Win a prize of Rs.

1000

SNAP SHOT

Dear Readers, The December issue of The Crucible is the last one for 2009. We have been entertaining, educating and enlightening you all for last three months with the varied, informative and interesting content we put into our magazine. The magazine has received an overwhelming response from all our readers and we are looking forward to the same in the year ahead. This issue of ' THE CRUCIBLE' is, as usual, packed with some well researched articles throwing light on different genres of marketing and yes, not to forget a must read article by Associate Professor Jones Mathew. and last but not the least we give you an excellent opportunity to win a cash prize of Rs. 1000/- and upgrade your knowledge by simply logging into 'THE MINDBENDER CRUCIBLE QUIZ'. That's not all- the person who is the fastest with all the correct answers even stands a chance of winning a surprise New Year gift. So, put on your thinking caps and who knows, you might just end up starting 2010 on a winning streak!! We hope you will find this issue a judicious combination of fun and information. Our editorial team values your feedback and suggestions. So do write into us at [email protected] and let us know how you found this issue.

Here's a little Quiz to test your knowledge and if you get at least ten of them correct, you can call yourself a brand expert in the making and if you answer all correct then you stand a chance to win a prize.

So..Ready?
Page no. 3

Page no. 4

Page no. 6

Wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.

HAPPY READING!!
Marketing During Recessionary Times Page

no. 7

DISCLAIMER
All views expressed in this newsletter are the personal views of individual students and do not reflect any official or unofficial position of IILM Institute for Higher Education. This enewsletter is managed and run solely by the students of IILM.

Multi level marketing

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no. 9

Crucible quiz
Here's a little Quiz to test your knowledge and if you get at least ten of them correct, you can call yourself a brand expert in the making and if you answer all correct then you stand a chance to win a prize.

So Ready?

Q1: The Italian company BARILLA is the world's largest maker of what? Q2: In food and FMCG category marketing. What is LUP? Q3: Founded in 1988 by Dr.Eli Harari and Sanjay Mehrotra, listed in NASDAQ on 1995.Identify The company. Q4: Which cleaning product first appeared in 1904 as an off shoot of monkey brand soap and has the meaning force, vigour? Q5: What is the new low cost arm of Jet Airways launched in May 2009? Q6: Douglas Baillie was the former CEO of company X and new CEO is Nitin Paranjpe.Identify the company X. Q7: Which computer manufacturer launched ultra thin luxury laptop line Adamo? Q8: Its origins go back to 1863, when a group of New York City buisnessmen raised $100,000 to fund the National Union Life and Life Insurance Company. It lent money to build the Rockfelle and the Empire State Building.Which companies are we talking about. Q9: When Pepsi entered India, they introduced their own brand of Basmati Rice. Name it. Q10: MaxHealthcare in collaboration with which company is starting the Anti smoking campaign in India. Q11: Interpret the world' is the tagline of? Q12: Which company's name is derived from Voice Data & Phone? Q13: Name the Microsoft's HARDWARE launched in 2000 and created by Seamus Blackley and Kevin Bachus? Q14: Which was the Unilever's first product in India? Q15: UTV in association with which company brought out the campaign- Take Your Own Path. Q16: Name the new brand launched by Frito lays in 2009? Q17: Which brand sells 31 flavours signifying 31 days of the month? Q18: Fevicol brand belongs to which company? Q19: IMIEV is an electric variant of a car being launched by which company. Q20: Sydney Herald and WWF initiated an event. Aamir Khan was the ambassador in India. Name the event.

Click here to answer this quiz

h http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFBlWl9XUHctMEtJWjlWZVBqTU8tMXc6MA

What's the Buzz About Buzz Marketing?

There is a new marketing catch phrase that's getting rave word-of-mouth reviews. From articles in the popular press to conversations in the Piyush Akhaja classroom, Section H huge companies to boutique marketing firms, suddenly it seems you can't talk about new products without addressing 'buzz marketing.' There is something almost empowering about the idea of being able to 'buzz' your way into the products people buy.
restaurants, or who have cool clothes before we have. "To make buzzing really work, I do have to believe that the person I'm listening to is discriminating, that he or she knows something I don't. Otherwise that person is not giving me anything new." Procter & Gamble pioneered this approach on a large scale by recruiting hundreds of thousands of 'maven' teenagers to create buzz about new products -- some as mundane as toothpaste. "P&G started this idea of manufacturing word-of-mouth. They recruited a quarter million teens to talk about their products. Now they are in the process of recruiting mothers to do the same thing because they have suddenly realize that word-of-mouth is a powerful thing." Other buzz marketers rely less on natural trendsetters and more on 'connectors.' Basically these are people who have bigger contacts than the rest of us. They have lots of contacts in different circles, so word will spread fast.

But Does It Work?

Buzz marketing stands in direct contrast to traditional television or radio advertising -- the classic 'mass marketing' approach that is based on the premise of broadcasting a message as widely as possible, assuming that this is the best way to reach the largest possible number of interested consumers. Buzzing, which might also be described as 'micromarketing,' assumes that a person-to-person marketing message is much more powerful because it is so personal -- and that it could potentially reach more people than a broadcast message, if only it is buzzed about in great quantity by people who have very long contact lists and no qualms about promoting products to anyone who will listen. That's why Vespa turned to buzz marketers to ride its scooters around town and talk up their 'cool factor' when they debuted, and why Ford loaned its new Focus cars out to buzz agents for the first six months of its launch. In each case, companies looked for ways to gain high visibility and personal recommendations through buzz. Not every product can be effectively marketed by buzz agents; however .It has to be an interesting one. Products do have to live up to the hype, they do have to deliver. If these products aren't delivering coolness, this will not over time is a credible method. Products that fit this description are fashion items and items of cultural interest such as TV shows, books and movies - anything that connotes a sense of being in the know. They have to be products where value comes from the social interaction. What you wear what movies you go to, what things you read -- these are all influenced by social opinion. The fear for buzz marketing is that, however successful it may currently be, the effectiveness of the approach will inevitably be diluted through overuse and, dare we say it: too much Buzz. But look at pop-up ads and email marketing, which five years ago, when you saw them for the first time, seemed interesting. Now they are at the point of tremendous annoyance. They went from clever, path-breaking and really, truly creative to this incredible annoyance where now, people have just thrown out the baby with the bathwater. And there is no question that buzz marketing is poised to go exactly the same way. Buzz marketing needs to be used very judiciously for it to remain effective, otherwise people will become so skeptical and annoyed by it that they will become completely immune to the marketing virus that marketers are trying to spread.

Buzzing: What Is It?

Put simply, buzz marketing is the practice of gathering volunteers to try products, then sending them out into the world to talk up their experiences with the people they meet in their daily lives. The idea is that the more people see a product being used in public, or the more they hear about it from people they know and trust, the more likely they will be to buy it for themselves. Of course, word-of-mouth has long been the way that many people find their favorite products, or learn about a new favorite movie, book or restaurant. For years, people recognized the power of word-of-mouth in convincing, influencing, affecting consumer behavior. It has more credibility than traditional advertising. But it is a recent development by companies to try to create a structure around to practice, to harness and direct the way that word-of-mouth spreads -- and to attempt to measure its effect on sales once the 'campaign' is complete. Buzzing isn't really new. The hype about these different kinds of buzz agents is what's new. In practice, buzz marketing can take several different forms. Some companies identify particular types of people to do their buzzing for them. Known as 'mavens' or 'influencers' or 'early adopters,' these are the people who naturally set cultural trends, who define what is cool before the rest of the world even realizes it exists. But basically there are people out there who can tell what's cool and what's not. We all know them -- the people who tell us about great

Green marketing and its challenges

"Progress is possible, No one can stop it, but obstacle is there, we have to face it."
Vikas Kumar Jain Section G Amartya Sen 3) Giving your customers an opportunity to participate means personalizing the benefits of your environmentally friendly actions, normally through letting the customer take part in positive environmental action.

Next, keep in mind that for green marketing to work

Be aware of and concerned about the environmental
issues that your product addresses. Feel that by using your product they will make a difference, as one consumer or in concert with all other consumers. This is called "empowerment." Believe your claims. This is true not only for businesses in general, it's especially true for green businesses, where claims are often intangible and a history of misleading claims has left a negative legacy for legitimate companies.

Yes, green marketing is a golden goose. As per Mr. J. Polonsky, green marketing can be defined as,

"All activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchange intended to satisfy human needs or wants such that satisfying of these needs and wants occur with minimal detrimental input on the national environment."
Green marketing involves developing and promoting products and services that satisfy customers want and need for Quality, Performance, Affordable Pricing and Convenience without having a detrimental input on the environment. Green marketing refers to the process of selling products and/or services based on their environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in it or produced and/or packaged in an environmentally friendly way. The obvious assumption of green marketing is that potential consumers will view a product or service's "greenness" as a benefit and base their buying decision accordingly. The not-so-obvious assumption of green marketing is that consumers will be willing to pay more for green products than they would for a less-green comparable alternative.

There are basically five reasons for which a marketer should go for the adoption of green marketing. They are 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Opportunities or competitive advantage Corporate social responsibilities (CSR) Government pressure Competitive pressure Cost or profit issues

Challenges Ahead
1. Green products require renewable and recyclable material, which is costly 2. Requires a technology, which requires huge investment in R &D 3. Water treatment technology, which is too costly 4. Majority of the people are not aware of green products and their uses

Green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe

5. Majority of the consumers are not willing to pay a premium for green products Green marketing should not neglect the economic aspect of marketing. Marketers need to understand the implications of green marketing. If you think customers are not concerned about environmental issues or will not pay a premium for products that are more eco-responsible, think again. You must find an opportunity to enhance you product's performance and strengthen your customer's loyalty and command a higher price. Green marketing is still in its infancy and a lot of research is to be done on green marketing to fully explore its potential.

Definition suggests, Three keys to successful green marketing 1) Being genuine means that( a) that you are actually doing what you claim to be doing in your green marketing campaign and( b) that the rest of your business policies are consistent with whatever you are doing that's environmentally friendly. 2) Educating your customers isn't just a matter of letting people know you're doing whatever you're doing to protect the environment, but also a matter of letting them know why it matters.

e-commerce
3. Minimise the number of clicks
to checkout and improve "quick-to-shop" times to avoid cart abandonment. Research indicates that today's shoppers want rapid service and easy navigation. With so many e-tailers to choose from, consumers appear to be losing their patience for difficult-to-use Web sites.

Neha Nagpal Section H

With the Internet being top of mind and as we find that marketing budgets are being diverted away from traditional advertising spend into Internet expansion, we found the America Direct Marketing Association's Study - 10 Best Bets to Boost Your E-Commerce bottom line - a useful and informative study to share with you. Retailers are focusing on factors that make their Web sites more profitable rather than investing in features that do not provide a return on investment. The Internet continues to be an enormous area of growth and expansion for direct and interactive marketers. As a result, many marketers are continuing to invest in their Web capabilities as a strategy to grow their businesses. But not all investments were created equal. With many companies feeling the effects of the economy, the pressure is higher than ever before to turn any expenditure of time, money and resources into a positive effect on the bottom line. So, if you're looking to invest in your Web site, how do you predict what areas will produce the best return on your investment? What do you develop, improve or enhance in order to maximize your bottom-line impact?

4. Communicate with customers via targeted e-mails

that include merchandising tactics and provide timely and accurate responses to customer service inquiries. E-mail is fast-becoming the communications medium of choice for many consumers. As a result, investments in technology and customer service will reap many long-term benefits.

5. Invest in search technology

that allows consumers to search by multiple factors (e.g. department, keyword, price, recipient, theme, and occasion) and delivers results that match the search request. Often, consumers come to a site with a particular item or product category in mind. If that product is difficult to find, you risk losing a customer who came to your site ready and willing to buy.

6. Encourage additional purchases

by offering relevant cross-sells and up-sells throughout the site. Cross-and up-sells are extremely effective tools to increase your average order sizes - but relevance to the customer and/or purchase is critical to achieve success.

7. Offer timely gift services.

Following are the top 10 best bets that online retailers are doing to build their bottom lines:
1. Develop content
that addresses the nuances of product categories, customer base and distribution channels. This is especially important for product categories such as electronics, for which consumers need detailed information to make a buying decision.

As shoppers become more confident in and savvy about shopping online, the convenience of shopping for gifts drives customers to the sites that offer superior gifting tools and services. Some features to consider include gift certificates/cards, gift suggestions, gift centers, gift registries and comprehensive gift searches.

8. Provide real-time online information

about product availability and order status. Eliminate timeconsuming customer service inquiries and potential customer frustrations by enabling customers to monitor their own orders.

9. Structure promotional offers

without forfeiting profitability. Increase your average order size through creative offers (e.g. condition free delivery on order size).

2. Use technology

interactive

to add value to the online shopping experience and increase sales. Zoom, colour change and/or multiple-dimension technologies are frequently used on sites that sell computers, sporting goods retailers, department stores, mass merchants and apparel and accessory sites to give shoppers the sense of seeing the "actual" product and will minimise their perception of risk.

10. Consistently integrate multichannel efficiencies for

customer convenience and operational cost savings. Offer a "Store Locator" or "Request a Catalogue" option on your Web site. In-store return and in-store pick-up capabilities, as well as information about store events online, can also create a profitable synergy among channels.

Marketing During Recessionary Times

Jones Mathew Associate Professor (Marketing)

The global economy continues to be asphyxiated by recession.

For the uninitiated, in a 1975 New York Times article, economic statistician Julius Shiskin suggested several rules of thumb for identifying a recession, one of which was "two down quarters of GDP". In time, the other rules of thumb were forgotten, and a recession is now often defined simply as a period when GDP falls (negative real economic growth) for at least two quarters. Some economists prefer a definition of a 1.5% rise in unemployment within 12 months. But that is the flip side of being economists: you agree to disagree on everything. A lot of economic bloodshed happened in the United States over the past 2 years. The Lehman Brothers collapse triggered the concatenating set of events, the reverberations of which was bound to hurt many countries including India. Predictably, many of the problems are happening in the financial sector but analysts had rightly predicted that consumer markets are going to face the music in the near future too. The last three quarters have given marketers sleepless nights. For the past one decade, Indian marketers were enjoying vibrant consumer markets which were heavily supported by an aggressive credit market. Banks were luring consumers with loans and prompting them to buy as if the world was going to end tomorrow. The euphoria is slowly dying down and the credit crunch is taking its toll on the consumer market too. Probably the worst hit haves been housing and real estate companies which have faced the most heat, be it DLF, Unitech or Parasvnath. So what should a marketer do in times of recession? A couple of things. Most importantly, train to be Recession Ninjas!

An opportunity of a lifetime.
This is the Grand Launch of Tata DoCoMo GSM services in India. Just in over two days, one could see huge hoardings of this campaign. It affirms the fact that

"Branding Should Never Take A Backseat, Especially During Tough Times.

In fact- it must be the key investment avenue. Provided that its

done thoughtfully and only on key brands. Further, launching a new product/ signing a deal are also good attempts during such times. The reasons are many: Branding to attract Customers, Investors and Employees While your competition might play safe, customers want some real cues to make decisions. You give them one. Customer affinity/loyalty is least during such downturns, hence plucking them off (from others) becomes easy But one needs to be conscious of the investments made here. It's prudent to be Selective and Creative. Selective in terms of identifying and putting money behind the most promising brands and creative in terms of the campaign design and delivery. Even selection of the channels and the event is critical here. The Zoo Zoo advertisement from Vodafone comes to mind too. With very little investment, brand recall achieved was tremendously high. It's become sort of a phenomenon.

Recession Ninjas Take Time Out to Introspect

Recession is a good period for marketers to take an objective look at their brand portfolio. When there is euphoria, value takes a backseat and consumers indulge. When tough times come along, consumers tighten their purse strings and value comes to the driving seat. This is the time to see which brand in

Beware the Quick sands and Re-engineer Your Brand's Value Proposition

So here's the mantra

Don't cut down on brand building investment (personal or institutional) when tough times hit you. Be selective and creative! (Put your money behind the creative aspect rather than in investment in absolute rupee terms).

your portfolio offers more value to the consumer. If your sales are plunging like a man in a quicksand trap, its time to reengineer the brand's value proposition.

Recession Ninjas Invest in brands

usually the initial reaction by marketers in response to recession is to cut marketing cost. On the contrary, I believe it is time to invest in brands. You will be heard when all others are shutting their marketing mouths. Bargain with the media for the rates and invest in building your brand. Seth Godin says its

Recession Ninjas Sometimes!

Get

Paranoid

Recession Nijas Trade Up or Down

Super Luxury brands are often less affected by the downturn.

Those

India is still not yet out of recession but this is the time marketers should be paranoid. Only those brands will survive who either prepare themselves for a recession even during the sunny days or who take recession as a battle with regular warroom strategizing to beat it to a pulp. So meet your brand managers and ask them what to do when your organization is in the throes of a recessionary phase. Have plan B, C D and E ready.

who can afford a Mercedes are not going to

buy a Maruti 800. It's

those brands aiming at the middleclass who are going to be hit the most by the downward slide. So brands somewhere in between super luxury and low-priced, need to sit up because it's time to get

Recession Nijas Cut Costs Wisely

Even if you are selling a premium brand, cut costs. But cut costs, not investments. Invest in your brand, put out a lot of advertisements but cut cost in media, raw materials etc. Strive to lower your brand's break-even points to new lows.

Walmart makes more money during the recession than during good-times.
your drawing boards out. Remember

Recession Ninjas Listen to Their Customers

Your customers will tell you how to beat recession. Only thing is that you have to ask them. At least understand them. So when customers start tightening their purse strings, you can do that too. They will also tell you how much they can pay you. Listen to that and act accordingly.

Cost cutting should have a bearing on improving productivity

Recession Ninjas Appreciate the Value of Partnering with Stakeholders
You may not be able to survive recession on your own. So partner your stakeholders be it your lenders or customers or employees or your channel partners. Create an ecosystem of trust and kinship and face the downturn together. It will be worth it.

I agree that its more risky to invest in new products during recessionary times. If you cannot, then cut costs. If your company is the lowest cost producer then you stand a chance of wriggling out of the recessionary bear hug, which in many cases have proved to be fatal, or at least, capable of choking the life breath out of the organization. So here's to great marketing in recessionary times! And to being a Recessionary Ninja!

Multi level marketing

You see the ads all the time:

Anish Nareyelvala Section F

"Make millions now, no manager"

programs is not on the products they sell -- which are usually either bogus or are available somewhere else to the public at the same or lesser prices. Instead, the focus now is solely on recruiting new people to either buy into the program or else to buy products that are grossly overpriced with the idea that those people will recruit additional people who will also buy into the program or themselves buy the grossly overpriced products. Thus, today just about all of the multi-level marketing programs are scams. In today's internet economy, there is simply no need for multi-level marketing or the overpriced products that they sell -- meaning that the only thing they are selling are memberships in anticipation that future memberships will be sold in the future, which is the classic definition of a pyramid scheme, and thus securities fraud. Because products are available over the internet to everybody at lower costs than ever before, claims that "Multi-Level Marketing will take over the World!" are completely bogus. Indeed, the fact that no MLM schemes sell significant product to anybody other than the people who bought into the programs is proof positive that MLM is a dinosaur in today's economy, and exists only by defrauding people to buy memberships in anticipation of being able to make a profit defrauding other people into the program. Indeed, as is discussed elsewhere, many of these programs have been broken up for securities fraud and the people in them now have criminal records. So, save your Quartos and avoid MLM schemes.

Buying Into the Program

So you are being "hired" to sell products, and you have to buy into the program? This is a sure sign that it is a scam. If the product is worth a darn, the company will make its money selling the product. No program that requires you to buy into the program is real, meaning that all our scams. If you have to buy into the program, forget it! It is not a real program.

"Work on your own, start $12,000 per week."

Maybe you saw the ad in the paper, or maybe you received it by e-mail.

Yes, we're talking about Multi-Level Marketing, also known as "MLM"

Sales Material
Often MLM scams have sub-scams within the main scam of buying Distributorships. One of these scams is the purchasing of advertising materials. Think about it: A company wants you to sell their product but they want you to pay for the advertising materials? Especially with the huge profit margins that the Top Guy makes with these programs, they should at least pay for your brochures and tapes. If a company requires you to pay for advertising or marketing materials, it is a sure sign that it is a scam. The very worst programs will even require you to buy the "samples" of the product that you have paid to be able to sell!

Only the Top People Make Money Once Legitimate, Now a Scam
Once upon a time, multi-level marketing was a legitimate business which provided a way for small companies to get their unique products to consumers in small towns and rural areas which had no access to these products. At this time, the products sold themselves, and the multi-level aspect was a way of giving a small reward to those who had worked hard to build the organization. But the focus was always on the product. Today, and especially with the growth of the internet, it is possible for consumer to get about whatever they want at competitive prices. There is simply no real need for distribution "systems" as there once was, and indeed the focus of all the The hard truth is that only the guy who sets up the program, i.e., the Big Cheese at the very top, makes any really good money with these programs. Everybody who is selling for the Promoter typically gets screwed. Nonetheless, the promoters of these programs will often have pictures of themselves standing next to their mansion, yacht, executive jet, whatever, to show their success. Yes, these are real and they did make money by selling programs. Unfortunately, they made this money by cheating and defrauding the people under them to sell these programs for them -- you never see a distributor with anything other than a bunch of credit card debt.