Thursday, May 5, 2011

Markathon March 2011


Dear Readers,

As I sit down to write my first editorial, there is one thing at the back of my mind and everyone else too. India vs Pakistan at Mohali. The World Cup has grabbed viewers’ eyeballs and the headlines of all the newspapers across the country. If the last WC in 2007 was an advertiser’s nightmare, this one has been a dream especially since all the subcontinent teams are still in the fray.

The viewership has been off the charts and just the group matches had a higher cumulative viewership than the IPL Season 3. All the questions about where to put in advertising money, World Cup or IPL , have been put to rest with such astounding viewership numbers. This coupled with the Official Internet viewership is a clear indicator that the World Cup has a better appeal than the IPL.

There have been loads of marketing campaigns built around the world cup. From the downright disastrous to some smartly crafted ones. The Vodafone Super ZooZoo has been a runaway hit. There has been one campaign though which I found to be very well made and has somehow not made much of an impact, the Sprite University of Freshology campaign has slowly positioned Sprite as the smart, sassy, young people’s drink from its earlier image of being a thirst quencher (Sprite bujhaaye pyaas campaign).

The tagline which they have adopted now is ‘First drink, then think, Sprite – University of Freshology. The campaign should help establish Sprite as a refreshing drink and cement its position as the No:2 drink for Coca-Cola Company in India. We need to see more such intelligent campaigns in the Indian media.

With the summer round the corner, the market for the Non Alcoholic Beverages is witnessing a lot of skirmish. In this month’s Cover Story we look at three such beverages and how the landscape is evolving with newer players coming in and lots of newer drinks in the pipeline for launch.

In this month’s Vartalaap section, we have Mrs. Priya Raghubir, Professor of Marketing at Stern Business School New York University. She gives us great insights into Consumer Psychology, aspects of pricing and her experiences from being a student at IIM Ahmedabad to a Professor at a premier Business school.

I would like to place my gratitude on record for the outgoing team who have done an outstanding job with the magazine. I along with all the members of the incoming team would endeavour our best to live upto the high standards already set for Markathon. This magazine is a collaborative effort involving all the excellent team members. I thank each and everyone one of them for the part they play in bringing the issue out.

Happy Reading! J

Jitesh Pradeep Patel

No comments:

Post a Comment