An MBA in marketing from Karnataka University and over nine years of experience in developing and executing marketing strategies For Himalaya Drug Company where he joined in 2007, N V Chakravarthi, General Manager, Himalaya BabyCare believes BTL has played a crucial part in getting Himalaya brand where it is today.
We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Santosh Jangid speaking to him about Below The Line (BTL) advertising, the focus of the company and the balance between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL
How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?
It is extremely important for us because of a very simple reason that we don’t do ATL activities. We promote the entire range through medical fraternity that is through doctors, nurses, general practitioners, paediatricians and gynaecologist. We are in the state of so-called ethical marketing and because there is no ATL activity for us, we are dependent on BTL very much.
Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?
We do very regular doctors and parents engagement programmes where we call top notch doctors from the city and we call both the parents, we also do a lot of awareness about health related issues and health related programs, we do nurses education related programmes where we educate them about breast feeding, massage, how to do diapering, what are diaper rashes related health concerns, we do a lot of activities keeping that in mind. We do lots of high visibility campaigns pan-India so if you notice our product’s visibility has improved in the last five to six years and that is because of BTL. We do direct to parents campaign where we distribute the sample, we distribute the information leaflets, we create a lot of buzz around point of purchase activity. We also have sales promoters in our division. The modern trade and stand alone are increasing in a very good number because we have sales promoters there who educate and clarify many things about point of sale and we initiate sample trials. So, these are few important things that we do in BTL – one is doctors-parents meet programmes, second is nurses education programme, third is high visibility campaigns, fourth is sales promoter programme and the fifth is point of sale point of purchase activity and lastly we do direct-to-parents activity.
Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?
We don’t have ATL budget at all because we have consciously not taken that route. So whatever we spend, we spend on BTL and the remaining strategies through medical fraternity, trial packs and bundle packs. So I can say that 90-95% of our spend is on BTL.
Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?
Right now our 70% work happens in house as we have our creative team and design team in house. We also have our registered vendors and so the rest 30% happens with people who help us at BTL activities. Right now we do not work with any creative agency.
In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?
For us it has worked out well. All of us are aware that segment target group is very important to decide ATL or BTL. We have seen very measurable results in BTL. Both ATL and BTL are important based on the company’s needs. It comes down to the budget, target group, segmentation for the company. Specifically for our brand though BTL has worked great for us.
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?
We first look at how the sale of the product is moving. For example, there is a particular modern trade or a supermarket where we do the activity. There we measure how the activity is happening, secondly, we take the customer’s feedback and we maintain the database so we come to know about their preferences and suggestions and customer feedback is a very good indicator. A very important attribute for us is word-of-mouth publicity which might be from doctors or parents. Lastly, we always complete the loop. Once we start the activity till the end how it works, what difficulties, impact and what response is given by the channel is also very important. It may be a hospital, a chemist, modern trade, doctor, nurses or shop keepers. These key channel partners give us the feedback that this is the result, this is where you can improve yourself and so on. So these are the measurable parameters for us.
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?
That is a very sensitive question because two-three parameters play a great role here. One is the company turnover and brand equity in the market and what I am expecting from the brand or what are my expectations for the next five to ten years, what budget do I have, what resources do I have and what target groups I am approaching. For mid-scale or small companies BTL is always preferable because they work with small challenges. BTL has its own advantage even though the reach is limited. It all depends once again on company, expectation, budget, segment and target group. For us, BTL worked out and if BTL is highly creative and reaching to masses effectively, if BTL is well-planned and organised and keeping expectation in mind it definitely works.