A PAN IIM MARKETING MAGAZINE

1. Pan IIM Marketing Digest
The
Looking
Glass

2. THE LOOKING
Editorial
GLASS Online Partner: Dare2Compete
In this edition
Dear Readers Measuring the Effectiveness of the Humour Quotient
in Indian Advetising ……3
It gives us immense pleasure to bring out the first ever PAN-IIM marketing digest, with a joint effort by the
marketing clubs of IIMs A, B, C and L. Influencer Marketing ..…..6
If you take time to look around, you would observe the importance of marketing in every sphere of your life. Implicit Positioning and Surrogate Advertising .........9
Starting from the time you get up in the morning, the brush, toothpaste you use, right up to the time you crash on
your bed at night, just think of those countless brands that shape your daily lifestyle. It‟s a continuous tussle Fake IPL Player: Redefining Marketing ..…..11
between those myriad brands laid across the horizon of consumer observation span. In a season where marketers Effective Multi-tiered Promotions:
are leaving no stone unturned trying to grab consumer attention, marketing automatically assumes utmost impor- Lessons From Santoor ..…..13
tance. The world is brutal. It‟s no longer about marketing your product right. It‟s basically a requisite for sur-
vival. If you don‟t do it, your competitors will. And the consumers have plenty of options. So, basically if you 4P's of Indian Theatre Marketing ..…...17
don‟t sell, your competitors will.
Neo-Political Marketing ...….21
We decided to come up with a collection of choicest articles contributed by students and industry personnel, which
would highlight the trends of contemporary marketing. And for the same reason we decided to call the digest, „The
Looking Glass‟, because we feel it will give a true reflection of marketing, and the direction it is taking in today‟s Strategic Marketing for Educational Institutions…..25
scenario. The articles touch a wide array of topics which have assumed importance in the recent past. How has
humour been used effectively by marketers? How do you sell educational institutes? What exactly did the Fake Welcome to Marketing, the third epoch! ........28
IPL Player do for KKR? How do advertisers resort to surrogate advertising? What are the trends in online mar- Sidestepping the Commoditization of
keting? These, and many more articles inside would keep you engrossed as you go through the pages, we hope. Disruptive Innovations …...30
There are those who envision, and then there are those who work to make the vision a reality. We are proud to Sales Role in Fixed Income Securities Market ……32
say that we had a team which did both. We would like to thank all those who were involved taking the digest to
the completion stage. There was a tremendous amount of co-ordination and synchronization put in by the market- Valuation of TV Advertising …….34
ing clubs of the 4 IIMs. At every stage of development we also received immense support from the faculty in the
form of guidance and encouragement. Also, a very special thanks to Mr. Prakash Bagri, Director of Marketing, Ogilvy and Mather Trivia …….36
Intel South Asia, for sharing his insights on the evolution and future of marketing, in the digest.
Is Recession the time to tighten Ad Budget? …….37
In future we plan to evolve by bringing in greater participation from the industry and experts and initiating wider Low Cost Customer Acquisition
distribution. Please do send us your feedback at looking.glass.mag@gmail.com. Strategies for E-businesses …….39
Yours Truly State of the Market -A Comparative Study …….42
Mayank Jain, Prasad Gopal ,
Robin Joseph , Garima Mamgain Does Green Marketing Sell? ……..44
Men's Cosmetics ……..48
Team
Editors Design Pan IIM Team
Mayank Jain (IIMC) Yatish Misra (IIMC) Piyush Mehta (IIMC) Chayan Mukhopadhyay (IIMB)
Prasad Gopal (IIMB) Prativa Lama (IIMB) Brijesh Unithan (IIMC) Gautam Attravan (IIMB)
Robin Joseph (IIMA) Rajkul Fulzele (IIMA) Mafla Mudgal (IIMC) Shreshth Sharma (IIMB)
Garima Mamgain (IIML) Rishi Varshney (IIML) Nikhil Joshi (IIMC) Meenakshi Prasad (IIML)
Amit Sharma (IIML) Pratik Prakash (IIMC) Saikat Mondal (IIML)
Sanglap Bannerjee (IIMC) Ganesh PR (IIML)
Abhishek Mohan (IIMB) Manoj Kumar Kamble (IIML)

3. P AGE 3 Measuring the Effectiveness of the Humour
Quotient in Indian Advertising
In this article, we explore the hu- Humour can come in many forms
mour quotient in Indian advertis- and the choice of the appropriate
ing through the lens of certain type is highly dependent on the
television ad campaigns that have target audience, the cultural bias,
tickled the consumer funny bone the choice of advertising medium
in order to evaluate the effective- and the product itself. Some of
ness of such campaigns. We di- the more popularly used forms
verge from the traditionalist body are:
of literature that brackets hu-  Personification: This is
mour in advertising as risky and where inanimate objects assume
at best, as effective as other ads. human characteristics and the
Our contention is that an ad inherent humour in observing
campaign based on humour such behaviour is used to high-
stands out from the crowd and light some quality or the desir-
captures the consumer mind- ability of the brand. One such
share. example is Pepsi‟s „Oye Bubbly‟
campaign in which various ob-
Our contention is that INTRODUCTION jects such as the car stereo and
an ad campaign based the garage are shown coveting the
When using humour to advertise Pepsi bottle.
on humour stands out
a product, the main challenge for
from the crowd and  Exaggeration: Here certain
marketers is to link the advertise-
captures the consumer attributes of the product are
ment to the underlying brand so
magnified out of proportion like
mindshare. as to translate consumer enjoy-
the Fevikwik ads where the fish-
ment to consumer purchase. This
erman uses Fevikwik on a stick
linkage is questioned by numer-
to catch fish, trumping the so-
ous researchers with the distrac-
phisticated fishing gear of the
tion of the consumer from the
person next to him.
brand quoted as the chief flaw of
such a strategy. We diverge from  Slapstick: This particular
this view – our contention is that
brand of humour deals with the
the industry context and basis of
ludicrous/exaggerated and pre-
competition is also critical to the
nature of advertisements used. sents situations where the hu-
Our frame of analysis would be morous aspect of the ad, far from
campaigns that are recognized for being subtle, strikes the viewer in
their innovative use of humour the face, the Chlormint ads being
including Fevicol and Fewikwik, a prime example of this.
Happydent White, Vodafone Zoo-
zoos, Idea Cellular, Frooti, Tata
Other forms include sarcasm,
Indian advertisements, Sky, Sprite.
comparison, pun, understate-
in the past, have
ment and irony. However, there is
mostly derived their TYPES OF HUMOUR a strong cultural context for such
humour from the in- Back in the 1960‟s, a golden rule advertisements. Individualistic
terplay between multi- in advertising, propagated by the cultures like the US and UK typi-
ple characters. founder of Prentice-Hall, was to cally feature advertisements hav-
never mix humour and advertis-
ing one or two dominant charac-
ing. Today, with the proliferation
of product offerings, humour is ters while in more collectivistic
increasingly being looked upon cultures like Thailand, ads re-
not as a distraction that trivial- volve around groups. Similarly,
izes the product, but as an effec- the degree of uncertainty avoid-
tive means of distinguishing the ance and the amount of mascu-
product from the crowd and line dominance in the culture of a
drawing the attention of con-
country are key factors in influ-
sumer.
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

4. P AGE 4
influencing the type of humour that can be spectrum – be it the group oriented Fevicol
successfully used in advertisements, with truck ad showing people stuffed into a truck,
countries high on these two parameters tend- or the more individual oriented Fevikwik fish-
ing to prefer slapstick or direct humour to erman ad, from the slapstick Akai TV ads of
subtle nuances and double entendres. old to the more subtle Camlin Marker ads, to
the extent that even potentially controversial
Analyzing the Indian advertising scenario ads like the Axe series have found acceptance
keeping this cultural context in mind, certain in India, which is viewed to be conservative.
key trends can be identified. Given the tradi-
tional family oriented culture of India, Indian Case Studies: We examine the following ad-
advertisements, in the past, have mostly de- vertising campaigns with a view towards illus-
rived their humour from the interplay between trating the different types of humour that
multiple characters. Also, in the past, humour works in the Indian context and also to meas-
has tended to be largely slapstick, based on ure the effectiveness of these campaigns
filmy spoofs and ridiculous situations. This is along multiple dimensions: Amaron, Frooti,
part, can be attributed to the diversity of cul- Axe and Max New York Life Insurance. Our
tures and languages found in India. Humor- choice is driven by the different types of hu-
ous ads, therefore, must tread the thin line mour used in each of these campaigns.
between keeping the cultural idioms of their
target audience in mind and taking care not to Amaron (Amara Raja) batteries: The iconic
offend the cultural sensibilities of any group. claymation advertisements with the catchy
Slapstick offers an easy way out with situ- slogan of „Lasts Long Really Long...Ting Tong‟
ational humour having a broader reach while captured the imagination of the public and
also ensuring that the punch line is not lost acted as clutter busters in 2002. The „Hare
on the audience. and Tortoise‟ ad and the „Kumbhakarna ad‟
were aired on Doordarshan and other satellite
channels and brought in tremendous brand
EVOLUTION OF HUMOUR IN INDIAN ADS
awareness for Amaron batteries – a new en-
trant into the automotives battery space in
Over the years, there has been a gradual evo- 2000.
lution in the use of humour in Indian adver-
tisements. The most obvious change has been Interestingly however, the expected spurt in
the increasing use of humour with advertising sales did not materialize. The product was a
agencies increasingly trying to grab the atten- low involvement one with incumbent advertis-
tion of consumers through their funny bone. ing focussing on the toughness and macho
image of the car battery. The dominant player
In 1993, only 28% of commercials were hu-
at that time, Exide, was well entrenched and
mour-based. By 2001, at least 46% tried to Amaron did not manage to make a dent in
incorporate some form of humour. And while their sales. The ad agency – O&M went back
in most countries, funny ads have largely to the same claymation studio in 2004 to
been associated with low-involvement prod- come up with a follow up, the „Pandu Mangal‟
ucts, in India, even high-involvement products ad. The uniqueness of this ad was the univer-
like televisions and insurance have tried their sal nature of the humour – the bumbling cop
in pursuit of a wily thief was instantly recog-
hands at humour.
nized and appreciated across all segments of
A more subtle change that has been taking people. We also theorize that the humour was
place is in the type of humour employed. well received as it relied on simple age-old
From pure slapstick, ads are moving towards themes and had powerful visual imagery. This
more intelligent comedy, with a more individu- ad consolidated Amaron as a powerful brand
alistic bent, be it the Vodafone Zoozoos, which and was a platform for their explosive growth
cleverly depicted a variety situations, each post-2006. In 2006 Amaron reverted to a
with some link to a feature offered by Voda- stereotypical performance based campaign
fone, or the Fasttrack „Move on‟ commercials, using racing stars like Karun Chandok and
which perfectly capture the changing nature Narain Karthikeyan. Our take is that the hu-
of Indian society today. India today is at a mour based advertising helped establish the
crossroads, between its traditional past and a brand awareness but did not add to the top-
more modern future, which perhaps explains line due to the low involvement of the car
the success of ads across the entire cultural owners in the buying decision and the lack of
product differentiation as the „Lasts Long‟
promise held true de-facto in the business.
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

5. P AGE 5
Frooti: The Digen Verma ad blitz that lasted Axe is by far the naughtiest brand in India
for 15 days in February 2001 catapulted the and is targeted at the male aged 16-25. The
brand into public imagination and generated a ads highlight various situations where the
tremendous buzz across the country. The cam- guy, usually an ordinary next door
paign was centred on a faceless college going neighbour kind of chap rather than a
guy called Digen Verma worshipped by his hunk, gets pursued by different women.
friends, girls and even peons – in general eve- Seduction is the dominant motif here, with
ryone who knew him except for the stodgy old the women making the first move – a bold
college professor. The teaser campaign com- idea for Indian audiences. Yet, it has cap-
bined with the new caption for Frooti – „Just tured the pulse of its target audience per-
Like That‟ was aimed at repositioning Frooti fectly.
from a kids drink to one for the youth. Hence,
a rebellious theme was adopted in the cam- Max New York Life: When Max New York
paign. came out with their advertisement featur-
ing an overzealous dad with his young child
The last series of ads in this campaign show as he exhorts the child to repeat words of
Digen ordering Frooti (of course Digen himself increasing complexity, consumers sat up
is not shown on screen) – this causes pande- and took notice. The advertisement poked
monium across the country and everyone fun at Indians who have a propensity to
switches to Frooti immediately! This campaign push their children into various activities
was unique in the effective use of suspense at a young age. Interestingly, the humour
(watch this space approach) and humour in in the ad was well received – wry humour
engaging consumer attention through various had worked on Indian screens after a long
innovative forms of media (messages telling while! The ad demonstrated two things –
Digen to remove his car from the parking lot one that Indians were willing to laugh at
were flashed in theatres, bus stops had posters themselves and two, high involvement
asking if Digen would be on the next bus and products could be advertised using hu-
so forth). mour.
A look at the sales figures show a marginal in- The sales of new policies shot up from the
crease in the year the campaign was aired fol- slowdown in October – further the weighted
lowed by steady increase in sales – the market new received premiums too shot up. The ad
share decline was halted by this campaign had worked its magic. Max New York fol-
though. Sceptics however claimed that the Di- lowed it up with another humorous ad in
gen Verma persona had become more famous Apr-2009, this time poking fun at the re-
and had marginalized the brand. Later, Frooti tired Indian male.
switched to their old theme of „Fresh and
Juicy‟ which did worse than the Digen Verma CONCLUSION
campaign – hence in comparison the use of a
unique style of humour proved to be more ef-
Thus, the use of humour, in products
fective for Frooti.
where consumer preferences play a vital
Axe: Our inclusion of Axe is a little controver- role in selection, not only helps bring the
sial as its ads have straddled a thin line be- brand into the consumer‟s consideration
tween sexism and naughtiness in terms of the set through increased brand awareness
humour. We study it due to the unique nature and recall, but also appears to translate
of the advertising – the same campaigns are directly to an increase in sales.
aired worldwide and there has been no attempt
to tone down the humour or modify it in any
Kaushik Sriram is a 2nd year PGP student at IIM Banga-
way for India.
lore. He holds a Bachelors degree in Electronics and Communi-
This dispels the notion that Indians are con- cation Engineering from National Institute of Technology (NIT)
servative in their humour – of course the mar- Trichy and can be reached at kaushiksr08@iimb.ernet.in.
keting for Axe was backed up by a great prod-
uct too. The Axe effect in terms of sales and Rohini Ramachandran is a 2nd year PGP student at IIM
market share has been spectacular to say the Bangalore. She holds a Bachelors degree in Electronics and Com-
least. HUL (the parent company)replaced their munication Engineering from National Institute of Technology
old deodorant brand Denim with Axe due to its
(NIT) Trichy and can be reached at rohinira08@iimb.ernet.in.
spectacular success.
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

6. P AGE 6 Influencer Marketing
Welcome to the age of influencer marketing objective. WOMMA
marketing. You might have wit- (Word of mouth marketing associa-
nessed and experienced it in the tion) provides a handy classifica-
past – it‟s just that the term has tion of influencers based on how
become more visible. Youtube, they derive their power of influ-
blogs, twitter – the tools can be ence.
many, the message is the same -
Once the target influencer has
“you are being influenced.”
been identified, the next step is to
market the product to the influen-
cer, to help increase the awareness
Compared to traditional marketing
among the influencer community.
practices, influencer marketing fo-
They then become well equipped to
cuses on key types of individuals. It
use their influence in favour of the
aims to take advantage of the influ-
ence these individuals have over firm.
the target segment, with these in-
fluencers becoming the centre of all
The third and final set of activities
marketing activities.
involves the use of these influen-
Imagine your next visit to
cers to advocate to the target seg-
your optician. After the
ment. Influencers can play a direct
regular eye check-up, he According to Duncan and Nick,
or indirect role in this process.
advises you to switch to these influencers may be potential
contact lenses, informing What we see in case of contact
buyers themselves, or they may be
you of the pros and cons. lenses is an indirect approach
third parties. These third parties
You wonder what this is where the influencer (optician) is
exist either in the supply chain
leading to - is your optician raising awareness about the cate-
(retailers, manufacturers, etc.) or
working as an agent to some gory and not the brand. To comple-
may be so-called value-added influ-
contact lens manufacturer? ment the strategy, the manufac-
encers (such as journalists, aca-
Well, the answer to this turer might put some point of sale
demics, industry analysts, profes-
question can be both yes or merchandising to promote its prod-
sional advisers, and so on) - Fig 1.
no. He is just exercising his uct. The third and final set of ac-
influence on your decision tivities involves the use of these
making. The motivation for influencers to advocate to the tar-
such an action could have Using Influencer Marketing
get segment. Influencers can play a
come from a manufacturer, The first and most important activ- direct or indirect role in this proc-
in the form of incentives, ity in influencer marketing is iden- ess. What we see in case of contact
such as higher margins. On tification of influencers and evalu- lenses is an indirect approach
the other hand, he might ating their potential to serve the
just be using his judgment
and trying to help you out.
Figure 1: Type of Influencers (source: WOMMA)
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

7. P AGE 7
where the influencer (optician) is raising Category/Subject Matter Expert group).
awareness about the category and not the These doctors commanded a great amount
brand. To complement the strategy, the of influence on their patients and most of
manufacturer might put some point of sale the times their prescriptions acted as a
merchandising to promote its product. command for the patients. Marico identi-
fied these doctors and dieticians as its
influencers.
Industry Practices
One of the most common applications of
Marketing to these influencers is done
influencer marketing is in medicines and
through various activities. Here we list
pharmaceutical products. In many cases,
some of them:
the active ingredient is common across
companies, and the medicines are substi-
tutable. Since the law prohibits any adver-
tisements of prescription drugs, compa-
nies rely on prescriptions from doctors to
drive sales. Hence, they send their repre-
sentatives to disseminate information to
doctors and give them free samples (you
might have seen „Physician‟s sample, not
for sale‟ printed on mini packs in your
doctor‟s clinic). Sometimes, the represen-
tatives even check up with local chemists
whether the medicines being promoted are
selling, before they make a visit.
Figure 2: Saffola's use of influencer
Even in categories where advertising of the marketing
product is permitted, like oral care, com-
panies don‟t miss out on opportunities to
1. Product detailing and sampling to the
promote their products to dentists. This is
doctors. Marico promoters visit these
because an advertisement can rarely have
doctors and brief them about the
the credibility, and hence the influence on
product. They use product detailers
the purchase decision, as compared to a
and other research documents to
suggestion from the consumer‟s dentist.
backup their claim. Sampling helps in
Another avenue that companies use to
generating some trials if the doctors
market themselves to influencers like den-
find the product claims appropriate.
tists is sponsoring lectures on recent
Essentially, it‟s the same route that
trends in oral care. Use of various dental
pharmaceutical companies take for
associations to certify one brand of tooth-
their product.
paste or toothbrush is another example of
influencer marketing. Colgate has done 2. Involvement with various medical as-
well in this regard in India. sociations and other such platforms.
The visibility on such forums provides
reach to a large section of influencer
On a related note, Marico Ltd. has suc- community.
cessfully used influencer marketing
3. Involving various key influencers to
through cardiologists to promote its prod-
help improve the product offering and
ucts, especially Saffola Oil. Saffola is a saf-
future product development.
flower based refined edible oil that prom-
ises to help control cholesterol for cardiac
patients. When Marico launched this
product in market, the biggest challenge it
faced was that most of the customers were
unaware about cholesterol. Cardiac pa-
tients relied completely on their cardiolo-
gists and family doctors for information (in
WOMMA classification, these belong to
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

8. P AGE 8
Once these influencers become aware of the Top 10 Most Brilliant Marketing Screw Ups
product and accept the effectiveness of the
product, they do not hesitate in giving infor-
mation about the same to their patients.  Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it
Saffola today is part of many a diet charts
was read as "Suffer from diarrhoea."
and diet-guides because of such activities. It
is most probably the only edible oil that is
recommended by doctors during consulta-  Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the
tion. following in an American campaign: "Nothing sucks like an
Electrolux."
Another, most common use of influencer  Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, into Ger-
marketing in modern times is engaging tech- man only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not
nology experts during launch of new prod- too many people had use for the "manure stick."
ucts. Most of the cell-phone manufacturers
as well manufacturers of new age software  When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used
provide their product to these experts before the same packaging as in the U.S., with the beautiful Cau-
the product is formally launched. The ex- casian baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa,
perts are encouraged to write about the companies routinely put pictures on the label of what's in-
product. The influence these experts com- side, since most people can't read.
mand over the tech savvy target segment
helps in convincing early-buyers of the prod-  Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the
uct and thus generating the initial thrust name of a notorious porno magazine.
required for the success of the product.
 An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the
Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of
Influencer marketing gives a marketer an
"I saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I saw the po-
opportunity to utilize resources beyond what
tato" (la papa).
is owned by the organization. This necessi-
tates establishing professional and ethical
norms on the marketer‟s part. The power of  Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated
influence also comes with great responsibil- into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave", in
ity of using this influence in the right man- Chinese.
ner. It is not uncommon to hear of compa-
nies providing excessive incentives to influ-  Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "it takes a strong man to
encers, to ensure that they promote only make a tender chicken" was translated into Spanish as "it
their products. The onus is on the marketer takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."
to define the ethical and professional
boundaries and stay within them.  The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Ke-kou-ke-
la", meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse
stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect. Coke then re-
So, in case you are looking to visit your opti- searched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent
cian anytime soon, at least now you know "ko-kou-ko-le", translating into "happiness in the mouth."
that he might be influenced by Bausch and
Lomb to „influence‟ you into buying contact  When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its
lenses.
ads were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your
pocket and embarrass you". Instead, the company thought
Ammar Tambawal is a 2nd year PGP student at IIM Ah- that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to em-
medabad. He holds a Bachelors degree in Electronics Engineering barrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and
fr om VESI T , B ombay and can be r each ed make you pregnant."
at 8ammary@iimahd.ernet.in
Pritesh Jain is a 2nd year PGP student at IIM Ahmedabad.
He holds a Bachelors degree in Electronics and Communication
Engineering from RV College of Engineering, Bangalore and can
be reached at 8priteshj@iimahd.ernet.in
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

9. P AGE 9
Implicit positioning and surrogate advertising
Advertising is widely accepted to be vertising avenues which often
the most potent tool in the hand of a stretched the concept of brand ex-
marketer. Whether it is to launch a tension to previously unheard-of lev-
new product, entrench an existing els. These include the mundane such
one, educate on the new salient fea- as sponsoring events (without ex-
tures or create a new market, most plicit advertising) and Internet adver-
consumer products manufacturers tising; the unconventional such as
orient a considerable amount of ITC‟s diversification into clothing and
time, energy and money to reaching apparel as well as the far-fetched
out to existing and potential con- such as the Red and White Bravery
sumers though various media such Awards and other lifetime achieve-
as television, radio etc. as also new ment awards instituted mainly to
age media like the Internet and Out perpetuate brand recall among the
of Home (OOH) media. target audience. One interesting
trend which was observed in the mid
Origins 2000s was the “socially responsible
In this context, one can imagine the advertising” taken up by many liquor
predicament of a producer who is companies. Several advertisements
mandated to legally produce and exhorting viewers to be responsible
stock and then has his hands tied by citizens and refrain from driving after
The ban on advertising of being denied the right to market the drinking were seen by media ana-
tobacco and liquor produce. This is a ditch that many lysts as a form of surrogacy.
introduced by the
liquor and cigarette companies have
Government of India Media analysts have also often won-
found themselves in after the Gov-
during the early 2000s has dered aloud that the ambitious for-
ernment of India passed a blanket
spawned a generation of ays made by Dr Vijay Mallya in avia-
surrogate marketing ban on all advertising of „intoxicants
tion, Formula 1 and related
initiatives as corporations and harmful substances‟ in mid
„glamorous‟ industries have as much
leant to sell without 2002. Most of the large players
to do with his desire to perpetuate
communicating to the adapted quickly to introducing what
his strong brand portfolio as the
consumer. Many in the are termed as complimentary prod-
prospect of de-risking his business
industry have since started ucts which fell outside the ambit of
by diversifying.
to diversify into areas the Government‟s regulation. The
where they can leverage significant ones include 8PM Whisky
For the best part of this decade, the
their brands’ aspirational (apple juice), Aristocrat Whisky
tobacco and liquor manufacturing
value; such as aviation, (apple juice), Bagpiper (club soda),
lobby has been trying to persuade
clothing and apparel and Hayward‟s 5000 Beer (kit of darts
the government to relax the restric-
sports. However the which was the centrepiece of the ad-
surrogacy in advertising tions on advertising what are per-
vertising campaign) and Gilbey's
continues in the absence ceived as surrogate products. Fi-
Green Label Whisky (mineral water);
of a strong code by the nally, as late as March 2009, the
and in this process was born a new
ASCI and the government Government of India decided to the
trend of surrogacy in advertising
flip flops on the issue. hand a long rope under the stipula-
which is commonly defined as
The need of the hour is to tion that the surrogates have no
„advertising one product with the
come clean on the subject product linkages to intoxicants.
view of selling another‟
and develop an However on June 10th this year, the
unambiguous plan of Trends in surrogate advertising government tabled a bill to amend
action the Cable Television Network Act of
After the ban imposed on the 12 ad- 1994, which is likely to tighten the
vertisements identified as surrogates screws on surrogate advertising even
by the Government of India, and the further.
show-cause notices issued to Star
TV, Zee TV and Aaj Tak in 2002 un- Advertising Ethics
der the provisions of the Cable Tele-
vision Regulation Act of 2002, the
whirlwind of surrogate ads hitting The Advertising Standards Council of
the telly calmed down to a large ex- India (ASCI) issued clarifications at
tent. Advertisers started diversifying various points of time that in accor-
and shifted their focus to other ad- dance with the code laid for guiding
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

10. P AGE 10
If it has been established conclusively that ciga-
rette smoking kills, why is it that it is available
to anyone, irrespective of his or her age, at
every street corner?”
"It's difficult to digest that an industry which is
ethical behaviour in advertising, the mere use allowed to sell its products, is banned from ad-
of a brand name or company name which may vertising the same products, despite the fact
be the same or related to a product put under that the commercials carry health warning, ad-
advertising restriction may not be construed as vising the customers to use the product in tem-
reason enough to find the advertisement objec- perance.", says Prof. Atul Tandan, Director,
tionable. An exception may however be made Mudra Institute of Communications in an arti-
in case the product which is advertised is not cle released in July 2002.
freely available or is produced and distributed
in minuscule quantities, which may not be suf- While such questions make intuitive sense, the
ficient to warrant advertising costs. Also adver- practicality of banning production of tobacco
tisements must not contain direct or indirect and liquor is unpalatable for the simple reason
cues for the product under advertising restric- that these are very heavy contributors to In-
tion. dia‟s tax kitty and the revenue loss due to a
ban on production will most likely be catastro-
However many advertisers must still grapple phic. Also the increasing pressure exerted by
with ethical dilemmas as the existing code the WHO as well as NGOs and health activists
leaves a lot of scope for interpretation. have forced the government to be seen doing
something. As a result of this duality of pur-
Voluntary abstinence pose, the tug-of-war continues without resolu-
tion.
A notable exception to the clamoring by the The need of the hour
tobacco and liquor lobby and circumventing of
stipulations to maintain sales is the conduct of
ITC Ltd after the ban announced by the gov- The following measure will go a long way in
ernment. In 2001, ITC voluntarily opted out of easing the deadlock seen here:
the sponsorship deal that it had signed with
the BCCI to sponsor the Indian cricket team The ASCI should have an unambiguous guide-
and has since been de-emphasizing its ciga- line for differentiating acceptable and unac-
rette brands in favor of other lines of business ceptable forms of advertising with respect to
which are considerably more sustainable. It surrogate products. Also the ASCI should be
has also taken up large scale Corporate Social empowered to implement the guidelines and
Initiatives in rural India, the crown jewel being issue penalties for non-conformance.
the e-Choupal initiative, to enable the agricul- The government needs to take a stand on the
tural community to adopt a direct selling ap- issue. It must look beyond having the cake
proach. (the advertising ban) and eating (tax revenues)
it. Advertising companies must take pains to
Two sides of the same coin: Ambiguity of understand the nature of the products and
law market that they are dealing with and must
refrain from designing and propagating surro-
gate brands.
Many in the industry question the practice of
banning advertisements which effectively Nikhil Joshi is a 1st year PGDM student at IIM Calcutta. He
erodes the ability to sell while at the same time holds a Bachelor‟s degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engi-
allowing production to continue. neering from University of Mumbai and has worked as a Software
Testing Consultant with L&T Infotech. He can be reached at
In an article published by The Hindu in March joshin2011@email.iimcal.as.in
2008 Ramesh Narayan, a communication con-
sultant writes,
“The advertiser‟s perspective is fairly straight-
forward. If it is legal to manufacture, distribute
and sell a product, why should it be illegal to
promote the sale of that product? I don‟t think
anyone can answer that question convincingly.
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

11. P AGE 11
Fake IPL Player: Redefining Marketing
“Lord Almighty along with the Ca-
lypso King decided to take the attack
Further, according to a report pub-
on to the Bubblies. The Phoren babas
lished by Business Standard, the
were happy when they saw Appam
peak ratings of KKR matches on SET
being slaughtered. Prince Charles of
MAX channel were among the high-
Patiala was all tensed up but
est; at around 6 per cent of the total
Bhookha Nan and Kaan Moolu were
cable viewers above the age of 15
having a very good time with Sandy
years.
Baddy Babe.”
A source representing one of the
This may sound gibberish to many.
sponsors summed it as “From an
But those who have ever come
advertiser‟s point of view, we have
across the Fake IPL Player‟s blog at
got a lot of mileage and media space
any point of time would be laughing
for the right and wrong reasons. The
their hearts out. This blog has be-
fact that it has managed to attract
came a sensation in the cricketing
television viewership and on-ground
Fake IPL Player, a blog world. But at the same time it also
released by an anonymous support from spectators speaks a lot
made several great traditional mar-
blogger during the Indian about the brand KKR”.
keters sit up and take notice.
Premier League (Season-
2), created a lot of furor
in the cricketing world. This may be a coincidence. But
What is this hype all about?
But at the same time it surely Fake IPL Player has popular-
stood out as an excellent Just a couple of days before the start ized the two relatively new strategies
marketing campaign for of the IPL 2nd season in South Af- of marketing – Anti-Marketing and
the Kolkata Knight rica, a blog was launched by an Buzz Marketing.
Riders Team. Using the anonymous person, who claimed to
unorthodox marketing be a member of the Kolkata Knight
techniques of Anti- Anti Marketing
Riders Squad. Throughout the IPL
marketing and Buzz
he kept sensationalizing the intra-
Marketing, it could help After studying marketing campaigns
team conflicts. Humor and Suspense
KKR build up a strong and trends for several years, Indrajit
brand value as well as - his two weapons- made the follow-
“Jay” Sinha, an associate marketing
generate enough TRPs on ers want more of it.
professor at the Fox School of Busi-
television. This article ness and Austrian marketing profes-
analyses the different new sor Thomas Foscht, discovered that
-age marketing techniques The result
effective campaigns go against what
with reference to the case traditional marketing preaches. They
of the aforementioned Although Kolkata Knight Riders
(KKR) kept up their dismal perform- have together published a book
blog. “Reverse Psychology Marketing: The
ance, they have emerged as the
strongest IPL brand. According to Death of Traditional Marketing and
the IPL Brand Value Scoreboard the Rise of the New Pull Game”,
2009 published by UK‟s Intangible which identifies and analyzes the
Business in collaboration with MTI new marketing trends.
Consulting, KKR tops the board with
an estimated brand value of $22.3 According to the book -- “Traditional
million. As Richard Yoxon, the Inter- marketing campaigns are focused
national Director of Intangible Busi- around customer orientation. They
ness puts it – “Winning games is not offer too much choice, confusion and
enough to build a successful sports sales pressure, resulting in custom-
brand. Teams need to engage the ers‟ boredom, cynicism and irrita-
local community, attract star players tion. Less is more with present-day
who inspire a wide audience and de- marketing. Customers now crave
velop a strong marketing communi- simplicity, authenticity and exclusiv-
cation program.” ity”.
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

12. P AGE 12
“Fake IPL Player” blog did exactly the same Interviews etc. But simulation and controlled
thing. Instead of blowing its own horn, the conversations twist the facts to a certain ex-
author tactically cooked up stories about in- tent thereby affecting the outcome of the data
fighting within the team. This created a sen- analysis as done by market research agen-
sation for the cricket crazy masses which in cies.
turn strengthened the KKR brand. As market-
ers put it “Any publicity is good publicity”.
Uncontrolled conversation would let people
There have been a few examples of successful vent out their emotions without any con-
anti-marketing in the past. One such signifi- straints. This would in turn give marketers
cant example is that of Steven Singer Jewel- better insights into consumer behaviors.
lers. It has successfully executed a marketing
Fake IPL player‟s blog generated a greater
campaign – “I hate Steven Singer”. As a result
buzz for Team KKR by encouraging uncon-
it has become a landmark jeweler in the
trolled conversation. Thousands of comments
Philadelphia region.
were posted in response to each blog post.
This added flavor to the blog and generated
Buzz marketing further interest in the blog as well as in the
KKR team. This in turn resulted in the soar-
Viral marketing describes any strategy that
ing TRPs of the KKR matches.
encourages individuals to pass on a market-
ing message to others, creating the potential
for exponential growth in the message's expo-
The lesson
sure and influence.
Some claimed the Fake IPL player was a real
life cricketer while others, at the same time,
Buzz marketing is a viral marketing technique considered it a marketing gimmick of KKR,
that attempts to make each encounter with a Shahrukh Khan et al. Though he did reveal
consumer appear to be a unique, spontane- his identity in his own cryptic way, the Fake
ous personal exchange of information; instead IPL Player remains anonymous as ever. What-
of a calculated marketing pitch choreo- ever it may be, it has surely taught all estab-
graphed by a professional advertiser. Al- lished and budding marketers a lesson. It‟s
though the concept of Buzz marketing is not not about the big bucks spent on advertising
new, but the way Web 2.0 is used these days, and promotion, but about innovative market-
it has opened up several avenues for the new ing channels and creative strategies. Analyz-
age marketers. Like viruses, such strategies ing the right media channel and the right
take advantage of rapid multiplication to ex- creative message is far more fruitful than
plode the message to thousands, and mil- some elaborate but outdated marketing and
lions. promotion practices.
This was the case with the Fake IPL Player. Welcome to the new „fake‟ world!
The Fake IPL Player didn‟t spend a single
penny. But he reached thousands. Overnight
the blog became the talk of the town. He used Praneet Gourav Mishra is a 2nd Year student at IIM
a simple and free user friendly web resource, Lucknow specializing in Marketing and Finance. He is a
blogs, and spread through word-of-mouth “Mechanical Engineer” from NIT Rourkela and can be reached at
communication. He realized the fact that get- mishra.praneet@gmail.com
ting one interested user (or customer) will
eventually result in several others getting in-
terested in the product. More than 8000 fol-
lowers of the blog stand testimony to this fact.
Uncontrolled Conversation: the mantra of
new-age advertisements
Traditionally brands discouraged uncontrolled
conversation on social media and read too
much into the controlled conversations in a
simulated environment e.g. FGDs, In-depth

13. P AGE 13
Effective Multi-tiered Promotions: Lesson from Santoor
Trade promotions refer to any activ- for promotions across different
ity aimed at providing an incentive Population groups (POP groups)
to the channel members for their and outlet types (Retailer or Whole-
support in marketing and distribu- salers). Then we will describe Multi-
tion of the product. There are a tiered promotions followed by its
number of tools available to the
application by Santoor brand. In
marketer for the same such as price
-off, allowances, free goods, trade the end we will consolidate the
shows, sales contests, specialty ad- learning of the study.
vertising, etc.
Trade Preferences for Promo-
The importance of such measures
stems from the fact that the retailer tions: Primary survey
is willing to sell only those products
which have a demand in the market A structured questionnaire was de-
and thus allow him to earn a profit. signed and was pre tested on a
These measures incentivize the ef- sample of 7 retailers at Hyderabad
forts that a channel member puts in city. Out of 101 outlets visited, 9
for increasing the sales of a product said they are not interested in pro-
and create a „push‟ in the channel motional offers so no further ques-
which may lead to a higher sales tions were asked about the promo-
turnover. The push effect is of spe- tions. The survey findings are sum-
Sales promotion is an essen- cial significance in product catego- marized below:
tial part of any marketer’s ries where the differentiation be-
activities. It can be classified tween products is not very high.  Deal Proneness: It was found
as Trade promotion and One such category is the FMCG. that 91.08% of the traders were
Consumer Promotion The deal prone. Similar trend was
authors conducted a survey Within the FMCG sector, the adver- observed across outlet types
about trade promotion ac- tisement campaigns that are run and POP groups.
tivities in the soap industry bring the customer to the retail
store, yet at the point of sale there  Deal Preference: It was found
and found out that different
are numerous options available. At that 64.13% of traders prefer
types of traders prefer dif- price-cut promotions while rest
this juncture the retailer can have
ferent kinds of promotions. an impact on the purchase decision. preferred gift based promotions
Every company must offer Incentives offered to the retailer, by like gift articles etc. Considering
promotional schemes which the company or the wholesaler, mo- outlet type, 60.66% of retail out-
cater to the needs of all tivate the retailer to push the brand lets prefer price cut while
types of retailers. One ap- and affect the purchase decision 70.97% of wholesaler preferred
proach of integrating varied favorably. price cut promotions. Across
promotional efforts is multi- POP groups, FLP retailers were
Through our study we intend to find more inclined towards price cut
tiered promotion. To show
the relevance of multi-tiered promo- (76.19%) as compare to lower
the effectiveness of this
tions for such categories. We chose POP groups (OLP – 60%, 20K-
approach, we have shown 50K – 41.16%). In order words
soap category (INR 6500 Cr) as it is
the promotion efforts of the biggest category in FMCG seg- lower POP group retailers were
Santoor soap in a particular ment. Within Soaps, Santoor is the interested in gift based promo-
quarter. 2nd largest brand in India in the tions.
popular segment, and also the larg-
est brand in Andhra Pradesh with a  Time of Incentive: 56.52% of
market share of 37.07% of the total trade prefers instant gratifica-
3,374 tons per month. One reason tion while rest prefers long term
for the leadership position attained benefit. It can be concluded that
is the multi-tiered promotion policy there is a mix response in the
of the company. In this article we market. Considering the outlet
will present the primary survey con-
ducted to identify trade preferences
type, 67.21% of retailers prefer
instant gratification because of
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

14. P AGE 14
wholesaler having considerate stocking sales for the company. If there is an appro-
capability and pushing power tends to priate multi tiered promotion mix, the com-
opt more(64.52%) for long term plans pany can effectively achieve its sales targets.
due to extra margins involved. The
same trends follow in various POP To substantiate our proposal, we provide em-
groups. pirical data on the multi tiered promotion
 Type of Incentive: It was found that used by Santoor soaps during Jan-March
48.91% of trade prefers assured prizes 2009, in the Andhra Pradesh market
while 51.09% of trade prefers to try
some luck. The similar response was The Santoor Way
from retailers and wholesalers. Looking
at the POP groups, the retailers from Santoor uses multi-tiered trade promotions
lower POP groups (20K-50K) were more with different time duration and promotion
interested (64.70%) in lucky draw. The mix. We will measure the effectiveness by
wholesalers from Metro (62%) and OLP observing the impact of sales. The promotion
(71.42%) were more interested in lucky schemes run by Santoor can be classified as
draw and bumper prizes. in Table 2.
Leanings from the survey –
Secondary Scheme
 Preferences of traders for different promo-
tions changes across outlet type and POP
Adding to the regular margins and “primary
groups
schemes” each sales officer has been allotted
 Customization of promotion schemes nec- budget of Rs 15 per CFC for the “secondary
essary for effectiveness of the same – a mix of schemes”. The Sales Officer can tailor
price based and gift based promotions to cater schemes on the basis of it. These schemes
to the different needs of different traders are tactical in nature which is used by Sales
officer to meet the sales target. The schemes
 Promotion schemes with different time- are QPS (quantity purchased scheme) to give
lines are preferred by different traders due to extra margins and offers for bulk purchase.
their inherent nature (outlet type, planning The trade schemes used during Jan-May
horizon, etc) 2009 were:
Multi-Tiered Promotion Specific trade plan
Multi tiered promotion refers to promotional Wipro regularly announced long duration (2-
schemes running simultaneously at the same 3 months) trade plan to motivate trade for
time and complementing each other towards bulk purchase. We will discuss Tambola
meeting the sales targets of the company. The scheme (Jan-Mar 2009) for this article, which
different schemes may be price based or gift involved a lucky draw for the prizes (Spark
based, follow different timelines individually Car, Bajaj Motorcycle, Air Conditioner etc).
and complement each other. The offering of
the different schemes is based on the discre- The unique feature, early bird prizes to kick
tion of the Sales Manager – who may focus start the program was valid for a period of
more on a particular kind of scheme for differ- first 21 days. One Early bird Ticket for a
ent traders keeping in mind their preferences. zonal lucky draw was given if the trader ob-
For example – there is a weekly scheme (price tains 50 Tambola tickets. The prizes were
or gift based) running which motivates retail- worth Rs 300 to Rs 6000.
ers to buy higher stocks every week. At the
same time, there is a monthly scheme wherein Effectiveness of the Multi-tiered promotion
the retailer can win a gift on purchases of a mix was reflected in the increased sales dur-
specified number of units or earn a special ing the scheme period of as shown in Table
discount. Now even though initially the re- 4.
tailer may think that the monthly target is be-
yond his reach and may focus on just the
weekly scheme, by the last week of the month
the weekly target achievement would have During the Tambola scheme, the company
brought him within sight of the monthly tar- also ran consumer promotions summarized
get. This position may motivate him to achieve in Table 5.
the monthly target as well, leading to higher
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

15. P AGE 15
Table 1: Parameters for Primary Survey
Table 2: Multi-tiered Promotion by Santoor (Source – Personal Communication)
Table 3: Tactical Weekly Scheme "Secondary Scheme" (Source – Personal Communication)
Table 4: Effect of Multi-tiered Promotional mix on Sales (Source – Personal Communication)
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

16. erences. They also were seeing higher
 Flash Start – This phase saw the launch of
customer purchases due to the rejuve-
the Tambola Scheme, along with the weekly
nated customer promotion campaign.
schemes (price and gift based) and con-
sumer promotion. The long term schemes
Thus we see that each of the schemes was
generally fail to motivate traders during ini-
complementing the others, with the choice
tial period. In order to kick start the plan,
of offering price or gift based incentives lying
Wipro introduced early bird prizes to give
with the sales manager, the schemes. We
traders dual incentive to participate in the
see that the multi-tiered approach for pro-
plan. The short term incentive though
motional mix was followed leading to higher
brought buzz in the market it was amply
sales and success in the market.
supported by tactical weekly schemes suit-
ing both the preference, gift and price pro-
Conclusion
motion of traders. The weekly schemes in
the first two weeks brought them close to
the target for early bird prizes leading to The conclusion of the study is that the
higher purchases in the third week. At the trader preferences for promotion schemes
same time, higher push in the channel was vary, between price based and gift based
complemented by a consumer promotion. incentives. The preference for the scheme
So the traders were purchasing more to be horizon also varies with the size, type and
eligible for weekly and/or early bird scheme nature of the trader. Some traders prefer
while the customers were also demanding short term incentives which provide instant
more of the soap. Thus, Multi-tiered promo- gratification while some prefer long term
tion mix (weekly and early bird scheme) benefits. To be effective, a promotion mix
helped Wipro to motivate traders to pur- needs to consider all kinds of traders. Multi
chase more so as to be eligible for another tiered promotion is an approach for the
tier of incentive i.e. Tambola scheme in its same, which can provide different types of
first phase. incentives to different traders, vary the in-
centive horizon, and integrate every simulta-
 Mid slump – During this phase, the weekly neous scheme towards the achievement of
schemes ran as before, the customer pro- the overall sales target of the company. The
motion also ran without change. The overall approach has been used in the market by
Tambola Scheme was also present, without Santoor, and effective execution can lead to
the early bird scheme. The benefit of such a better results.
strategy was that traders who had built
high stocks in the first phase were able to
clear them out. The consistency of con-
sumer promotion was a deliberate attempt
Abhishek Sood is a 2nd year PGP student at IIM Bangalore.
He holds a Bachelors degree in Commerce (Honours) from Sri
to help trader in finishing their accumu-
Venkateswara College, University of Delhi and can be reached at
lated stock as superior change in consumer abhishekso08@iimb.ernet.in.
promotion would shift the consumer de-
mand towards the freshly offered stock The Akhil Kumar Meshram is a 2nd year PGP student at IIM
weekly benefits were for those traders who Bangalore. He holds a dual degree, Bachelors and Masters in
were either not covered by the early bird Information Technology from Indian Institute of Information
scheme, or were not interested in the long Technology and Management (IIITM) Gwalior and can be
term benefits. They benefitted immensely reached at akhilkm08@iimb.ernet.in.
with the continuing weekly offers.
 Late Push – In this phase, the weekly
schemes continued as before, the customer
promotion was changed so as to motivate
trader to purchase more and at the same
time, there was an increased focus on the
Tambola scheme. The traders, who had
been utilizing the weekly schemes, and
early bird scheme were close to the targets
for the Tambola scheme – and in their effort
to achieve this target, they could utilize the
weekly schemes which were mix of price
and gift based promotion as per their pref-

17. P AGE 17
4P’s of Indian Theatre Marketing
Dharamveer Bharati and B.M Shah
Theatre has been the soul of Indian Kutiyattam in Kerala. Noted con-
entertainment since Vedic times. temporary playwrights like Habib
The different forms of theatre acts
Tanvir, Vijay Tendulkar, and Mohan
in India have given an incredible
and unparalleled versatility to In- Rakesh, Girish Karnad, Mahesh
dian art and culture. The father of Dattani, Badal Sircar, Dharamveer
Indian theatre Bharat Muni who Bharati and B.M Shah revolution-
wrote Natya Shastra laid the foun- ized the art of story telling and mod-
dation of structured training in ern theater. We must acknowledge
field of theatre and dramatics be- the contribution of stalwarts like
tween 200 BC and 200 AD. Theatre
Prithivi Raj Kapoor, Sohrab Modi,
as an art form in India has its
roots during the Vedic period. But Ebrahim Alkazi , Amal Allana, Om
in spite of such a long period of Puri, Naseerudin Shah , ShahRukh
existence , theater groups are still Khan, Manoj Bajpai , Atul Kulkarni,
fighting to make theater commer- Yashpal Sharma and Sima Biswas,
cially viable. This paper discusses who popularized Indian theatre and
Theatre needs mass some aspects of Indian theatre ,
then moved to the film industry.
categorization of art , process of
marketization to theatrical productions , 4P‟s of
theatre marketing mix , the needs THEATRE: PRODUCTIONS &
make it commercially of today‟s culture consumers , the CHALLENGES
difference between the high art and
viable. popular art , competitors to theatre McCarthy (2001), categorized arts in
and challenges faced by Indian four broad sections i.e. Performing
theatre groups. Based on the com- arts, Media arts, Visual arts and
Digital marketing prehensive discussions with nu- literary arts. The second figure
strategy coupled with merous theatre artists and theatre shows the categorization of arts.
accessible locations for activists, the paper lays down stra-
Performing arts is further subdi-
staging live tegic outline for a theatre market-
ing plan in India. vided in to theatre, dance, music
performances will help
and opera. Media related arts are
in attracting large
subdivided in to installation art,
number of audience in a INTRODUCTION
timely manner and thus film production and the recent addi-
make Indian theatre a tion of computer/digital arts. Visual
Theatre is an ancient aesthetic
commercially viable arts have been categorized into
practice in India. Surviving play
business. texts and treatises suggest that painting, sculpture and crafts. The
theatre existed in the Indian sub- last section, literary art is classified
continent from the dawn of civiliza- into fictions and poetry.
tion. According to the Natyashastra
of Bharata, an exhaustive treatise Any theatre production involves a
on the art of performance, drama series of rigorous steps. The second
was a gift from the gods to the hu- figure shows the steps involved in
mans. making a theatrical production and
Theatre has travelled many centu- bringing it to the people. Theatrical
ries in India. The different active scripts are conventionally sourced
forms of theatre in India which are from historical writings or adapted
still mesmerizing the art lovers are or written right from scratch. Once
Bhavai in Gujarat , Yakshagana in the script is ready then it is sub-
Karnataka , Nautanki in Uttar jected to production. Support and
Pradesh and Bihar , Swang in inputs from musicians, choreogra-
Haryana , Jatra in Bengal and phers, actors, costumes. Lighting
Mohan Rakesh, Girish Karnad, and direction result in a presentable
Mahesh Dattani,Badal Sircar , form of a theatre product.
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

18. P AGE 18
The second figure shows the marketing effort the masses.
to reach culture consumers. The figure shows
two triangles with a small and big base. The -As there is less and limited consumption of
smaller base shows the existing marketing available high art, therefore popularity of art is
effort and the bigger base shows the intended limited and this results in a decrease in audi-
marketing effort. ence. As a result , those who want to produce
popular art do not get sufficient funds to pro-
The various new challenges in cultural con- duce commercially viable popular art.
sumption are: decrease in consumer time for PROMOTION
leisure, expansion of consumer options for
entertainment, expanded exposure to world‟s The promotional strategies used by theatre
cultural products, blurring the distinction be- production houses are very limited. Recently
tween high and popular culture and changing few corporate houses have started funding the
patterns in public funding. These challenges theatre production houses e.g. Matrix cellular,
in cultural consumption have created a tough Vodafone, Religare, and Mahindra and Mahin-
competition for the consumption of theatrical dra. These corporate houses use extensive
products. publicity and advertisements for popular art
but it has not resulted in creating an enduring
audience. The traditional form of publicity
techniques used by theatre production houses
are as follows:
 Occasional advertisements in leading news
papers which occupy very small column
width and do not create any lasting im-
pression on potential audience.
 Small printed pamphlets are manually dis-
tributed outside the auditoriums. This only
helps to inform the existing theatre audi-
ence. This localized and captive distribu-
tion does not create awareness to potential
audience.
 Few theatre production houses have
4 P’S OF THEATRE MARKETING
started using cultural websites to promote
their new productions on cost free basis.
PRODUCT
But the irony is that due to lack of funding
and advertisements such cultural websites
High art Vs Popular art: The principal problem
are struggling.
with the consumption of theatre products is
the distinction between high art and popular
art. The prominent and “talent rich” houses of  The other means of promotion is through
theatrical productions like National school of word of mouth. But word of mouth promo-
drama , Naya theatre and Rangshankara fail tions by existing audiences are not able to
to distinguish between the consumption of generate enduring audiences.
high art and popular art. In fact the artists
with prime talent in these organizations be- Due to lack of funding, theatre production
come so self obsessed that they never care houses use the cheapest means to promote
about the consumption of their art for the end their new products. And mostly the auditori-
consumer. They keep on producing high art ums which are used for such theatrical per-
for which there is a limited audience and formances are situated in a few specific areas
eventually no body is able to produce popular which are inaccessible to masses. Therefore
art. There are two prime reasons for this: minimal promotional efforts are nullified by
limited access to theatrical arenas.
-Those who can produce popular art in a com-
mercially viable way indulge in producing self
fulfilling high art, which is seen by a handful
and eventually making it non consumable for
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

19. P AGE 19
PRICE
Theatre in India has struggled to reach break
even point. Theatre production houses who
hire or have fulltime / part time performers
in it incur the expenses as shown in table 1.
On an average, a theatrical performance in-
volves 3 to 4 lead actors and 4-6 support ac-
tors. Lighting personnel play a key role in
designing the lights for the stage show and
are generally hired by theatre groups exter-
nally for specific periods. In general the thea-
tre production houses keep single show on
Product Place matrix
Saturday and double shows on Sunday. This
format is repeated for two weeks. This means
The above shows the product place matrix for
that in general six shows are performed for
theatre productions. Following inferences can
each production. The capacity of the audito-
be deducted from product place matrix:
rium is approximately 350.
 High Art consumers are less and they reach
The total expense of Rs 425000 is averaged
for six performances in a span of two weeks. accessible as well as inaccessible places for
Therefore the average charge for each per- art consumption.
formance comes to about Rs 70000. And the
average seating capacity of an auditorium is  Popular art consumers do not try to reach
350 , which means that in order to break to inaccessible locations but will reach in
even each ticket shall be priced Rs 200.It is high numbers to accessible locations.
difficult to ensure a full house in these per-
formances and if the performance turns out STRATEGIES FOR THEATRE MARKETING
to be a high art performance then the audi-
ence drops drastically and the production It is a well accepted fact in marketing that if
becomes commercially unviable. Therefore it you have problems in more than 2 P‟s of mar-
is quite evident from the basic calculations keting mix then it surely means that the mar-
that it is not profitable to run the theatre keter does not understand the segment of con-
business with a specific and captive audi- sumers. In theatre marketing mix, it is evident
ence. Theatre needs mass marketing to make that theatre production houses have serious
it commercially viable. problems with product, price, and promotion
and place as well. The key strategies for effec-
PLACE tive theatre marketing are as follows:
The places where the theatre products are  Correct segmentation of culture consumer
distributed need good acoustic arrange- for consumption of different forms of art.
ments, lighting facilities and pleasant ambi- Based on the segmentation, the different
ence. Therefore‟ theatre production houses sections of consumers should be targeted
rely heavily on a few select auditoriums. with specific theatre products and posi-
These auditoriums are generally run by gov- tioned in accessible locations.
ernment or small charitable trusts or some
private hospitality organizations. Access to  Cultural organizations such as theatre pro-
these places is limited to high end audiences duction houses or Government funded
who have taste for cultural products. The en- theatre schools should diffuse the bound-
during audience for these places is mostly ary between high art and popular art. And
constituted by those who consume high art theatre artist should produce theatre prod-
products and therefore theatre production ucts related to popular art.
houses that produce popular art products ,
stage them in available select places are not  Based on the cost of theatrical productions
able to attract mass audience. High art audi- it is quite evident that it will be difficult to
ence does not attend such performances and break even with existing high art audience,
thus creating a losing proposition for theatre therefore theatre production houses shall
production houses. make their products available at accessible
places such as cinema complexes, shop-
T HE LOOK ING GLASS

20. P AGE 20
ping malls and other community places. Finally, it can be concluded that Indian thea-
Popular art lovers and high art lovers spend tre which exists in various forms in India has
their time in public places such as mall and huge potential. It can be marketed to a mass
cinema complexes. The cultural organiza- audience if proper segmentation of high art
tions should partner with cinema complexes consumers and popular art consumers is
to stage the live performances in such done. Digital marketing strategy coupled
places. The cinema complex owners like Fun with accessible locations for staging live per-
cinemas, PVR, INOX etc should be con- formances will help in attracting large num-
tracted to spare at least one screen for live ber of audience in timely manner and thus
performance and promote theatrical prod- make Indian theatre a commercially viable
ucts in such spaces. business.
 Theatre can become commercially viable by ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
integrating mass marketing and mass con-
sumption through low cost positioning, wide The author is thankful to the theater actors,
communication and deep distribution. India directors and writers from Delhi‟s National
is home to various forms of theatre in differ- School of Drama, theatre production house
ent languages therefore a correct segmenta- ASMITA, Delhi, Rangashankara, Bangalore
tion can help theatre become viable. and Prithvi theatre, Mumbai, for the inputs
provided.
 Catch them young: All of us become a rou-
tine audience to film entertainment because Mukesh Sharma is currently pursuing his one year full time
we are exposed to it through television from MBA (EPGP) from IIM Bangalore. He has spent more than 10
childhood days and thus we become cultur- years in automotive industry. He runs a non profit theatre group,
ally habitual to it. Therefore a theatre cul- Performer Group, in Delhi. He has acted, directed and produced
ture needs to be cultivated in Indian society various plays of social relevance in Delhi.
and this can be achieved by partnering with
educational institutes. In western world,
Theatre in education constitutes an integral
part of educational curriculum, which helps
in cultivating a strong theatre culture in the Marketing Jokes!!!
society. Theatre production houses, non
profit organizations and Government shall Two women were shopping. When they started to discuss
introduce Theatre in education (T.I.E) as a their lives, one said, "Seems like all John and I do anymore is
compulsory subject in middle and senior fight. I've been so upset I've lost 20 pounds."
school education. This will help in creating "Why don't you just leave him then?" asked her friend.
art awareness and art consumers in our so- "Oh! Not yet." the first replied, "I'd like to lose at least an-
ciety. other fifteen pounds first."
Marketing moral: Ya gotta have a goal!
 Digital marketing: Theatrical products are
plagued from poor distribution and access A retailer was dismayed when a competitor selling the same
problems. One of the crucial issues related type of product opened next-door to him, displaying a large
to theatre marketing is the booking of tick- sign proclaiming "Best Deals."
ets. Recently in few select cities some thea- Not long after that, he was horrified to find yet another
tre production houses have tied up with competitor move in next door, on the other side if his store.
digital marketers to allow web based book- It's large sign was even more disturbing—"Lowest Prices."
ings but a large part of Indian theatre is un- After his initial panic, and concern that he would be driven
touched to digital marketing concept. There- out of business, he looked for a way to turn the situation to
fore a unified effort shall be raised to help
his marketing advantage. Finally, an idea came to him. Next
theatre production houses to market their
day, he proudly unveiled a new and huge sign over his front
products digitally to art consumers.
door. It read,
"Main Entrance!"
The Difference Between Optimism, Pessimism & Marketing
The Optimist says, "The glass is half full."
CONCLUSION The Pessimist says, "The glass is half empty."
The Marketing Consultant says,
"Your glass needs re-sizing."
T HE LOOK ING GLASS