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COVER STORY
Marketing Pitfalls: How to Avoid Them
-- Shailendra Dasari
Some successful organizations, at times, get carried away by their past success, and the complacency thus
induced renders them intellectually arrogant, eventually leading to marketing disasters. This article captures some of the
biggest marketing goof ups in recent times and the learnings from these catastrophes. It attempts to develop a framework
for marketers to scrutinize and pre-test their strategies and plans to avoid denting the company's reputation and
image, and consequent financial losses.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
ADVERTISING
Cutting Round the Corners in Creative Advertising
-- Manish Kumar Srivastava and Bani Kochar
Advertisers use different appeals to present their ideas. They touch our emotional chords and often grab our attention
through a tinge of humor. But sometimes, in the pursuit of creativity, advertisements deliver exaggerated messages, make
false promises and project far-fetched benefits, which mislead the consumers. This article attempts to examine the
creative aspects of Indian advertising, while highlighting the different appeals aimed at the different classes of people.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
POSITIONING
Positioning Myopia
-- Chaitanya Prasad Giri
The success of a brand is still viewed as the consequence of product attributes and quality. But it has also been
noticed that there are examples where quality products do not perform as expected. The reason for this is failure
in communication and the resultant need for a new approach to communication. Al Ries and Jack Trout have found
an answer to this problem through a concept called positioning. But some marketers take a myopic view of positioning.
This article unravels some ideas about positioning myopia and suggests a few steps to overcome the phenomenon.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
SALES PROMOTION
Promotional Products for a Strong Customer-Brand Relationship
-- Rashmi Joshi
Advertisers, today, are faced with the constant challenge of reaching out effectively to customers while making
a favorable impression about a brand. Though the traditional channels of advertising, like print media,
television, billboards, radio and direct mail, do influence the consumer mindset, they are not effective in the same league
as promotional products. This article dwells upon the attractive features offered by promotional products and how they
can be gainfully harnessed to promote diverse products.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
SOCIAL MARKETING
Social Marketing and Celebrity Endorsement
-- Namrata Khairah
Amitabh Bachchan talking to create awareness about AIDS, Aishwarya Rai advocating eye donation, Shahrukh
Khan lending his image to pulse polio campaign, etc., are all instances of social advertising which use celebrity
endorsements. Recent marketing research findings state that eight out of ten TV commercials scoring the highest recall are those
with celebrities. In the case of social advertising, where the stress is on changing behavior or inducing a particular
behavior, celebrities can be of great help.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Brand Management
Branding Through Unconventional Logos: The Michelin Man and Absolut Vodka
-- Bharathi S Gopal
This article takes a look at how some brand logos that do not adhere to the conventional practices have been
successful. The author illustrates the historical brand success stories of Michelin Tyres and Absolut Vodka, which created
strong visual images to communicate their brands. The Michelin Man continues to be the brand's mascot and connects
with customers across the world. On the other hand, Absolut Vodka's packaging itself acts as the brand logo.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
BRAND MANAGEMENT
Commodity Branding: An Internal Branding Perspective
-- Sukesh Kumar B R
Branding is one good differentiator to move away from the commodity image. In fact, many products/services start
as commodities before becoming brands. Any brand stands for certain values. It is not adequate if the values that a
brand stands for are only conveyed through marketing communications such as advertisements. It is equally important that
the brand's values are well-understood by the company's employees so that they are engaged at all stages of value
creation and thus help in making the brand sustainable over a long time.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Effective Use of Public Relations/Communications during Organizational Crisis
-- Sandeep Jain
This article is on the role of the public relations/communications department of an organization which is facing a
crisis and negative media fallout. A case in point is Mahindra Satyam, formerly known as Satyam Computer Services
Limited. Satyam, till recently, was mentioned as a $2 bn revenue company, operating in 65 countries with 53,000
employees. The confessions by its promoters led to a drastic fall in its share price, filing of lawsuits, apprehensive employees,
angry investors and worried clients.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
CASE STUDY
Indian Apparel Retailer Westside's Expansion in Non-Metros
-- Abhijeet Poddar and Deepti Arora
Small towns in India is the next big thing in the organized retail business. In 2005, the contribution of smaller cities to
the organized retail sales was 15%. In 2006, organized retailing in small towns was growing at a staggering 50-60% a
year compared to 35-40% in the large cities. It is the big names in the organized retail business that are eyeing
opportunities to start business in these towns. The Tata's established Westside, a leading chain of retail stores across India, plans
to expand its reach to the Tier II and III cities through the franchise route to tap the retail boom in these cities. Through
this model, Westside plans to reach out to consumers in 37 new cities, while other apparel retailers, such as Shoppers'
Stop and Lifestyle, are yet to try out this model. This case study discusses the strategy behind this expansion and tries
to ascertain whether it will work.
© 2008 IBS Research Center, Bangalore. All Rights Reserved.
COMPANY FOCUS
Havells' Brand Building Strategies
-- Shikha Ojha
This article is mainly about branding and its various aspects such as re-branding, multi-branding, etc., explained in
the context of Havells India Ltd (HIL). HIL is one of the fastest growing electrical firms in India, dealing in circuit
breakers, cables, fans, modular switches, etc. Havells has been releasing many advertisements to successfully promote the
brand for sometime now, and further, Havells had made certain changes to its brand too. The story of how Havells has
been building and managing its branding been focussed.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
INDUSTRY FOCUS
Sugar Decontrol: Sweeter for the Industry?
-- Siba Prasad Pothal
Indian sugar industry, which is the world's second largest producer of sugar, often finds itself in the midst of
controversy. And this time around, the bone of contention is the complete decontrol of the industry. Will complete decontrol of
this sector be a recipe for better realizations for producers?
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
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