Soil Markezine magazine, May 2013

Featured Articles

Editor’s Note GLOCALIZATION – Keval Naam Bikta Hai

Strumming the Emotional Chord

Importance of Marketing in Politics

Product and Brand Placement In Movies

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CONTENTS

May 2013

Hello Readers!!Warm greetings to all our readers..!!Here we are... yet again, with another interesting issue... And somehow this edition of ours, along with the articles here has captured the best of all the class room concepts of a B-school, in perfect real life examples.

This time, the highlight of this edition is our very own, well written article – “Glocalization”. It is one of the biggest and most often faced challenges by companies who want to go global. Is there a company that is completely global? Do companies need to adopt certain amount of localisation depending on the tastes and preferences, culture of the country, etc., to succeed in the markets they enter and for their long term survival? The answers for these questions are difficult to find but this article gives you an insight that attempts to an-swer some of these questions.

The following articles are also equally interesting; giving all you marketers a good understanding of what is happening around and of course giving you a good food for thought.

So happy reading-Team MARkezine

Editing and Design:Shivaraj Ganesh Babu | Sheeza Shakeel | Ishwarya Lakshmi

SCHOOL of INSPIRED LEADERSHIPCMARKezine1

Editor’s Note

May 2013

SCHOOL of INSPIRED LEADERSHIPC MARKezine 2

Shakespeare once said, “What’s there in the Name”. He may be right for many, but at least in our context he is surely proven wrong. As the rush of the foreign single brands into the country peaks, a number of home-grown, international sounding brands are melding themselves into the retailing landscape. It is unlikely that this trend will change anytime soon. The trend is gathering momentum. Indian brands

are trying to look and sound foreign to make the most of rising aspirations of foreign-label fascinated Indians.

To begin with, high end brands like Reid & Taylor, Belmonte are of Mumbai based S. Kumar’s group. Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England are owned by Aditya Birla Group. Similarly, brands like Lee, Wrangler, Tommy Hilfiger and

GLOCALIZATION – Keval Naam Bikta Hai

May 2013

Arrow are of Bangalore-based Arvind Mills. The list is not exhaustive as brands like Provogue, Indigo Nation, Koutons, Cotton County, Charlie Outlaw, Les Femme, and TNG also lie in the same category. In fact, the major Indian brands like ITC is also using foreign names like Fiama Di Wills, John Players, and Miss Players etc. When apparel industry has gone way forward, footwear industry could not be far be-hind , reaping such fruitful benefits. Woodland, Lee Cooper, Red Chief, Red Tape are also local brands.

But why use a foreign name in India? The answer is simple, “The Indian mindset. It makes immense business sense. We love and easily accept European and American fashion because it has aspiration val-

ue, “The fact is, if given a choice, an Indian consumer will buy a foreign brand instead of a domestic one. At its most basic level, this preference is sparked by prejudices against an Indian brand name, even though there is no valid reason to justify this bias. “Despite the high quality of Liberty (Shoes), people still prefer Lee Cooper because of its foreign tag.” For a brand, an image of quality and credibility is an extremely important asset and a key factor in a com-pany’s profitability and growth. In India, where

locally produced brands are often seen as inferior, businesses consciously choose to build a “fake” for-eign image for themselves. An abundance of foreign-sounding goods available at any high-end Indian


May 2013


mall makes it look as if India doesn’t manufacture any consumer goods of its own. But is it really the case or merely a well-planned illusion?

The name is just the beginning of the carefully craft-ed illusions (one may even call it deceptions). These companies hire foreign models to showcase their collections, which is why there are so many foreign models in India. Fortunately for the companies, hir-ing an overseas model is not difficult. Many of them come to India as tourists and charge between 20,000 and 40,000 rupees for a day’s shoot, while a famous Indian personality would charge a lot more. After all, it is easier to perpetuate a pre-conceived notion of a foreign brand if foreign models are showcasing it. Brands like Duke, for instance, have been hiring for-eign models for their collection because these mod-els “help create an international feel for the brand,” an image that an Indian model would not be able to project.

Fortunately for the companies, hiring an overseas model is not difficult. Many of them come to India as tourists and charge between 20,000 and 40,000 rupees for a day’s shoot, while a famous Indian per-sonality would charge a lot more.

Cotton County, for example, faced declining sales, which were revived once they brought in foreign models. It cannot be merely coincidental that profit-able brands like Van Heusen, Louis Phillipe, and Al-len Solly have never hired Indian models.

Some firms have gone as far as to fall for their own act. Like the brand Munich Polo, that sashays itself as German, chose to design its site in the same fash-ion – so much so that its website talks about German culture and the German city of Munich, complete-

ly erasing all signs of its Indian origins. Similarly, brands like Woodland have succeeded in projecting themselves as a foreign brand. Launched by Aero industries, Woodland now has lost its original roots. The Woodland site terms itself as Woodland Inter-national, even though it ships products only within India. Therefore, the conscious effort to create a for-eign image is embedded in even the smallest details.

This trend is not limited only to adult brands, but also to many children’s brands like Lilliput, and Gini and Jony. In reality, Gini and Jony is a product of Pakistan-based Lakhani Brothers, while Lilliput was founded by an Indian businessman, Sanjeev Narula. These brands also use foreign kids as models and project their merchandise as if it were manufactured in America or England. The new emergent middle class falls for the illusion and participates in this conscious manipulation of the Indian psyche.

Five Benefits That a Local Brand Gets From An

International Endorser

1. Heightened Advertisement: - To sell a product people must look at it. What way is better than to catch the attention of the public by having a foreign celebrity endorsing your brand. And a foreign endorser also sparks the interests of socio economic classes.

2. Going after International Market: - Along with getting attention in the local market, the foreign market will also give your brand a second

May 2013

look as they are familiar with the endorser.

3. Expansion: - Getting an international celebrity is not only about adding prestige to your marketing campaigns. It is also about making your brand familiar with un-tapped markets. “It makes easier for the brand to ex-pand into new territories”.

4. Brand Upgradation: - An International celebrity endorsing your brand gives it a facelift. “It upgrades the image of the brand”.

5. World Class Quality: - “An International endorser implies that a brand has gone global and its products are of international standards”. Hence this gives a sense of quality to the public.

InferenceThe question here is why Indian brands pretend they are foreign when they are clearly not? It is not as if local brands like Fabindia are not equally popular. It cannot be denied that these pseudo-foreign compa-nies are exploiting the Indian mentality, which, as stated above, perceives foreign goods as superior. Therefore, the projection of a certain brand as origi-nating from abroad justifies higher prices.

Though this technique seems to be very effective, there is no reason for it to continue. It must be very frustrating for Indian companies to know that so many consumers do not give native products a fair chance. But at the same time, the brand image does very little if the actual products do not provide the high quality expected of imported goods. If a local company chooses to market its merchandise under a foreign alias, it has to ensure that its products look,

feel, and last as long as the imported ones, otherwise it’ll be taking advantage of gullible consumers.

A foreign named brand can be a double-edged sword. If it doesn’t deliver its promise, it is doomed to bomb. “Consumers are not stupid; you can fool them once, but not twice”. If you claim to be an Italian brand, then you have to deliver Italian quality. If you don’t, people won’t buy it.”

So the next time you step into a mall, make note of the brands you go for. You might be surprised to note that many of the ones you choose are actually Indian brands and that is proof enough of the need to recog-nize the potential in the indigenous market, and not to fall for the same prejudices again and again. Who knows, maybe your next visit to a mall would be to a truly Indian one!

Submitted by:Harshul Kashyap 1st year PGDM (ABM) Student

Rajesh Kevlani1st year PGDM (ABM) Student


May 2013

What do the pug of Vodafone, the “Jaago Re Cam-paign” of Tata Tea, Coke’s Spirit of Happiness have in common? All these advertisements have been a part of a form of marketing that seeks to tap the Emotional Intelligence of people. The concept of Emotional Marketing has been doing the rounds for a long time but it has assumed greater significance in recent years. With the commoditizing of most of the products and services offered by different companies, brand loyalty comes at a premium and in recent times the marketing campaign has been channelized towards campaigns that leverage on the

concept of emotional connect.

During the 1980s Coca Cola tried to indulge in intro-ducing a new variety of Coke and this was met with widespread disappointment. Fidel Castro termed the move as one that jeopardized the national identity of the Americans. Brands have tremendous potential in connecting with the masses and this genre has given individuals a reason to associate with the brand. The IPL and the EPL are two sporting events that further bring to light the impact of brand association. How often have we seen youngsters don the jersey of their favourite team with utmost pride? This form of mar-keting is very effective in brand penetration. While one may be loyal to Airtel, the Vodafone pug con-tinues to be the darling of many Airtel subscribers. Even a diabetic patient will be able to recapitulate the series of advertisements that portrays Dairy Milk as the initiator of every happy moment.

While we have seen emotional marketing in good light some companies tend to overdo the concept and in the process seem desperate to get the mes-sage over. Many beauty soaps exaggerate their ca-pability of ensuring “fair skin” within weeks. Some beauty products implement software to tweak the facial features of their model in order to get the mes-sage through. It would only be hilarious to assume that people would be hoodwinked into such prom-ises and exhibit brand loyalty. Unilever on the other hand redefined beauty as being an attribute that does not necessarily associate with fair skin. . “The Campaign for Real Beauty” removed the stereotypic


Strumming the Emotional Chord

May 2013


definition of beauty and this was widely appreciated by all. Dove became a brand that was a symbol of beauty and women across the globe has a sense of pride in using the product.

Various emotional triggers can be set off in order to make customers establish an ego towards their brand. Few of them are tabulated below along with the sector that can use it as leverage in marketing.

Emotional marketing has certainly helped brands penetrate the emotional chord of the customers and have made many brands an integral part of the lives of these people. By making brands permeate the minds in a subconscious way, this form of marketing can also work wonders even if the brand does not have a unique selling proposition in terms of prod-uct differentiation. Unfortunately the impact of emo-tional marketing cannot be measured in monetary terms and this makes many critical of the usefulness of the method. However we need to acknowledge the nuances between marketing and selling and in this context appreciate the utility of emotional mar-keting. After all it makes a Pepsi fan appreciate the “Spirit of Happiness”, makes every lady value “The

Campaign for Real Beauty” or secures an individual “Zindegi Ke Saath Bhi Zindegi Ke Baad Bhi”.

Marketing! Politics! Phew!!!!

The fever is catching up - different moves are tried to hit on the opponents, every one trying to outdo the other, what could that possibly be for? A product launch .. maybe .. wait ...the extravaganza of election is about to BEGIN....

School of Thought:

As Kavanagh (1995, 1996) defines it, electioneering is a set of strategies and tools to trace and study public opinion before and during an election campaign to develop campaign communication and access their impact. Maarek (1995) says it’s a complex process,

May 2013


the outcome of a more global effort implicating all the factors of the politician’s political communica-tion. The introduction of marketing in politics is an outcome of the elaboration of a policy of political communication-a global strategy of design, ration-alisation and conveyance of modern political com-munication. As per Lock and Harris (1996) political marketing is concerned with communicating with party members, media and prospective sources of funding as well as the electorate. The party or can-didate’s use of opinion research and environmental analysis to produce and promote a competitive offer-ing which will help realise organisational aims and satisfy groups of electors in exchange for their votes. Wring (1997) O’ Cass (1996) says it offers political parties the ability to address diverse voter concerns and needs through marketing analyses, planning, implementation and control of political and elector-al campaigns.

Does it WORK? Decline of per capita growth rate from 20% in 1994-95(Congress govt.) to 5% in 2004-05 and 15% in 2005-06

Gujarat slipped to 5th in 2005 (later to third) from 2nd position 1996 in India in terms of its investment climate- Asian Development Bank

31.8% population of Gujarat living below the pov-erty line, one of the highest %age of poor people and suicide rates in the country- Suresh P. Tendulkar Committee ,Planning Commission

It also remains at the bottom of the pile of the Human Development Index. Hunger, disease and deaths are chronic in villages.

Anaemia and malnutrition increased by 60%-

National Family Health Survey-3rd Round

Other states showing far better improvement in rural healthcare than Gujarat- National Council of Applied Economic Research

Even with 31.6% of Budgetary expenditures on the social sector Gujarat was at the 17th position among the 18 largest states in India- Month-ly Bulletin ,RBI, Feb’2007

3rd in the no. of complaints about Human Rights viola-tions- National Human Rights Commission

3 sections -Muslims, Adivasis and Dalits have all along faced atrocities and human rights violations in Gujarat- Achyut Yagnik, social scientist

FCI allotting less than the required PDS quota to Gujarat and the government doesn’t even bother about it. It keeps itself busy converting more and more BPL cards to APL, apparently to showcase its efforts at improving the hunger situation in the state- Frontline, May 7, 2011

Fraud to the tune of Rs 26,651 crore - CAG Report Not to forget the innocent people killed, tense at-mosphere, emotions running high during and after Gujarat riots.

Well these were some of the excerpts from Modi’s reign.

Then what made the winning streak to con-tinue for more than a decade?Just like a product sold in the market that needs a brand identity, the candidate’s name must also cre-ate an impact on people’s minds and that’s what Modi is best at.

May 2013

Gujarat’s assembly election was a no contest; it was all about Narendra Modi. When you ask people go-ing to vote during election, “which party are you going to vote for?” they’ll answer, “Narendra Modi”. Yes, he’s a bigger brand than the BJP itself, in Guja-rat. He is often referred as a “Propaganda machine.”

The beauty about Narendra Modi’s campaigns is that he makes every campaign a brand by assigning beautiful names to all his campaigns like: Vibrant Gujarat Sadbhavna Mission Vivekanand Vikaas Yatra, Ek Mat Gujarat, BJP Sarkar Ramshe Gujarat, Jeetshe GujaratMuch publicised 3D speeches, 29 Vikas Raths equipped with projectors, 10 LED Raths, each with a 110’’ screen, which roam interior villages, more than a million followers on FB and Twitter, reaching more than a million people on Google+ Hangout, and launching his own TV channel NaMo Gujarat etc. clearly exhibits his art of exploiting all sort me-dia channels. He leaves no stone unturned when it comes to online marketing

Narendra Modi was nominated in top 5 political per-

sonalities in the world who have made a mark on web in 2011 along with the US president Barack Obama.

A classic case of the new product launch. Talking about the guy completely unknown to any-one outside of Illinois except for the fact that he made a great speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004.Not only was he relatively un-known, he was a black man with a name that a lot of people found to be unsettling.

Talking about the guy completely unknown to any-one outside of Illinois except for the fact that he made a great speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004.Not only was he relatively un-known, he was a black man with a name that a lot of people found to be unsettling.

His campaign’s ability to reach out to voters, espe-cially young disenfranchised voters, was a stroke of marketing genius. He used a methodical, corporatestyle to specifically target ideal potential supporters,


May 2013

encourage their support and help get them out to vote for the President. The techniques themselves are not revolutionary as businesses and advertising agencies have used them for years. What is revo-lutionary is that a political campaign used them to

help elect a President. They try to build up databases, grow social media followers, encourage donations, and build credibility and trust through ongoing and sincere communication.

What differentiates him from the rest that he fol-lowed a theme of hope during his entire election campaign in 2008 using the slogan ‘Change we can believe in.’

His campaigns were well segmented by market (state wise). Segmentation drives engagement with his supporters because they only hear about what is related to them avoiding the clutter (Selective Per-ception, Distortion and Retention).

Marketing Strategies:Use of high performance websites to Drive Action, use of Split-Testing to achieve maximum perfor-mance (using goggle analytics) and Email Market-ing used to build the Relationship. Both Customer Relationship Management (CRM) databases and public domain research permit them to precisely

match their servic-es and commercial opportunities with ideal potential clients. Blogging used to connect with the Market. Integration of so-cial media into the website. Face-book/Twitter used to connect mass audiences. Mobile friendly websites (wap) connects with the users on the go. He was Us-ing data-mining in similar fashion as used for prod-ucts/brands to identify as the possible prospects and then worked towards securing their votes. Though he avoided telemarketing as people usually don’t like it (his competitor McCain used it). For incumbents, the relationship between spending great quantities on advertising and winning the campaign had very little effect. But for the challengers like Obama, there was a strong positive relationship between spending levels and vote shares. Advertisers (political parties) must make voters aware of their candidate or issue’s existence and provide compelling reasons why a cer-tain market should “buy” it.

Some of the components of such advertising are:BrandingIt provides a recog-nizable set of attrib-utes to the product or company like Sen-ator John McCain of Arizona sought to brand himself as a “maverick” politician, one who is


May 2013


his own man and not beholden to special interests. Similarly, the Republican Party has traditionally branded itself as a political organization that cham-pions moral values, such as equality and loyalty.

NarrativeIt tries to explain candidates or issues in terms of a story. In keeping with the branding of its “product,” a political organiza-tion may choose to help explain its benefits through the use of

simple narration. Example, during his presidential campaign, Barack Obama spoke of his background as the son of a Kenyan man and an American woman and a community organization, a narrative meant to convey his humble beginning and his affinity for the common man.

TargetingSelect the audience based on certain characteristics (demo-graphic, geographic, age group etc.)

AttributesA skilful political marketer is able to make the stakes of an election very clear to the voters, as doing so can convince them to support or oppose a particular policy or

candidate. He should be able to make the POD’s (Points of Differences) very clear to the prospects.

Conclusion:

Exposure is just as important to political candidates Exposure is just as important to political candidates as it is to corporate brands. You can brand your can-didacy by first creating a well-communicated plat-form and summing it up with a tagline that defines your campaign. Develop a logo and identity, and achieve visibility by marketing on multiple fronts. Print postcards, brochures, business cards, posters, door hangers, banners and yard signs. A successful political campaign wins the hearts of a broad range of voters through a carefully crafted marketing strat-egy. In contemporary world, many voters do not take the initiative to actively research and compare politi-cal candidates. That means that when Election Day comes, ballots are cast according to how well each candidate’s campaign was able to permeate the eve-ryday grind and deliver a clear and compelling mes-sage to voters.

Submitted by:VIPUL ARUNIIM RohtakPGP 1st year

May 2013


Importance of Marketing in Politics

The man responsible for deriving the concept of Marketing would not have expected such a crea-tive and innovative application of this concept in the real world. Use of marketing techniques in the field of politics is certainly an out of the box applica-tion of this concept. As we all know that politics and power go hand in hand. Therefore in order to make their way up the political ladder, politicians have been widely using marketing as a primary weapon in their arsenal, in various campaigns to counter the opposing forces and to attain an advantage over the competing parties. Many political pundits are hir-ing multitude of marketing wizards so that they can aggregate an army of professionals to work for their cause.

Carrying out election campaigns is considered to be one of the most expensive as well as comprehen-sive marketing exercise. The general elections held in 2009 were deemed to be the most expensive elec-tions in the political history of India. Both parties, Congress and BJP shelled out huge sums of money

and the major chunk of this spending went towards various marketing activities.

Marketing activities in politics is very similar to marketing of general products and services. We can easily draw a wide line of similarity between vot-ers voting for a candidate and a consumer buying a product. In the political arena, candidates express themselves as a product, use different methodolo-gies to publicize their policy, take a stand on various social and economic issues, and make important de-cisions regarding the means to advertise themselves while taking into account the promotional mix and conducting market research. Thus, one cannot deny the fact that there is a plethora of opportunity to ap-ply various marketing concepts in this new interest-ing domain i.e. politics.

Truly speaking, marketing may be one of the most essential factors that may decide the fate of politics in almost every country for the next 5 to 10 years. Po-litical parties as well as their respective candidates need to consider various micro and macro market-ing opportunities which can help them to market themselves in a better way and gain an edge over the rivals. The various techniques which political parties adopt include Advertising and Promotional events, Publicity stunts, Exit polls, Women power in politics, Cyberspace democracy, electronic government and Strategic lobbying.

Frequently used concept of marketing in politics:

Social network: With the rapid propagation of soial

May 2013


networking sites, companies have started using it as a platform to promote their products and services. But the story does not end here. Politicians have also started to take as much advantage of this as they can in order to promote their candidature. The vote of an individual does not make any difference but the vote of a group of individuals can certainly make a lot of difference. Hence the concept of application of politics in social media can actually help the politi-cians to gain a competitive advantage over the other candidate. In fact in a contemporary world like this every political party, be it- BJP, Congress, SP, BSP etc., has a presence on social networking platforms. In fact most of the leaders of political parties spread their ideas, opinion and views on various national and international issues by means of their Facebook and Twitter accounts so as to reach out to the masses in an economical and easy manner.

Brand Image:Brand of a product plays a vital role in determining whether the customer will buy the product or not. This is because of the fact that it is the brand that is cemented inside the mind of the consumer and will affect the buying habits of the consumer in a big way. Same is the case with politics. Most of the people do

not vote based on the qualities and a c h i e v e m e n t s of the candidate but based on the fact that to which party he belongs. This has happened many times in Indian

election history. Some of the instances include 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th Lok Sabha elections. However, the vice-versa is also true in most of the instances. So, in short, we can say that it is both brand name and party name that help in determining the proportion of success of a campaign.

Money:

Money plays an important role in determining the re-sults of an election particularly in India where most of the voters reside in rural areas. These people are ignoramus in nature and can easily fall for monetary benefits. The power of money, both before and after the election, is so enormous that it can change the whole political scenario and determine the success

May 2013

quotient of a candidate in the political arena. In fact money and politics go hand in hand because we all know that no activity can be brought to its logical conclusion without money.

Political advertising:

Political advertising is a key concept which provides a platform to all the political parties to express their opinion on the current social and economic condi-tions of the country. Through political advertising various parties can expand their domain by reaching out to much larger number of voters. Radio, newspa-pers, TV and Internet are some of the key interfaces through which parties can reach out to the masses using political advertising. These ads are designed by specialized advertising agencies. One of the fa-mous political advertising wars was evident in the year 2009 between the likes of “Jai Ho” and “Bhay Ho”. Similarly in 2004 we had the concept of “India Shining”. Gone are the days when only traditional media was used as the primary tool for political ad-vertising. Now the war is head on.

A very new and innovative concept of marketing was used in last year’s U.S. election campaign for President Barack Obama. The concept named as

Neuromarketing which included behavioural sci-ence and customer persuasion techniques was used which in the end became the real differentiating fac-tor between the two contenders. A group called as “COBS” for “consortium of behavioural scientists” was one of the important parts of Obama’s market-ing strategy and it helped in a realistic segmentation of the people around the country so as to approach them accordingly. This concept was unnoticed for a long time but in reality it was one of the major rea-sons behind the successful presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

Practically speaking, application of marketing in politics involves a huge pile of concepts and theo-ries which can be narrowed down to the marketing of various goods, commodities, services in profit and non-profit organization. It is imperative to give mar-keting orientation to politics so as to attain effective utilization of resources which would in turn help not only to achieve immediate success but success in fu-ture also. In fact if we look around the world, there are many examples which justify the use of market-ing in politics. Many leaders like President Barack Obama, PM David Cameroon, and Chancellor Ange-lia Merkel have been dependent upon the extensive usage of various marketing tools in order to build up their brand image. In India many political lead-ers like Gujarat Chief minister Mr. Narendra Modi, Bihar Chief minister Mr. Nitish Kumar and Con-gress spearhead Mr. Rahul Gandhi have relied upon various marketing concepts and have used different marketing strategies to send across their message to the public at large. In fact marketing has become a necessary and sufficient condition to have an undis-puted advantage over the competing candidate.


May 2013


Usage of proper means of marketing allows the can-didate to stand at the vantage position in the elec-tion. In fact the success rate of the candidate almost doubles if he/she portrays himself/herself in a better way through the use of marketing concepts like So-cial marketing, advertising, brand image, spreading ideas etc.

So to conclude, I would just like to end with a quote made by Mr. Sid Bernstien, legendary American Music Producer and Promoter.

“Of course you sell a candidate for political office the same way you sell soap or sealing wax or whatever; be-cause, when you get right down to it, that’s the only way anything is sold.”

Submitted by:Kshitij Yadav Narsee Monjee institute of Management Studies, Bangalore

May 2013


What is common between the movies Dabangg, Da-bangg 2, Mere Dad ki Maruti, James Bond, Castaway, Hangover 2, Son of Sardar, Golmaal 2 & 3, Masti, Kya Cool Hain Hum, Dil Bole Hadippa, etc. ?Answer: A simple and effective concept called brand placement or now popularly known as “Blockbuster branding”.

When Munni sang about Zandu in the 2010 block-buster Dabangg, the endorsement that the balm got was unintended. The song Fevicol Se in Dabangg 2 and the upcoming movie Mere Dad Ki Maruti are part of a plan. The concept is now out of closet as far as India is concerned. The transition has come a full circle. From the prominent ad banners of Pan Parag on college stages to subtle product place-ments like Red Label tea on breakfast tables to cut-

out of a brand into which a car is crashed. Does this mean that the concept has moved from subtlety to all pomp and show?

Whether it is Hollywood or Bollywood, the best brands seem to respect forced and paid placements over the spontaneous and un-paid. Fevicol Se in Da-bangg 2 looks as forced as forced can be. There is so much discomfort in the lyrics and in the meaning of it.

However, the current scenario is such that brands are trying to improve upon their image by cutting the clutter and getting noticed, increase visibility and increase recall of the brand.

There have been brand placements in Bollywood as early as 1940s. The inclusion of brands during those

Product And Brand Placement In Movies

May 2013

days was an unconscious effort. Today, the concepts of marketing have undergone enormous changes. Apart from vanilla advertising through TV, news-papers, magazines, radio, it is also about engaging customers on every platform and making the brand relatable through different media mix.So, how does product placement work in Bollywood? What are the various types of placements adopted in movies?

Silent visual: The brand is just shown silently in a scene and not spoken of in the movie. Air India in the famous Nam-ak Halal movie is one such example.

Interactive visual placement: Interaction with the product or brand is shown in the scene. Entry of Aisha in the movie in a Volkswagen Beetle is one such example.

Interactive verbal placement: The product or brand is mentioned in a dialogue. Hrithik asking for Bournvita in Koi Mil Gaya is one such example.

Interactive visual + verbal: Interaction of the product or brand with the main star is seen and also expressed in the form of a dialogue. Jackie Shroff drinks Coca Cola and talks about its attributes.

Interactive visual + thematic: Product or brand is integrated with the theme of the scene. Fight scene in Chak De takes place in McDon-alds.

Interactive visual + audio thematic: Tune/music associated with the brand can be ob-served in the scene. Tune of Nerolac paints in Vir-uddh is one such example.

Interactive visual + verbal + thematic: Brand or product interacts with the plot of the mov-ie or the scene and the name is also taken and the product is also displayed. Role of Spykar Jeans in Namaste London.

The benefits of product or brand placement can go well beyond on-screen exposure if placed appropri-ately. The promotion of the brand association with the movie can be done both through the internal and external promotional campaign. These days, produc-tion houses are taking cognizance of this fact. If a company does in-film placement of its products, then it is creating promotional tie-in opportunities and the movie also provides further visibility op-tions through the number of TV broadcasts it will receive in future, and its availability through VCDs/DVDs playback.

The main concern lies in how the viewers perceive these in-film placements. The in-film brand integra-tion should be like a natural flow in the movie to have greater effectiveness. When subtly and seamlessly


May 2013


integrated into the context of the script, it tends to have a positive impact on the viewers. The men-tion of Fevicol in recent movies like Son of Sardar, Golmaal 2 & 3, Masti, Kya Cool Hain Hum, Dil Bole Hadippa, etc is not only subtle but absolutely in sync with the content. However, when the brand/product placed is not in sync with the storyline, it provokes a negative response from the viewers. They feel the advertisement was too apparent and it loses its es-sence. Fevicol Se from Dabangg 2 has created a neg-ative impact.

With the growth of professionalism in Indian cinema and the growing need for less cluttered communica-tion channels, there is a vast opportunity for product placements to emerge as a strong vehicle to commu-nicate to the huge film-viewing population in India. As the evolution of our movies continues, we will see more and more brands putting their bets on in-film placements.

Submitted by:Sugandha SinhaShobhit BirlaInternational Management Institute, New Delhi

May 2013

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