MxMIndia

Tag: BTL Baatein

  • For an established brand, BTL is a viable option but for a brand which is yet to establish itself, you have to keep spending money on ATL, says Amit Sarda, Co-founder and Managing Director of Soulflower

    BTL Baatein: Amit Sarda, Soulflower… Powered by VISCOMM

    Amit Sarda, Co-founder and Managing Director of Soulflower leads business development, finance and also doubles up as Head of Marketing. Sarda believes that gaining high level of customer satisfaction is very important and thus his focus has always been on attending to their concerns in the best possible way to spread his passion for what he does. For this, he personally looks after consumer experience and insight in detail across various customer touch points. Amit is an active member of the DMAI which works on data drive marketing and using his data analytics, is currently working on certain projects. Along with it, Sarda also heads as the President at Young Entrepreneur’s Society (YES). Since 2010, he has also been a Member at Regional Advisory Committee, Central Excise Department, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. For BTL Baatein, Dyanne Coelho speaks with Amit Sarda who breaks down the importance of BTL activities for a niche brand like Soulflower.

     

    Tell us a little about Soulflower

    Soulflower began in 2001, and we began through a retail journey. It is a brand of handmade natural aroma and body care products using natural ingredients customised for various skin types. It has been serving the marketssince 2003 and has now extended its reach to over 900 towns in India. We have now managed to break through to even Tier 3 and Tier 4 towns such as Naharlagun, Vijapur, Udhampur, Nilambur, Narsinghgarh, and Chapra to name a few.So we started in Thailand, but in India we started in 2003 with players like Shoppers Stop, Crossword, Pantaloons and other retail channels which are no more today, but primarily we started with Shoppers Stop. So that’s how the journey took off. In the year 2009, we started with our e-commerce.

     

    In your opinion what is the importance of BTL in the consumer goods and services space?

    So for us, BTL is primary engagement with our consumer, because ultimately whoever walks into the store, we believe that those consumers are there to shop and the only thing is that we need their mindshare and walletshare both. So when we say mindshare, we have to be on their mind, and walletshare means how much they will spend on our products and buy our products. BTL activities hence help us. We do a lot of BTL activities, which involves certain fun-based and learning-based activities that are Do-It-Yourself… Most of our activities are driven at a floor level.

     

    Are there any specific products at Soulflower that you use BTL for?

    Soulflower is an experience. We are a brand that believes in designing the experience, very few brands in the world do that. So it might be a soap, it might be a bath salt, it might be anything, we always believe that it is Soulflower that we have to offer to people. It’s not about offering them only a particular product, it’s a way of life. It’s the lifestyle that we have to look at. It is herbal, it has lots of botanical benefits, how it goes through the skin, mind, body, soul, everything.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    We don’t do any ATL activities. If you talk about commercial TV or commercial newspapers, we don’t do even a single advertisement. We do BTL and a lot of digital activations. But you can call the digital activations digital as well. ATL for us is very, very rare. We don’t believe much in ATL. As I said, we believe in engagement, we believe in a one-to-one. So we are very big online and there are lots of activities that keep on happening. So there is lots of engagement with the consumer even online. So you’ll never see an ad of Soulflower in a newspaper.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    One activity we do is ring-a-discount, which we host at different Shoppers Stops in India. Ring-a-discount activation helps us to get a lot of new customers. If you ever go to Juhu Beach, if you’ve gone in your childhood, there is a place where people keep soaps and other things, and people are given rings and they play with the rings. You have to throw the ring right on the product. That is a game that gives you the chance to be a child again. And you see people of all ages standing in the queue to play that game. So the thing is that we try to create an engagement. Our engagements are always fun-based engagements where people have an opportunity to go back in their childhood and relish those memories. In learning-based activations we have activities where people learn how to use different soaps, what is the benefit for the skin, understanding the skin, so those activities are more towards learning about yourself. Then there are the DIY activities, where we give them a chance to create their own aroma. So we have multiple aromas kept on a display unit, where you can go, select aromas of your choice, understand which matches your personality, and you can actually create an aroma of your own. So tomorrow you can go and create an MxM aroma also.

     

    The idea is that whatever is your personality, whatever you like in that moment, we help you create an aroma. So we have multiple activities, these are a few of the activities. We even have primary engagements, like now we are having the sale. What we did is we have created the Cootie Catcher. It is something which you play with your hand. We realise two things when people come to the stores, when a family walks in, one is most of the people are on WhatsApp or Facebook on their mobile phone, and the second deterrent is the kids. One is the parents want to shop, but the kids are not very keen to be there, they get tired and they’re not so happy about being in the store and they’ll make sure that they drag their parents out. We created this Cootie Catcher and we give it to small kids and to all the people who are on the mobile phone. So it gives them an activity to do, plus this Cootie Catcher has full information about our products and offers, and people are actually taking it and talking about it. People are messaging us about it; people also put pictures up on Instagram and other places. So the idea is how you engage people. It is more about having a relationship which is really one-to-one. This is the relationship we create through BTL activities, which is not possible through ATL. But in BTL you can actually make sure that you engage the customer there and then.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    No, we have our own inhouse team. We don’t use any agencies. These are very specific activities. You need someone as passionate as someone who has used the product and understood it. We have our own teams all over India whose job is to create this sort of activities and activations.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    Any day! See ATL is a very mass thing. So when you do ATL, the thing is you’ve done the ad, if it works good, if it doesn’t you’re a failure and you lose money. In BTL the chances of it working are much better. The reach of BTL activity is very fast.     Suppose if we did a BTL in Kolkata and it doesn’t work, the same thing can be changed tomorrow in Hyderabad. But imagine an ad once it is gone on an ATL campaign, it is very tough to get it back, to retrieve it, because your campaigns are huge, the money which is spent is also huge. Dates are also blocked, you can’t change much. This is the advantage in BTL, you can change it. If it is not working, you can immediately change your ad, it’s easier to do. But on an ATL you can do it, it’s very tough. So for a brand which is a cult brand like us where you need people to experience the product, I think BTL is any day much better

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    At Soulflower we work in a very different way. We work on collecting feedback. Definitely sales is one number which is one of the metrics, but really we don’t work at it that much. One thing which we really work on is the ‘wow’ factor. So when the message is delivered to people, or they get involved in an activity, and they love Soulflower and they say this was amazing, it was too good, this is the kind of expressions we look forward to. Suppose we receive 100 expressions from an activity, and if there are 80 expressions which talk about this, then we’re done. It is very important that the person experiencing Soulflower feels the wow and is left mind blown. We always crave for the word called ‘love’. People write to us, ‘We love Soulflower, we love the way you guys do things.’ We love this, we want people to know that. BTL activations give this better understanding of consumers.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I think there are two ways of looking at it. I think ATL definitely is important, but now it depends on your distribution system. So for example in India if you have 500 distributors and you have 1000 stores, or 5000 stores, then you don’t need any ATL, what you need is BTL that will happen in those 5000 stores. And in those 5000 stores if you touch 100 people, you’re touching 500,000 people. And if you can touch 500,000 people in India, I think that’s a huge number. If I have a one rupee product, then maybe 5 lac customers are not enough, then I need 5-7 crore customers, but if you have a good widespread distribution and the right set of stores, if you know exactly what you want to do and how to execute it, then BTL works perfectly fine. A balance of ATL and BTL can come in. I will not say that only BTL will work. But actual engagement happens only when you have the right BTL activity.

     

  • For an established brand, BTL is a viable option but for a brand which is yet to establish itself, you have to keep spending money on ATL, says Prakash Chari, Head of Marketing, Apollo White Dental

    BTL Baatein: Prakash Chari, Apollo White Dental… Powered by VISCOMM

    Prakash Chari currently works as the Head of Marketing at Apollo White Dental and has been with the company for more than two years. Chari has over 14 years of experience in sectors such as Management, Marketing, Branding, Corporate Communications and Business Development in diversified industries like Healthcare, IT Hardware, Textiles and Banking. His core strength lies in the areas such as Strategic Brand Positioning, initiation of M&A and JV, Marketing Communications and Media Planning. In an interview with Dyanne Coelho for BTL Baatein, he explains the niche dental healthcare segment and why BTL activations are as important in healthcare services as they are in consumer products.

     

    For the benefit of our readers, tell us a little about Apollo White Dental

    Apollo White Dental is a vertical of Apollo White Hospitals. It is a JV between Trivitron Healthcare and Apollo Hospitals. Trivitron Healthcare has got 30 percent stake and Apollo Hospitals has got 70 percent stake. We are present in 17 cities and we have centres across all the cities and there are around 76 centres as such. So there are three verticals, we have a dental spa, we have a dental clinic which is as good as your neighbourhood clinic and we also have an express model. So in our dental spa we try to redefine dentistry all together with painless treatments and the kind of ambience that one wouldn’t get elsewhere. For the dental spa, our target audience is the high-end society, the ones who drive Audis, BMWs and Mercs, etc. For the clinic, there is no specific bifurcation, everyone who has a tooth problem is our target audience and the express model is a part of Apollo Hospitals, it is within the hospital like you have a cardiac department, you now also have a dental department.

     

    In your opinion what is the importance of BTL in the consumer services space?

    I would say that ATL and BTL are both kind of in strings with each other. An organisation cannot run only on BTL, and an organisation cannot run only on ATL. We as a brand are present in the South predominantly and as far as a place like Delhi and Mumbai is concerned we’ve just entered the market there. So for our newer markets we need to focus more on ATL like newspaper ads, TV ads, radio ads, and whatever other possibility is available. But for a brand as an established one, it doesn’t require to spend huge amounts of money on ATL. One more thing is that when an ATL activity is planned, unless and until there is another strong BTL activity to go with it, the ATL also goes for a toss. I would say BTL nowadays is playing a major role, and most of the companies use BTL for the costing aspect and for the micro-level reach.

     

    Are there any specific services at Apollo White Dental that you use BTL for?

    When it comes to ATL, we are doing it in a lot of centres. Last year, we opened close to 40 centres, we’ve entered about 4-5 new markets. The new markets are where we use ATL more, in a big way. But otherwise what we do is we have different campaigns. We are not mass dental practitioners, given the fact that there are so many dentistry centres; we are focusing on high-end dental practice. Like we are talking about dental implants and high-end orthodontics.  Dental implants are something that everyone is switching to from dentures. So dental implants is something that we try to reach to the complete audience. So there could be a campaign for a couple of months only for Dental Implants or there could be a campaign for orthodontic placements. You have the months of April, May, June when schools are off. That’s when the kids will go to get their braces fixed. So we start campaigns as early as January, February where we approach the schools, probably go and give a presentation to the principal and go and get the audience over there, and our doctors go over there and educate and give out brochures, pamphlets, leaflets, and a whole amount of two or three months’ time is given for proper planning, and from April we start treating the patients.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    I would say about 75-80 percent of our activities is BTL in centres that are established. For a new market it would be 50:50. If you take a new market like Mumbai, Pune or Delhi, where Apollo has just entered a few months back, that is where more of ATL has to be done to establish the brand. But if you take a market like Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad where Apollo Hospitals have got a wonderful presence, there the focus is more on BTL activities. So in markets like Chennai, Bangalore Hyderbad, it would be 30:70 ATL:BTL and in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi it would be 50:50.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    Like I said in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, our spends on ATL:BTL would be 50:50, while in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, our spends on ATL:BTL would be 30:70. Dentistry is such a field where it has to reach everyone. So you don’t expect a school child to go to a Times of India, so we have to give that personal attention.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

    Well it’s difficult to say. Of course, when it comes to BTL, there is direct contact with the consumers. Hence you have the proof point as far as the conversions are concerned and it is easy to measure BTL activities. So it always shows up technical results and points, however, when it comes to imagery as I said, and scale, ATL is equally important. So it will be unfair to say BTL is getting more results. BTL in the coming years has become more and more importantto create that experience for the consumer.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    It again depends on the category and what we want to do. In certain categories even the number of people contacted can be a measure of success. Because if it’s a new category, a new concept and you just want to create the awareness, then if you reach a certain number of contacts, then even that could be a success parameter. However for certain categories, we lay down specific targets and numbers of the number of people contacted and the conversions out of that. If you look at only sales, then a lot of BTL activities would be limited to shopfloor activations only. If you look at street plays, they will not deliver any sales for me, but it is about what is the type of awareness that has been created, how many people were able to witness what we wanted to communicate. That’s why BTL has evolved. Earlier, BTL was directly related to sales, now it is much more than that.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    I would say for an established brand, BTL is a viable option. But for a brand which is yet to establish itself, you have to keep spending money on ATL.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    See the thing is anyactivity that doesn’t have a tracking mechanism is of no use. ATL is something that cannot be measured at all. Like if I spend about 250 lacs putting up a hoarding in one of the high streets in Mumbai and any walk-in comes in, I would certainly not know what is the ROI for the agency. But as far as BTL is concerned, the major advantage is when any activity is conducted, the kind of opportunity given to us in terms of collecting database  of lots of people is large. So if I ask a marketing guy, or promoter to collect names and phone numbers of people, though I may not have full information, at least the name and phone number is collected. BTL is something which is really measurable and different activities will also help out in analysing what is working out and what is not working out and accordingly we can keep doing few things and scrap a few things.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I would sayfor an established organisation spending 80 percent of your marketing budget on BTLand 20 percent on ATL is advisable and vice versa. BTL can certainly help in bringing in a good amount of success to the organisation as such. But of course ATL also has to play a role. You have a little bit of ATL here and there, because it helps with brand recall. And brand recall cannot necessarily happen with BTL, because the kind of targets for BTL is different.

     

  • BTL becomes very important for consumer goods because the actual experience is more important to visualise the use of a product, says Gulbahar Taurani, Director Marketing & Business Head, Domestic Appliances, Philips India

    BTL Baatein: Gulbahar Taurani, Philips India… Powered by VISCOMM

    Earlier this month (July 2015), Philips India introduced Ranveer Brar, who represents Indian food across the globe, as the first ever brand ambassador for its ‘Kitchen Appliances’ business. The brand is one that believes in conducting numerous below-the-line activations as part of its marketing campaigns.  In an interview with Dyanne Coelho for MxMIndia,  Gulbahar Taurani, Director Marketing & Business Head, Domestic Appliances, Philips India, tells us the importance of BTL in the consumer goods space and why the experience of a product creates a better connect with the audience than a mere advertisement.

     

     

    What is the importance of BTL in the consumer goods space?

    If you look at any type of advertisement, the purpose is to communicate to the consumer what is in the offering. Now if you look at below-the-line advertising in consumer goods, the consumer goods space is one wherein consumers need to have a certain experience of the product, because it’s very difficult to visualise the technicalities of the product, only by listening to the benefits, or reading them out. That is why the importance of BTL is humungous in consumer goods, because it happens where the consumer is taking the final decision, and that is where BTL will help you give that experience to people. For example, our colleagues are doing dry demos. Our consumers who are entering the shop floor can decide on our product and we give them that experience of how it works, in a very realistic scenario, and help them to take the right decision. So BTL becomes very important for the brand because that is where the actual experience is.

     

    Are there any specific products at Philips for which you only use BT?

    No, that’s not the case. Both ATL and BTL are important. BTL is very important for creating that experience. However, ATL is also important from the imagery point of view. It is not like we do specific activations for specific categories, it is all about what we want to achieve. So if we want to build up the imagery in the viewers mind, then we use ATL as a tool, and if we give that experience through BTL, it helps as well. Of course BTL is very important for newer categories, wherein people have very limited knowledge.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    It varies from year to year depending on what is our strategy for that year. But on a very typical basis it’s around 60-40. That is 60 percent ATL and 40 percent BTL.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    We do a lot of branded activities. So we send our branded salespersons to various stores so that they can demonstrate our product better. We do a lot of dry and wet demos as I said, we do a lot of point-of-sales material, we have also started with a few innovative things this year, like we did road shows, flash mobs, etc to create more and more awareness among the consumers.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We do it through our specialised creative BTL agency, because it requires a little different skillset when it comes to BTL activities. However, the creative part we leave it to the brand, and our agencies that do the creative bit of it, but when it comes to the execution of it, it is always a specialised BTL agency.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

    Well it’s difficult to say. Of course, when it comes to BTL, there is direct contact with the consumers. Hence you have the proof point as far as the conversions are concerned and it is easy to measure BTL activities. So it always shows up technical results and points, however, when it comes to imagery as I said, and scale, ATL is equally important. So it will be unfair to say BTL is getting more results. BTL in the coming years has become more and more importantto create that experience for the consumer.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    It again depends on the category and what we want to do. In certain categories even the number of people contacted can be a measure of success. Because if it’s a new category, a new concept and you just want to create the awareness, then if you reach a certain number of contacts, then even that could be a success parameter. However for certain categories, we lay down specific targets and numbers of the number of people contacted and the conversions out of that. If you look at only sales, then a lot of BTL activities would be limited to shopfloor activations only. If you look at street plays, they will not deliver any sales for me, but it is about what is the type of awareness that has been created, how many people were able to witness what we wanted to communicate. That’s why BTL has evolved. Earlier, BTL was directly related to sales, now it is much more than that.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL-aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I think for consumer goods, this has been true for quite some time. You will see many brands have introduced categories only through BTL activities, because when you have a very focused market approach and you have some of the markets in your mind, you can always take BTL as your only vehicle to newer categories and products, in a very focused, limited and mostly experiential way. That’s where BTL helps, and that is very important in the consumer goods space and not only today, but in the past as well, I have seen many brands use only BTL as a vehicle to launch their categories, and they have been successful doing that. I think it’s about the task that you have at hand. I would say yes BTL has that chance, when you have a focused market approach, but when it comes to scale and imagery ATL is required because that first gives you a bigger and better reach, and it also creates an imagery in the minds of the consumers. That’s where ATL is important. BTL, depending on the job at hand, can standalone deliver the category launches and all, but it all depends on what you want to achieve. For example, when we wanted to market the air fryer only in five metros, we used the BTL vehicle, we went through activations, created the buzz, created that experience and contacted consumers. When we thought we need to scale up and reach more consumers, that’s when we used ATL.

     

  • A successful campaign is not necessarily one which is present across all platforms and vehicles and is seen everywhere, Deepali Naair, Chief Marketing Officer, Mahindra Holidays

    BTL Baatein: Deepali Naair, Mahindra Holidays… Powered by VISCOMM

    Deepali Naair began her career in 1993 as Senior Officer at Tata Motors, following which she was Marketing Manager at BPL Mobile Communications. She has worked as Group Head – Account Planning at FCB Ulka, Marketing Manager at Marico and was a consultant with the EMM Group. After this she held the post of VP and Head of Marketing at HSBC Global Asset Management. Prior to joining Mahindra Holidays, Deepali was the Country Head – Brand, Customer Service and E-Commerce at L&T General Insurance. In October 2013, she joined Mahindra Holidays as Chief Marketing Officer. She also leads the Digital Marketing Training for the Mahindra group as a member of the Group Mahindra Sales & Marketing Academy. In 2015 Deepali was awarded the ‘Content Marketer of the Year’ award by DMAi for designing unique digital content to promote Club Mahindra. In 2014,www.socialsamosa.com listed Deepali as one of the top 8 futuristic brand heads in India. In 2013, Deepali received the ‘Leading Woman in Insurance’ Award and also “50 Most Talented Brand Leaders of India”. In her spare time she teaches at S P Jain Institute of Management and Research and is also a very keen social media influencer. In this edition of BTL Baatein, Deepali Naair in an interaction with Dyanne Coelho spells out the importance of BTL activations in the consumer goods and services space and explains how Mahindra Holidays keeps up-to-date.

     

    Are there any specific products or services for which BTL activations are used at Mahindra Holidays?

    We do a lot of activation programmes to engage with our members on a one-on-one basis. These are an integral part of our marketing mix.Some of the campaigns we have undertaken in the last financial year are –

     

    1. The Suitcase campaign

    We ran a special campaign where a locked suitcase was sent to 150 of our Mumbai-based customers that had booked a holiday with us using a gift voucher (GV) in the last one year. In order to unlock the suitcase, they had to invite our sales executive home for a product presentation. This activity was a great success with a response of 12%. The campaign won Gold at the DMAi India Echo awards and Silver Abby Award in the Dimensional Mail category at Goa Fest 2014.

     

    2. Passport to Magical Moments

    Passport to Magical Moments’ was a unique experiential event organized by Club Mahindra especially for kids at a suburban mall in Mumbai. Here, the kids along with their parents got a chance to experience the fun of a Club Mahindra resort and its myriad activities. Four destinations were showcased through four different zones /set ups – Goa, Kerala, Rajasthan & Dubai and each zone engaged kids with an activity that was representative of that Club Mahindra resort/destination – a simulated jet ski in Goa, meeting a virtual elephant from Kerala, rappelling down a wall and watching a live puppet show from Rajasthan and racing ATVs on the sand dunes of Dubai.

     

    3. ‘Dil Dhadkne Do’ Meet & Greet for Members

    We partnered with the latest multi-starrer, Dil Dhadkne Do, to promote our Cruise offer which was on from January to June 2015. As part of our association with the movie, we organised a Meet & Greet event in two cities – Delhi and Mumbai. At this event some lucky members joining the Club Mahindra family during the offer got a chance to meet and interact with the superstars of the film, including Farhan Akhtar, Ranveer Singh, Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, director, Zoya Akhtar, and producer Ritesh Sidhwani.

     

    4. ClicPic

    In an effort to socialise member experiences, Club Mahindra launched a photo contest at its resorts using Instagram. Members visiting the resorts were asked to upload their holiday photos on Instagram with hashtags. We have seen an overall increase in tagging #clubmahindra to pictures on social media.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We do a lot of innovative work across different mediums in the ATL and BTL spaces. For these different activities we work with specialized agencies.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    Choosing a medium or vehicle depends on the objective of the campaign and the target customer one is aiming to reach. A successful campaign is not necessarily one which is present across all platforms and vehicles and is seen everywhere. While there may be a large number of vehicles available, the choice should be made carefully and based on its interactivity and effectiveness in connecting with the target customer.There is never just one solution that meets all requirements. Therefore the best measure of success is the achievement of the initial objective set at the beginning of the campaign.

     

  • The lines are actually blurring in terms of how you treat your marketing mix, says Uma Talreja, CMO, Burger King India, adding that she doesn’t think the "traditional rules really apply anymore"

    BTL Baatein: Uma Talreja, Burger King India… Powered by VISCOMM

    She has served as Deputy General Manager, Marketing and Communications, Shoppers Stop Limited, Head, Marketing and Branding (Supermarkets) at Aditya Birla Retail. She was Marketing Head at Westside where she handled all aspects of marketing including strategy, branding, advertising & communication, public relations, online initiatives, loyalty & CRM, market research, promotions & events and visual merchandising. In this edition of BTL Baatein, Uma Talreja, Chief Marketing Officer, Burger King India speaks with Dyanne Coelho on the importance of BTL vis-à-vis ATL for a new brand in the Indian geography.

     

    What is the importance of BTL in the FMCG and QSR space?

    The lines are actually blurring in terms of how you treat your marketing mix. It’s no longer just ATL and BTL, but you look at a 360 degree view in terms of how you reach your consumers, and of how you remind consumers of your presence and product offering. So it’s a balanced mix, I wouldn’t say that you have an over balance of one element, but of course there is BTL as well, but it’s no longer just ATL and BTL, there’s digital, there’s public relations which has become very important, there’s influencers and bloggers which are very important, so I don’t think the traditional rules really apply anymore.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    I think all marketing elements currently are playing an important role, and while we’re launching stores, it’s important for us to create location awareness apart from our own offering to the Indian consumer. So it is an important element for us.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    We do a lot of local store marketing which is aimed at increasing traffic from catchments and neighbourhood stores and consumer segments. So we do a lot of things from couponing, to out of home which is targeted to various segments. We do use a lot of these activations for our marketing. We’ve done a lot of in-mall activations as well right from using drones, to using celebrities to create an engaging experience for customers on ground about the brand, and educating them about the brand, and about innovations on various aspects of the brand. We’ve done a lot of things recently related to couponing creating more awareness and trials for certain products in our product mix. We use couponing for that which is a localised activity for us. Apart from that we’ve done roadshows and things like that as well.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    About 30 percent of our spends is on BTL.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We use specialist agencies for these activities.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    I think both work, it all depends on your objective.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    I think traffic is important, and participation is also important. I think these two things are important from a retailer’s point of view. So if you are engaging with the audience through some outside activation, then how many people really took part is a factor, the second is to generate actual traffic into your restaurant.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I don’t think that marketers think like that. I think it’s a very polarised view. I think for certain objectives and activities you could survive only on BTL, but as a brand I don’t think one survives on any one particular activity. I don’t think that’s the case.

     

  • Whether it is influencing the consumer at the point of sales or it is trying to influence the kind of trade in terms of stocking a certain product, BTL is a key component in marketing, says GK Suresh, Head of Marketing, Foods Division, ITC Limited

    BTL Baatein: GK Suresh, ITC Limited… Powered by VISCOMM

    GK Suresh, Head of Marketing, Foods Division, ITC Limited,  joined ITC in the year 2004 as District Manager – South and currently heads marketing for all categories of the foods business – staples, biscuits, confectionery, snacks, noodles, pasta, ready to eat, new categories, exports and packaging development. Prior to this, Suresh was Head – Brands and Business Development, Personal Care business, ITC Ltd, where he headed marketing for the newly created personal care business and oversaw ITC’s entry into the intensely competitive spaces of soaps, shampoos, fairness creams and Talcs. He lead the new category development of face washes and premium skincare products and also headed the media and research functions. In this edition of BTL Baatein, G K Suresh talks to Dyanne Coelho about the importance of BTL activations, why at ITC the spends on BTL are almost equal to ATL, and the importance of engaging the consumer through BTL activations.

     

    How important is BTL in the FMCG space?

    Hugely important.More than 50 percent of our marketing spends go into BTL activities. So whether it is influencing the consumer at the point of sales, or it is trying to influence the kind of trade in terms of stocking a certain product, BTL is a key component for us.

     

    Are there any specific products at ITC that you use BTL for?

    We use it for pretty much all our products. A bulk of our sales happens through the trade, and hence working through the trade is a key challenge for us. There are certain kinds of products where modern trade would become more important and there would be certain other kinds of products where the general trade would be more important. And there would be other more mass, more widely penetrated products where the wholesale channel would become more important. So, accordingly, we would deploy the inputs based on the requirements.

     

    Specifically, how important is BTL to ITC Foods’ overall marketing plan?

    BTL is almost 45 to 50 percent of our total spends. ATL and BTL is almost equal to us.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    So we work closely with modern trade, in doing a lot of modern trade programmes, whether it is a biscuit mela or a snacks festival, or something on the ready-to-eat category. We also do a lot of work with general trade, we have a loyalty programme for them which is called The First Club, where we give them preferential treatment in terms of supply, in terms of service, in terms of visibility, in terms of new product introductions, and in turn they give us a lot of preference and they talk to the consumers about new products that we launch and so on. We also have a loyalty programme for the wholesale channel called Shubh Laabh, which is pretty similar, where the whole idea is to get the wholesaler to talk about some of our newer products to the retailers who come to the shop.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We do a combination of both. A lot of the trade-related activities are done through our distributors;a lot of consumer related activities are done through a specialised agency. We work with a variety of agencies in that area.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

     

    I wish I knew the answer to that one. I think each serves a different purpose. I think BTL to a large extent enables you to physically sample your product, in many cases do a one to one with the consumer and explain to the consumer about your product, and ATL does not necessarily offer that benefit. It’s more a broadcast, whereas BTL is a little bit more personalised and therefore for products which require a lot of convincing to do to the consumer, I think BTL works very well. For products where that may not be so important, I think ATL works equally.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    I think in most cases we would look at trials. That would be a big metric that we look at post BTL campaigns. A lot of our BTL campaigns are focused on addressing that issue. And therefore the single big metric we would look at is trials.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I think so, absolutely. I see a lot of brands building themselves purely on the basis of BTL. On some of our products, even we are doing it. For example ready-to-eat products, Kitchens of India conserves and preserves, Aashirvaad ready meals, Aashirvaad instant mixes, we do a lot of activities in BPOs, in gourmet shops, at airports, malls, and so on where we believe that we the target consumers for these products are likely to be present.

     

  • For improving marketing effectiveness, we typically combine ATL and BTL techniques in a single, integrated campaign for communicating consistent messages across all media, says Swati Rathi, Senior General Manager and Marketing Head, Godrej Appliances

    BTL Baatein: Swati Rathi, Godrej Appliances

    A postgraduate in marketing from the Xavier Institute of Management, Swati Rathi has been with Godrej Appliances for over nine years after a stint at IMRB and Polaris Software. Given the wide range of products that Godrej Appliance has, Ms Rathi’s experience ranges from driving a 1000+ team of frontline customer advisors to directing the ATL and BTL of Godrej Appliance products. Ms Rathi takes questions from Dyanne Coelho on how vital BTL is to her company’s over marketing plan and the attributes she looks at to measure the success of a BTL campaign philosophy

     

    Swati Rathi, Senior General Manager and Marketing Head, Godrej Appliances

    1. How important is BTL activity to your overall marketing plan?

    BTL communication is extremely critical to the success of any marketing plan. It not only helps in building awareness, creating interest and driving imagery for the brand but also helps in providing a deeper level of understanding to the consumers by giving them information and by connecting with them more closely. It is a down-to-earth, hands-on approach that is more direct and helps the brand in establishing a relationship with the consumers. For a consumer durables brand, product understanding and demonstration plays a very important role and purchase decisions continue to get influenced at the shop floor and therefore, BTL communication plays an even more crucial role for brands like us.

    At Godrej Appliances, BTL activations play a crucial role in the overall marketing plan. Through our BTL activations, we try to ensure that there is consistent brand presence in the market and a high visibility at the shop floor. We do nearly 1000 BTL activations throughout the year ranging from participating in premium exhibitions such as IITF to improving shop floor visibility through clutter-breaking visual merchandising concepts.  All our activities are targeted at driving brand imagery and conversion at the shop floor level by letting the consumers experience the products and offerings up close.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    Approximately 25-30 % of our marketing spends are on targeted BTL activations.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?
    At Godrej Appliances we undertake a wide variety of activities as a part of our BTL communication. These include:

     

    :: Shop level product launches and retail promotions> demonstration focused activations at shops or in mobile canters around the city
    > cookery classes for Microwave Oven promotion
    > product stacking/usage demonstrations for refrigerators etc.

    :: Festival specific activation

    > tactical offer centric promotions at or around the shop floor through inserts and visual merchandising

    :: Exhibitions of different scales

    :: Van branding and activations
    :: Office/ Mall/RWA activations
    :: Clutter-breaking visual merchandising led promotions
    :: SMS and email campaigns

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    While we work with our creative agencies for creative development, the execution is taken care of by our BTL agencies.

     

    In terms of generating results esp from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

    For improving marketing effectiveness, we typically combine ATL and BTL techniques in a single, integrated campaign for communicating consistent messages across all media.

    BTL activations work as reinforcement and are more driven to effect conversions. BTL is very successful in upcountry locations and the results are also easily measurable.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    The number of leads generated, footfall and sales are important parameters that are measured to assess the success of BTL campaigns. What is also positively impacted through a well executed BTL campaign is the confidence of trade partners, motivation of the sales force and reassurance to consumers, feedback from trade partners etc.

     

    There are many organizations who often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    Both ATL and BTL have their own defined role to play and the media mix depends on the objective of the campaign and nature of the product being launched. Further, with consumers’ media habits getting more and more fragmented, it is important to have a sharply targeted mix with the role of each media vehicle being defined very carefully.

     

  • In India, a number of brands are building business by using BTL and hence BTL has become a relevant lever to build brand without using ATL significantly, writes Sachin Dingankar, Marketing Head, Zydus Wellness Ltd.

    BTL Baatein: Sachin Dingankar, Zydus Wellness Ltd. Powered by VISCOMM

    A postgraduate from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Sachin Dingankar took on charge as Head of Marketing at Zydus Wellness in March this year. Zydus has a strong portfolio in the FMCG space with brands such as Sugar Free, Everyuth, Nutralite and Actilife.

     

    Of his 18-odd years of work experience, Mr Dingankar has worked with well-known FMCG majors like Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Godfrey Phillips (GPI) and  Henkel managing brands like Four Square, Red & White, Cavanders, Stayfree & Schwarzkopf Professional. A diverse set indeed. Recently, at the Kyoorius Advertising Awards, a Zydus campaign crafted by DDB Mudra bagged the lone Black Elephant awarded. Mr Dingankar takes questions from Dyanne Coelho on his company’s BTL philosophy and how it is gaining ground vis-a-vis ATL.

     

    How important is Below-The-Line marketing in the wellness space?

    Experiential marketing has become an important part of driving brands/ products in the wellness space. This has become all the more important because new products are being developed with specialised ingredients and benefits that needs to be communicated to the consumers

     

    Are there any specific products or services for which BTL is used in particular at Zydus?

    We use BTL for engaging with consumers for all three franchises – Nutralite, Everyuth and Sugar Free

     

    How important is BTL activity to your overall marketing plan?

    As mentioned, BTL has become an integral part of our marketing plans

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    The spend ratios are similar to the industry.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion? 

    We do a range of activities for Nutralite like festival activity, sampling in different touchpoints like modern trade, general trade, corporate and society etc.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency? 

    We work with both options. DDB Mudra has been partnering with us on Nutralite for both creative work and on activations as well.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL? 

    Both have their reasons for being an important part of marketing plan.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    Various measures are used to evaluate success of BTL campaigns. Some of the measures are increasing relevance, image parameters etc

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    In India, a number of brands are building business by using BTL. It has become a relevant lever to build brand without using ATL significantly.

     

    In the creation of the Nutralite’s ‘Health Cha Shree Ganesh with DDB Mudra, did you’ll worry about hurting religious sentiments? 

    We were very conscious of not hurting any sentiments. Full attention was paid to the activity to ensure that this issue was addressed appropriately

     

    The ad won the only Black Elephant at the Kyoorius Advertising Awards last month. What was the overall response you got to the campaign?

    It is a very prestigious award and we are very happy to win it. The response has been overwhelming.

     

  • ATL and BTL promotions can't exist without each, says Pravin Kulkarnii, General Manager – Marketing, Parle Products Pvt Ltd

    BTL Baatein: Pravin Kulkarnii, Parle Products. Powered by VISCOMM

    With over 15 years of experience in the domain of sales and marketing management across various leading companies such as Blow Plast, Pidilite and Parle, Pravin Kulkarnii joined Parle Products in 1994 and is currently General Manager, Marketing. He is based out of Mumbai and is responsible for corporate strategy, business profitability, product portfolio management, strategic brand management, advertising and promotion for all Parle brands in the country. Mr. Kulkarnii is a graduate in Engineering from VJTI, Mumbai and a postgraduate in management from the University of Pune. Mr Kulkarnii speaks with Dyanne Coelho on how ATL and BTL have complementary and not competing roles.

     

    How critical is the role that Below-the-Line advertising and promotions plays in the FMCG space?    

    The main role of BTL is to give the experience of the brand to consumers, to have an interaction and experience with the brand , positioning  of the brand, etc. This is done so that the positioning of the brand gets completely fixed in their minds. ATL generally creates awareness and an image, but positioning and communicating the experience of the brand comes only through BTL activities.

     

    Are there any specific products in Parle for which BTL is used in particular?

    Almost all brands have some kind of BTL activity, mall activations and all. We even have rural activations. Almost 70 to 80 percent of the brands have some amount of BTL activity.

     

    How important is BTL activity to your overall marketing plan at Parle?

    It is very important. Almost 15 to 20 percent of our marketing budget goes into BTL.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

     

    Like I mentioned earlier, we spend between 15 to 20 percent of our budget on BTL activations.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion? 

     

    We do a lot of activities, like sampling of our products, merchandising activities, schoolroom promotions about different brands, brands especially that are targeting kids. We also do rural promotional activities, which means that we go to villages and spread activities about the brand and also do distribution. We also take part in a lot of melas, at movie theatres, exhibitions and other activities.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency? 

    No we do it via specialised BTL agencies that have the infrastructure in various cities. That way it is also much cheaper, because regular agencies charge too much for such activations.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL? 

    There is a completely different role for ATL and BTL. They don’t clash with each other. ATL helps create awareness and brand image. BTL complements it by creating an experience for the brand. Both have complementary roles rather than competing roles. Neither is complete without the other. ATL doesn’t give the brand experience to the consumers, at the same time, doing just BTL is going to be a very limited activity. How many BTL activities can you have? You want to create mass awareness, and for that you need ATL.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign? 

    In a BTL campaign, it is not always sales, but many times we check to see the awareness of the brand before and after. Similarly, we track what the brand image was before the activity and after. Whether the positioning of the brand is more clear is also what we look at. We also look to see what is the overall experience of the brand, whether it was positive or satisfactory or not achieved results. So these are the factors we track before and after the activation.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

     

    Both are complementary. None can exist without the other. A lot of experience also happens at the shop level, during the actual sale. Even if we create awareness, the consumer may not remember it at the top of his/her mind all the time. So if the consumer has a good experience at the shop level, the likelihood of purchasing the brand increases.

     

    You’ll have done some BTL activities recently in non-metro cities…

    Yes we have done it across the country. We go to over 500 population villages. We do similar activities there as well. But we have noticed that we get a far better response in the smaller towns than in cities. There people are more excited about such activities. In bigger towns the psychology is that they have seen everything. So they don’t get excited anymore. That is not the case in small towns.

     

  • BTL is far more measureable in terms of the results one would get, says Sagar Boke, Head of Marketing, Bunge India Pvt Ltd

    BTL Baatein: Sagar Boke, Bunge India. Powered by VISCOMM

    As Head of Marketing at Bunge India Pvt Ltd Sagar Boke brings to the table a vast experience of over a decade in the field of brands and marketing. He was Category Head for Skin and Fragrance at Cavin Kare. Prior to this he was the Deputy General Manager, Marketing, Hair Colours, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. He was instrumental in building brands such as Godrej No 1 soap, Godrej Nupur annd Fairever Fairness Cream. Mr Boke speaks with Dyanne Coelho on how BTL is a key part of his overall marketing activity.

     

    We’ve heard about your activation in Lucknow and Varanasi. For a product like Dalda, how important is BTL activity to your overall marketing plan?

    I would say very important, because whenever you are competing in the commodity category, it is important for a brand to create an emotional connect. One of the ways to really do that is through BTL activation, which amplifies the brand idea. Now the brand Dalda is focused on a mother’s trust. The tagline of the brand was ‘Trusted by Mothers who Care’ and the current tagline that we have is‘Dabba Khali, Pet Full’ to imply that every time the kid comes home, the dabba is khali and the stomach is full. The idea was to look at areas that create an emotional connect with the mother. This activity was one where we achieved that objective.
    And for other products like Gagan?

    For all our brands I would say that BTL activation plays an important role. In ATL, we talk about the brand value and brand proposition, whereas in BTL we bring the brand proposition alive to the consumer. The amount of consumer connect we receive through BTL is unparalleled.
    Dalda has always been very active on the mass media… how are those spends doing?

    I’m not in a position to share exact numbers, but I can definitely say that we are one of the most active brands on the media and possibly one of the highest spending brands on media in the edible oil category. With respect to our spends, I can say that it is 70 percent on television and print, 20 percent on activation and 10 percent on digital. Also, when talking about digital, I think mobile as a platform holds a very high potential. We launched an initiative called Dial D, wherein a consumer could give a missed call on a number and they would instantly get a call back. Once they got the call back, they could submit a recipe to enter the contest. We also shared recipes with the callers. They could stand to win prizes if their recipe won.

    Can you give us a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    It would be 70 percent ATL and 30 percent BTL.
    What is the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    Our aim of BTL is to bring the brand proposition alive. So for these, we look for high conglomeration points and various occasions. Last year, we had an activity at the Rath Yatra, where about 10 lakh pilgrims had gathered. The campaign took place at Puri, Odisha, during the Jagannath Rath Yatra.  We collaborated with renowned sand sculptor Sudarsan Pattnaik who created a life-sized sand art sculpture of Lord Jagannath on the beach in Puri.Similarly, during Durga Puja last year, we had a Dhunuch iinstallation, an offering made to the goddess. This was created using 5000 Dalda bottles at Singhi Park in Kolkata. Like these, many of our activities have caught the attention of the consumers. Last year, during Mother’s Day, we had created a special mobile application wherein the consumer could record a message for their mother and the message would be delivered to their mother through us. So in this way we look at occasions and ideas which are clutter breaking to really create awareness about the brand.

     

    Do you prefer to retain BTL agencies directly or initiate them via your existing creative/media agency?

    We have a number of BTL agencies who work for us, so mostly we do it through a BTL agency, since their expertise is in that.

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    I would say so, because in BTL you are pretty much focused in terms of the target audience one is looking at. And also it is a very measureable method. Far more measureable in terms of the results one would get.

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    One of the other parameters we look at is brand health. Another is spontaneous awareness of the brand. We also look at the consideration of the consumer to buy the brand. Because if both brand health and brand awareness are high, then the inclination of the consumer to buy the product is also stronger.Consideration is important. Would they consider buying my brand? In terms of creating brand awareness, ATL is more effective, but what BTL strongly does is it creates an emotional connect. It is not only sufficient to have an awareness of the brand, it is also important that consumers consider consuming the brand. BTL really works to create an engagement and a connect for the brand.

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I wouldn’t say that. In very niche categories it is possible for BTL to manage without ATL. For example, if it is for a premium product, or a customised offering where you only want to target a small audience, then it would work. At the end, the objective of ATL is to reach a larger consumer base. In BTL, your consumer target base is smaller and it should do the job. However, if you are targeting a large mass audience, then it is difficult with BTL alone. In order to create awareness for a larger number of people, BTL is more expensive; however the quality of engagement via BTL is also far superior.

     

  • Every poster put up at a dealer showroom constitutes infrastructure for motorcycle major Bajaj Auto, says Sumeet Narang Senior VP (Marketing – Motorcycles), Bajaj Auto

    BTL Baatein:Sumeet Narang,Bajaj Auto Powered by VISCOMM

    For a product like a motorcycle, it’s got to be more than just advertising above-the-line that can do full justice to a brand. But sometimes it’s also a combination of BTL or on-the-ground activity with ATL or digital specifically, as Bajaj Auto did recently. And, as Sumeet Narang, Senior Vice-President (Marketing – Motorycles) at Bajaj Auto says what drives customers a lot more to showrooms is the above-the-line investments.

     

    We’ve seen the webisodes for Discover and this is possibly the first time a product in this sector has embraced the digital medium in a big way. Huge step forward?

    The bigger move is not the screen through which we’re broadcasting but the content. Whether it’s cinema, TV, mobile or laptop; whether it’s through the internet or a place where you buy a ticket, it’s just a medium.

     

    The spends on this campaign are probably as much as for a TVC, but the reach is not as much. Do you think it’s effective enough, in terms of RoI?

    First, if you don’t lean forward and experiment, you’ll always stay in the safe zone. We clearly explored the upside and downsides [before embarking on the campaign]. The ZingZong ride campaign was launched on Feb 8, but before that, we conducted a 13-city survey on relationships and how people about them and about marriage and such. And we saw we were on the right track with our findings. Another thing that came out strongly in the survey was that people found a long drive on a bike to be the most romantic way of spending time together, and they rated it higher than a candlelit dinner, a movie together or just hanging out at home. This was a corroboration of our findings, and the way we’re building this brand. We decided that we needed to take this campaign into people’s lives. If this brand stands for re-igniting romance, what’s the biggest symbol of that? The heart, of course, and that’s how ZingZong was launched – strategically -on World Marriage Day. It was launched with press articles, TV ads over three days and advertorials across all leading print papers. We also invited couples to drive around the country and bring the ZingZong back in their lives. That announcement is, in itself, an endorsement by the brand of what it believes in. It was a pretty high-reach campaign when we launched it. We used mass media. I think if you mix media, you can get a good balance of reach as well as engagement.

     

    It’s still early days but how has the campaign worked for you? It really seems to have struck a chord…

    Considering we got upwards of 8,000 entries from couples wanting to take part and willing to share their stories.

     

    In terms of sales?

    It’s a brand activity. It’s difficult to isolate aspects and say I see a blip here or there. It’s a part of the whole process we’re rolling out in, in terms of repositioning Discover as a brand. I don’t think I can isolate any one activity. It’s still early days.

     

    Apart from digital and television, has the ad been on other media as well?

    TV and print are the dominant media. We’ve also used digital. There’s an interesting on-ground property that we’ve built where a couple can visit a showroom and get a 60- second film made of themselves. It’s called a ZingZong World Tour. We’ve had to be careful with digital, though. This isn’t like a youth brand; . In a certain way, there is a bit of a convergence on the way the role digital’s got to play in the life of Discover. It’s a more mass brand and for that way, everybody is wanting Digital to evolve as a medium. From being a youth brand consumed more out of desktops and laptops and high-end smartphones, we all know there ae actually 250 million internet users, dish has also to got a lot more mass and wider. It’s a challenge for the brand and as much for the digital industry.

     

    The spends are huge for digital and you’re happy to experiment.

    We’re pretty mindful of what we spend across media. So we feel a small proportion of our spends could be put into something experimental. It may or may not work, but it definitely leaves us a lot wiser.

     

    In terms of your sales, this is the beginning of the festive season, the key season…

    This is a big season for us in the north, particularly during what we call the wedding season. So you do see an increase when the festive season comes on, starting with Navratras, that’s the next big season. The webisodes and all will not necessarily culminate in that. They’re not being timed toward the October festival season per se, but I would say it comes in now. We launched a new campaign in January. So, across what is quarter four for us, we’re focused on our above-the-line campaign and some time in February, we launched ZingZong Ride.

     

    How much of your spends are either above the line or below?

    It’s a much smaller amount that goes below the line where it varies from industry to industry. We have dedicated dealers with showrooms, but that’s part of our infrastructure. Whereas for an FMCG, every poster put up at a retail shop would constitute a below-the-line investment. For us, that’s really the infrastructure. It’s a difficult thing to compare. Below the line plays a role. The infrastructure is there and it’s already gone in the infrastructure and continues to do so. We find what drives customers a lot more to showrooms is the above-the-line investments.

     

    And there’s still some time before you get into some e-commerce sales, which hasn’t really entered the automobile sector in a big way….

    In case of two wheelers, I don’t think you can do away with the kind of experience and assistance and expert advice that a customer requires at a point of sale, which is [acquired from] the dealership. It’s not like browsing through features online and then ordering the bike online too. I can’t say how things will be in future. Currently, we’re very focused on our current methods.

     

    And one last question: What are the challenges that lie ahead for you in terms of marketing, advertising and promotion of motorcycles?

    At the industry level, we’ve been seeing a slowdown in the last six months. So one big challenge is going to be to accelerate the re-purchase cycle at an industry level. Our commuter segment, where Discover is operating, has lost some market share. We have to get that back. Our third challenge has to do with new launches. I think we need to consolidate them in the market. We’re talking about quite a few of them, like Platina or CT100. We have to continue building the credibility of these brands and make them look very different and exciting. Similarly, with the new Pulsar that we’ve launched, the advertising and marketing challenge is going to be to up the brand imagery and sheen. These are top-of-the-line bikes and our challenge would be to come up with marketing which complements them.

     

    And one last question: What are the challenges that lie ahead for you in terms of marketing, advertising and promotion of motorcycles?

  • BTL marketing becomes important because it provides the human interaction, which effectively solves problems related to understanding and trust, says Sanjay Tripathy, SVP Marketing, Product, Digital & E-commerce, HDFC Life

    BTL Baatein with Sanjay Tripathy of HDFC Life

    Sanjay Tripathy

    Senior EVP, Marketing, Product, Digital and E-commerce, HDFC Life on the role of below-the-line advertising and promotions in a marketing plan

     

    Award-winning marketer, Sanjay Tripathy is Senior Executive Vice President, Head Marketing, Product, Digital and E-commerce at HDFC Life. A graduate in management from IRMA, Gujarat preceded by an engineering degree, Mr Tripathy has worked with GCMMF, Fritto-Lay, Mattel and Reliance Infocomm before joining HDFC Life in December 2004. In this interview with MxMIndia, Sanjay Tripathy speaks about how key are below-the-line promotional activity to a marketing plan…

     

    How important is BTL activity to your overall marketing plan? And overall in the financial services sector?

    BTL activities form an important part of our overall marketing plan. In context of the financial services industry, product understanding and trust are teething customer issues. BTL marketing becomes important because it provides the human interaction, which effectively solves problems related to understanding and trust. It also provides the desired experience to the customer which can affect the purchase decision process.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    Depending on the objectives of the campaign, we allocate budgets for ATL and BTL activities. More important than the budget allocation, is to make sure that the ATL and BTL activities being executed are complementary and provide the complete brand experience, which we intend to provide to the customer. We don’t work on pre-decided spend patterns, rather adapting to the communication and engagement objectives of the campaign.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    – They would be of two kinds:

    i. Strategic:

    a. Experiential modules at relevant sites (work site, malls etc.), to let them experience the campaign/product proposition. e.g “Director Of Happiness” for Smart Woman campaign and work site campaign for QROPS prospects

    b. Contact programmes such as Spell Bee which we have done in the past, which help us engage with the right audience in the relevant life space

     

    ii. Tactical:

    Lead Generation modules run at channel partner locations, work sites etc. for product awareness and desired customer action, especially during the tax investment season

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?
    – Different campaigns demand different skillsets. For campaigns which require smaller scale and faster turnaround, smaller agencies are our pick as they are more agile and can turn around work much faster. Whereas, for campaigns of a larger scale and higher complexity, larger agencies tend to do well. So, we use a mix of both, depending on our requirements.

     

    In terms of generating results esp from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

    BTL has its advantages, as it provides opportunities for:

    i. Direct interaction with customers

    ii. Immediate Query resolution and closure

    So we use BTL activities as a part of the mix, where it fulfills our business objectives. ATL obviously has its part to play.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    With the increased social media usage, brands have the opportunity to amplify consumer experiences beyond the select few who are physically a part of it. Hence, another way of using great activation ideas is to put them up as a part of consumable content on social media. How well it does on social media, in terms of reach and engagement, is also a metric we use to look at the success of the initiative. In the past, we have done this with our Smart Woman’s “Director of Happiness” campaign and “HDFC Life Spell Bee” with great results.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    For a brand to scale up and reach out to people on a national level, ATL will remain important, as BTL can only reach out to a select few. And we are still some way off from seeing the kind of internet penetration that makes Digital interchangeable with ATL.

     

    Hence, we look at creating and executing a strategy which optimises the strengths of each media rather than replace something completely.