MxMIndia

Tag: flipkart

  • The seventh edition of 'India's Buzziest Brands', a public polling initiative hosted by www.afaqs.com, ranks Airtel as the number one brand across the country.

    Airtel voted India’s ‘buzziest’ brand

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leading marketing communications portal www.afaqs.com announced that Airtel is the number one in the results of its seventh edition of ‘India’s Buzziest Brands’ – a poll-based survey aimed at measuring the viral effect and customer conversations garnered by brands across India.

     

    Airtel, which has been accorded with the coveted “Buzzy Gold” title for emerging at the top, faced stiff competition from Facebook and Flipkart, which bagged the second and the third spot respectively. As per findings of this poll, Airtel is the only telecom operator to place in the top 10.

     

    The poll was carried out on the website from January 30 to February 7. A total of 60 brands were shortlisted for the poll. Voters were sent a link for voting on their email account to avoid digital ballot-stuffing. On visiting the Poll page on the website, the voters were asked to choose five brands that they felt had the greatest ‘buzz’ in the year gone by from the shortlist of 60.

     

    List of the 15 Buzziest Brands as per the India’s Buzziest Brand Poll 2012

     

    1 Airtel
    2 Facebook
    3 Flipkart
    4 Hero
    5 Samsung
    6 Google
    7 Snapdeal
    8 Cadbury
    9 iPhone
    10 Twitter
    11 Vodafone
    12 YouTube
    13 Blackberry
    14 Pepsi
    15 Nokia

     

     

  • Behind every great commercial is super strategy. Every week, MxMIndia will bring you the brief and the strat as given by the client and whatever else that went into creating a winning ad. AdStrat is compiled by Shubhangi Mehta.

    Ad Strat: No kidding with Flipkart

    Kartik Iyer, CEO, Happy Creative Services

     

    Name of the Campaign/Ad:

    No Kidding. No Worries. – Flipkart.com

     

    The Brief :

    To convince people that it was safe and hassle-free to shop at flipkart.com. In short, build trust for the brand.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ47GDgTWGg[/youtube]

    Research insights

     

    We found that there were two categories of people we needed to speak to:

    a) Those who were already transacting online for tickets on sites like IRCTC and travel sites, but were not shopping for physical goods.

    b) Offline shoppers – people who were sceptical about transacting online itself.

     

    We found the common thread between them to be lack of trust, and both groups had common fears:

    a) Fear of losing their money by having to pay upfront.

    b) Unsure about quality of products and their warranties.

    c) Fear of not having a place to replace / exchange a product in the event of a problem, if any.

     

    Flipkart already had the solutions to the above problems in place, ie multiple payment options (including cash on delivery), easy replacement policy, and the fact that they only dealt in original products that came with original warranties. All we had to do was go out and tell the world that there’s nothing to worry about.

     

    Being the first mover, we were clear that Flipkart needed to battle the demons of e-commerce itself. Basically, grow the category.

     

    The thought process behind the creative:

    We knew we were pretty much talking to everybody. In some way we had to voice the concerns in the minds of the consumers. So we chose a classic question / answer format that allowed people to recognize their own fears in every piece of communication. Since we were there to build trust, the choice to go ahead with children was almost unanimous, as they are the only ones who trust unconditionally. So we had a format and we had kids, all we needed was a little touch to make it clutter-breaking. So we decided to get the kids to behave like adults and gave them adult voices, which took the experience of watching the commercials to another level. After all, we wanted to tell everyone after every piece of communication that there was no need to have any fear when it comes to shopping on Flipkart.com. No kidding. No worries.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNrjHvGerLY[/youtube]

    Media vehicles chosen

    TV, Print, Outdoor, Digital.

     

    Key issues kept in mind while executing the ad:

    Getting the performance right was key. We didn’t want it ending up like a spoof or have the kids ‘trying’ to act like adults. The kids came through like magic. Their performances are there to be seen and appreciated. Full marks to Aiyappa the director and Footcandles the production house for their commitment and efforts. Special mention to Shaun who trained the kids with workshops prior to the shoot, and kept them in great spirits through the entire schedule.

     

    Does the treatment do justice to the brief?

    The campaign definitely did justice to the brief. I am not sure if a treatment is expected to do justice to a brief. If i understand your question right, yes it definitely helped people to watch the communication repeatedly, to the point that they not only recalled everything that Flipkart was trying to communicate but also the dialogues from everyone in the films.

     

    What according to you is the differentiating factor about the ad?

    The kids acting like adults and speaking in adult voices definitely made the campaign stand out. The little touches of subtle humour only added to repeat value in viewership.

     

    Market and client feedback:

    The campaign was appreciated without prejudice by consumers, marketers and industry peers alike.

    The commercials went on to become a viral success, and crossed a million views on YouTube alone within two weeks, streaming on channels that were not owned by Flipkart or the agency.

    People actually started recalling the dialogues from the commercials in normal conversation. “Thats a classic,” has found its way back into common parlance and comments on Facebook.

    The campaign featured among the five most recalled campaigns of the festive season.

    It also featured in the most recalled campaigns of 2011 in polls conducted by Financial Express, Business Line, Afaqs, Campaign India and FHM, among others.

     

    Results:

    1. The website traffic, orders and revenue all doubled post the campaign. In August Flipkart was clocking Rs 30 cr/month. By the end of the campaign they clocked in excess of Rs 60 cr each month.

    2. Website traffic jumped to 100 lakh visits per month and 1000 lakh page views.

    3. Flipkart is now among top 30 sites in the country ahead of eBay (Alexa rankings) and the largest e-commerce (physical goods) player in the country.

    4. Today Flipkart ships close to 30,000 items every day ie 17 items every minute.

    5. The campaign was skewed towards the new electronics categories whose contribution went up from 40 percent to 60 percent in the two months of the campaign.

     

    Campaign Credits:

    Client – flipkart.com

    CEO – Sachin Bansal

    VP Marketing – Ravi Vora

    Agency – Happy Creative Services

    Creative Directors – Kartik Iyer / Praveen Das

    Copywriter – Naren Kaushik

    Art Director – Anuja Singhal

    Acct Management – Ruchika Chaudry / Neelima Kariappa

    Strategy – Ravi Bhat

    Production House – Footcandles

    Director – Aiyappa

    Exec Producer – Anand Menon

    Producer – Amaerjeet Phukan

     

  • Desi online retailers like Flipkart.com, myntra.com unleash ad blitzkrieg

    Flipkart, Myntra & desi e-tailers launch ad blitzkrieg to up buyer base

    By Samidha Sharma

     

    A fledgling Indian online retail industry has unleashed big buck mass media advertising in the past six months as they seek to build businesses with a broader urban consumer base in the country. Advertising from e-tailing portals surged 228% on television, 78% in print and 797% on radio compared to the same period last year, said data from TAM Media Research.

     

    Start-up firms such as Flipkart.com, myntra.com-flush with funds from private equity investors led the way in creating brand buzz going beyond the top metros, which some skeptics argued was reminiscent of the build-up to the dotcom bubble a decade ago. The growth numbers from TAM are based on ad volumes and not absolute spends.

     

    One industry source said the Bangalore-based online retailer Flipkart has marked Rs 100 crore as its advertising budget- significant for a four-year-old firm still soaking in losses. Flipkart, which sells books and electronics online, is labelled as the poster boy of Indian e-commerce and has invested heavily in building distribution and brand visibility across 50 cities.

     

    “E-commerce is at a very nascent stage but witnessing a lot of traction with urban audiences. Mass media advertising by e-commerce players will hasten this process and make more people shop online,” said Mr Ravi Vora, VP, marketing, Flipkart.com, backed by marquee investors such as Tiger Global and Accel Partners.

     

    Travel portals like makemytrip, yatra and cleartrip entered mass media advertising sometime back but the rush of brand-building activity from the e-tailing fraternity worries critics, who caution against the hype surrounding online retailing.

     

    “It is widely known that advertising does not build a strong online business. Successful online brands like Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and eBay almost never advertised. Great online brands are built through tremendous word of mouth. If you don’t organically have it, no amount of ad spend can get it for you,” said Mr Mahesh Murthy, founder, Pinstorm, and co-founder, Seedfund.

     

    Mr Rishi Khiani, CEO, Times Internet, which runs timesdeal.com and indiatimes.com, agreed, “The advertising push may drive initial traffic but post that the growth will depend on the word of mouth. Advertising does help in creating a differentiator but brands have to maintain their margins to run the business successfully,” he said.

     

    Flipkart and others have been able to shore up sales riding on the back of ongoing media spends. “We feel our campaign has been successful and we plan to continue with our marketing activities,” Flipkart’s Vora added. India’s consumer internet story has been one of the hottest themes for US investors, which was reflected when makemytrip listed on Nasdaq last year with $1 billion market cap.

     

    “The intersection between deepening internet penetration and rising disposable income in India is an exciting sweet spot,” said Mr Brewer S Stone, MD, Pacific Crest, a boutique investment bank involved with makemytrip’s US listing, in a recent interaction.

     

    But Murthy, an internet industry veteran, cautioned: “This happened the last time around when Rediff, Indya and HomeTrade spent loads of cash. It will happen this time around too-just let the dust settle down in a year’s time. We weren’t prepared for the last bubble.”

     

    The Indian e-commerce market is expected to cross Rs 46,000 crore in 2011 driven by the travel industry, with Indian Railways accounting for bulk of these transactions. The e-tailing industry is a distant second with 8% share, according to estimates from the Internet and Mobile Association of India.

     

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2011, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

  • Flipkart.com’s founder Sachin Bansal talks about how the peculiarities of the Indian buyer have become the online store’s strengths.

    Flipkart: Making e-commerce click with an Indian flavour

    Sachin Bansal is the CEO and Co-founder of Flipkart and oversees all the customer facing activities of the company ranging from technology to marketing. He is also in charge of Flipkart’s corporate divisions which include the finance and legal departments. A graduated from IIT-Delhi with a degree in Computer Engineering, he joined Amazon.com in India in the year 2006. He left the company to set up Flipkart in 2007, and talks to Tuhina Anand about current developments and future plans.

    Q: With plans of Amazon firming up in India, how do you think this will affect Flipkart, considering the might of Amazon?

    E-commerce in India is at a very nascent stage. The industry is evolving and the growth will escalate with the entrance of serious players like Amazon. Such a development should boost the momentum that the e-commerce market is now witnessing. We do not see this impacting Flipkart’s plans to a great extent. We have met all the benchmarks that we had set for ourselves and will continue to do so in the near future.

    Q: Do you think that India is a different market and even a behemoth like Amazon can’t succeed unless it understands Indian sensibilities like Flipkart has, especially with its COD option which even FashionandYou has adopted to?

    Amazon has the advantage of being an established brand name. However, the challenges posed by the market in India are unique – from supply-chain and logistics to warehousing and payments. Any company which is starting operations in this country will have to invest time and resources to overcome challenges that most other companies operating in this space have already faced

    Q: There has been a lot of speculation on Flipkart looking for PE/VC funding. What is your response to it?

    We are not commenting on any speculation with respect to our funding.

    Q: What are some of the portfolio expansion in terms of selling that one should expect from Flipkart in the next few months?

    We have recently added categories like healthcare and personal products as well as home appliances. We will complete the entire gamut of electronics first and will then look at other categories. We will continue to add more products / selection to our existing categories as well. For example, we have recently added tablets, desktops and peripherals like printers and scanners to our computers category.

    Q: Any plans of partnering with Indian e-book reader companies to offer on Flipkart?

    We are keeping a close watch on this market and also studying similar models abroad. We will definitely give this space serious consideration when we see that the opportunity is right in India.

     

    Q: What would you say has been the reason for Flipkart’s success?

    We were confident of the space and the model we were operating in.  We continued to focus on delivering a positive customer experience by ensuring convenience and a hassle-free shopping experience at every customer engagement point, and this translated into strong word-of-mouth promotion for us.

    Our obsession with customer experience, coupled with offers, EMI options as well as setting up our own delivery network to take care of last mile delivery bottlenecks, has worked in our favour and made it easier for customers to trust us.

    What started off as a modest venture has gone on to becoming one of India’s leading online shopping destinations with 2,500 employees across the country. We are present across ten product categories – movies, music, games, mobiles and accessories, computers, gaming consoles, MP3 players and iPods, personal and healthcare products and home appliances – and are still growing. In books alone we have nearly 11.5 million titles, making us the largest online book retailer in India.

    We now have a registered user base of 1 million customers and are currently selling 22,000 items a day, clocking daily sales of Rs 1.5 crore.

    Q: Recently, the brand has been active in advertising, especially with the new TVC; what really prompted this move at this point of time? How are these TVCs being supported offline?

    While most consumers in Flipkart’s core target group understand the benefits of online shopping, such as selection, price and convenience, many are held back by apprehensions associated with online purchase of physical goods. These range from shipment of faulty products, delayed or lost shipments and the reluctance to divulge credit card details online.

    The campaign, which talks of some of our path-breaking initiatives like payment on delivery, product warranty and 30-day replacement policy, seeks to address these concerns and bring those shopping offline into the online space.

    Our national campaign on TV and print is being supported by other mediums like OOH and radio. These will be used to expand reach in markets that already have high e-commerce penetration like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.