Yogesh Shinde is currently Vice President Marketing, Wagh Bakri Tea. An marketing and communications specialist, he was earlier associated with Saatchi & Saatchi, Mumbai, Triton Communications and R K Swamy BBDO. We present to you the ‘BTL Baatein’ of the week which is powered by VISCOMM with Anuka Roy engaging him him on 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?
Now a days it really depends on how you treat your marketing mix. Today, we need to look at nothing but a 360-degree view in terms of how you reach your consumers, and of how you remind consumers of your presence and product offering. BTL is quite important to our overall marketing plan although we use a mix of ATL and BTL activities as we are launching our tea lounges, it is 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 have a very strong loyalty programme that has been on for the last many years and has given us good dividend. We have Wagh Bakri lounges and they are very unique and are a social place now. All our lounges are operated by the company its self and the lounge is very unique as, besides the numerous teas, we also serve snacks and savouries which enhance the overall experience. These Lounges also get us a lot of direct consumer feedback.
Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?
Putting together, about 30-40 per cent of our spending is towards BTL.
Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?
We use specialist agencies for BTLas these are activities-driven.
In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?
Both ATL and BTL have different and specific roles to play. The customers are exposed to a variety of mediums and the shift in brand can happen during any stage in the buying cycle. Therefore, we use both ATL and BTL together to ensure recall, awareness, affinity and experience. In case of our B2B business where all the classes are our audience, we use only BTL strategy.
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?
There is a lot of volume-value generation as a result of a BTL campaign. We are also able to track other variables like consumers engaged, consumers converted and referrals generated. We also connect our campaigns with digital and social media platforms to ensure that the consumers can connect back to us when they want.
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?
ATL and BTL complement each other. ATL drives awareness and consideration while BTL takes up the task for conversations. I think for certain objectives and activities, you can survive only on BTL, but as a brand I don’t think one survives on any one particular activity. One won’t be able to get the desired results until the entire circle is completed. There is a different view for brands catering to fragmented markets. To reach the niche and premium segments, BTL works the best with least spillover and media wastages.