexes sporting Khan’s buzz cut much before the premiere. Hungama was given the mandate to create maximum visibility on the web. It came up with multiple properties to let fans experience the movie.

Total marketing cost: Rs 7.5 crore. Global gross box office take: Rs 260 crore. Not bad!

—Anusha Subramanian

Ghari
Scrubbing Out Rivals

Simplicity and consistency makes a brand stand out. Look at Ghari detergent powder. Since its launch in the late 80s, Ghari has taken on multinationals and home-grown leaders and is today among the top three detergent-powder brands in India.

What makes Ghari tick? “While Ghari’s price-value equation attracts a lot of middle- and lower-middle-class buyers, the media blitz figured high in the hearts and minds of consumers,” says Rahul Gyanchandani, Director of Rohit Surfactants, which owns the brand. “Thanks to our media-planning machine, our marketing budgets are not as huge as those of our competitors, yet we are giving them a run for their money.”Ghari is one of the fastest-growing brands, present in almost 17 states.

“A product like detergent requires frequent communication…Besides, its jingle—Pehle Istimal Kare, Phir Vishwas Kare—connects very well with the target consumers,” says Jagdeep Kapoor, CMD, Samsika Marketing Consultants. Ghari's media planning is done taking into account the interests of both retailers and consumers, and is done specifically for each market, after months of trial and error.

Says Purnendu Kumar of Technopak Advisors: “Branding and marketing cannot work alone; detergent is a distribution-led product…The company would enter one market, give more profit margins to retailers, and achieve 100 per cent penetration before moving on to the next market.”

In India’s Rs 7,000-crore detergent market, Ghari claims to have clocked a turnover of Rs 1,600 crore in 2008-09, which effectively puts it among the top 3 players in the detergent segment. The other two are Wheel and Nirma.

—Manu Kaushik

Rakhi Sawant
Brags to Riches

One day she is an item girl. Then she “kisses” that past goodbye, uses the sympathy factor and enters reality shows. Finally, success, big time, with Rakhi ka Swayamvar. “NDTV Imagine hosting my swayamvar has been the biggest achievement of my life,” says Rakhi. Even if there are reports of her heading for a split with the Swayamvar guy, Elesh Parujanwala, the couple is doing a controversial Pati Patni Aur Woh for NDTV Imagine, where they babysit a kid. “Rakhi and Elesh’s presence give it an additional appeal since the entire country is interested in their lives as a couple” says Nikhil Madhok, VP Marketing and Communications, NDTV Imagine.

Rakhi has become a brand. As Anand Halve, Co-founder of brand consultant Chorophyll, says: “This brand stands for brashness, crudeness and a certain willingness to flaunt her unsophistication.”

—Rachna M. Koppikar

BEML
Riding High

What! We have a full unit that can make railway coaches but we don’t make any! That was V.RS. Natarajan’s first reaction when, after taking over as Chairman of BEML, the erstwhile Bharat Earth Movers Ltd., in December 2002, he was getting to know the company.

Indian Railways was not giving any orders to BEML. For BEML, making hulking beasts that could bite big chunks of earth or cart away tonnes of overburden from a mine had been a steady business, bringing in a profit of Rs 6 crore on sales of Rs 1,347 crore in 2001-02.

But Natarajan could see the demand up ahead for coaches, not just from Indian Railways but from the various Metro Railways that urban India slowly planned. And there was no sense in leaving idle the coach-making plant, a legacy from pre-Independence India.

Natarajan got cracking and began selling BEML the coach-maker to the Railway Board. Finally, in 2003, BEML got an order to build 200 non-AC coaches. More orders followed, and BEML, now Asia’s second-largest maker of mining and construction equipment, is setting up a third unit, in Kerala. BEML’s timing couldn’t have been better: Many cities in India are thinking of Metro railway systems but the costs can be steep due to the import of design and technology for the regular metro coaches that pack many features.

BEML is offering to build lowcost coaches for tier-II cities at almost half the price of regular metro coaches and shorn of many of its features like AC, etc. With the various metro projects on the drawing board expected to soak up an investment of Rs 2 lakh crore over the next 10 years, BEML expects rolling stock orders to hit Rs 60,000 crore. BEML’s aim is to grab half of this business. It has already had some success: orders worth Rs 1,672 crore from the Bangalore Metro after a stiff global bid.

—K.R. Balasubramanyam