Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Insights
The Marketing Research Cell @ IIFT
August 2014
By
Capturing the youth in Mobile Space Study on Acceptance and Effectiveness of Mobile Marketing
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................................... 2
Scope and methodology ................................................................................................................................................. 3
General profile of respondents ....................................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................... 5
What is mobile marketing? ........................................................................................................................................ 5
The story till now ....................................................................................................................................................... 5
Some broad examples ................................................................................................................................................ 8
Mobile Advertising: Is it the next big thing ................................................................................................................... 9
Advertising on mobile via social media .................................................................................................................... 9
The era of SoMo .................................................................................................................................................. 10
Instagram ............................................................................................................................................................. 11
M-commerce: because it’s all about the money .......................................................................................................... 14
Youth on mobile payments ...................................................................................................................................... 14
Missed call marketing .................................................................................................................................................. 17
WhatsApp Marketing: Is this the next big thing instead? ............................................................................................ 19
About whatsapp ....................................................................................................................................................... 19
How some brands are doing it ................................................................................................................................. 20
Whatsapp usage habits ............................................................................................................................................. 21
Is the youth ready to talk to brands on whatsapp? ................................................................................................... 23
Ground rules for whatsapp marketing ..................................................................................................................... 24
Viability of Mobile marketing: Added service tax from budget 2014 ......................................................................... 25
About IIFT ................................................................................................................................................................... 27
About insights – the Market research cell @ IIFT ....................................................................................................... 27
Our Research Team ..................................................................................................................................................... 27
2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report will take you through an interesting
journey, validating several notions about Mobile
Marketing and breaking some myths. Following are
the most significant observations which we came
across in this study.
• Use of mobile has left behind desktops and
laptops in the past couple of years and had
been steadily growing. It currently has a
usage of 75% compared to 45% of Desktops
• Major Indian brands have been using mobile
marketing since the past few years but the
campaigns have been to region-specific or
time specific.
• SoMo or Social Media on Mobile is the next
big thing in Mobile Marketing where apps
are using smartphones to the fullest to
provide an enhanced and real time
experience to its users. Eg.: Instagram
• While mCommerce has picked up in India,
there are still some significant barriers
which need to be overcome to migrate
majority of e-payers to mobile payments
• Customer Engagement via Whatsapp is the
latest kid on the block with movies using a
Whatsapp account to promote their trailers
and songs. The reach and acceptability of
such campaigns, however, is yet to be
completely evaluated
• Another format of mobile marketing
recently in the limelight has been missed
call marketing which is being leveraged by
many brands to their advantage
• Even the Government has recognized digital
and mobile space as an effective platform
for advertisers, hence applying a service tax
on any such advertisements in this year’s
budget
3
SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
The study aims to unravel the potential of mobile
as a new platform for marketing, especially among
the young generation of India.
The study was conducted in 2 parts -
1. Secondary Research – Collecting data
points and several other observations by
experts from consulting firms which state
that Mobile Marketing could be the next big
thing.
2. Primary Research – Our team went to the
field and inquired from the decision-makers
what do they like about the rise of mobile
and what they’d rather not want to see on
their devices. We covered a base of 300
people in the age group of 18-30 years of
age.
While we obtained the overall demographic data
from our secondary research, we did some thorough
qualitative research based on the responses we
received from the primary surveys.
The research was broadly divided in three different
segments –
1. Mobile Advertising – Acceptance and
Effectiveness
2. m-Commerce – is the transition from
desktop to mobile taking place or not.
3. Marketing via Whatsapp – A trend which
has recently picked up in India. How far can
it go and what does it entail.
We focused our research mainly on the youth of
the country because they are the largest users of
internet on mobile phones, as we realized
through our secondary research. While there is a
segment in the age of 40-55 years which is
coming up significantly as mobile internet users,
that is not in the scope of our study.
4
GENERAL PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS
Male
58%
Female
42%
Gender Profile
19%
25%
21%
18%
7%
10%
Age Profile
<21
22
23
24
25
26+
Working
Professional,
65
Student
, 180
Occupation Details
56%
41%
3%
SEC Profile
A1
A2
A3
Type of OS
Android
iOS
Windows 8
Blackberry
Symbian
Bada OS
Other
24%
75%
1%
Connection Type
2G
3G
No Connection
Yes
Touchscreen?
19%
74%
3% 4%
Portable Devices Owned
Tablet
Phone
Netbook
Other
5
INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS MOBILE MARKETING?
Theoretically, it is defined as
Any marketing activity conducted
through a ubiquitous network to
which consumers are constantly
connected using a personal
mobile device – Andreas Kaplan,
Europe Business School
This includes all forms that you may have seen or
come across in some form or other:
1. SMS Marketing
2. MMS Marketing
3. Push Notifications
4. App-based Marketing
5. In-game mobile Marketing
6. Mobile Web Marketing
7. QR Codes
8. Bluetooth
9. Location based services
10. User-controlled media
…and many others. Companies are constantly
looking to use these channels and trying to come up
with several others in order to catch the ever-flitting
attention of the customer.
As said earlier, there are several Pros and Cons to
adopting this platform for marketing.
PROS
• Instant results
• Concise content which is cheap to generate
• Direct and Personal marketing
• Tracking individual response
• Can go viral easily
• Easiest mode for mass communication
• Used to gain competitive advantage
• Users can be easily encouraged to generate
their own content
• Establishes a base for mobile payments
CONS
• Too many and too diverse ways to market
• Many consumers have privacy issues
• Small screen size can be a deterrent
• Return on investment cannot be predicted
easily
• Innovation and clutter breaking is very
important in order to gain attention
• First mover advantage is huge and returns
for second, third movers are quite low
comparatively
Most marketers today are aware of these challenges
but generally, the deciding factor of whether to
launch a mobile marketing campaign is simple –
customer reach. If your customers are present in areas
where it is difficult to create awareness about your
products and promotions, mobile marketing is the
way to go.
THE STORY TILL NOW
With the surge in Indian mobile market, mobile
internet advertising has also seen significant rise.
Add to this the increase in number of feature phone
and smartphone users, Indian mobile landscape is
surely going to become the sweet spot of many
marketers in the near future.
This growth has come mostly from the Tier II and
Tier III towns, unlike the general perception of it
coming from metros. For consumers in these small
towns and cities, mobile is a single point of
communication and hence, the best way to reach out
to them in real time.
Following graph shows the drastic change in Mobile
and Desktop usage over the past one year. Mobile
took over Desktop somewhere in early 2012 and has
been on the rise ever since. Desktop, on the other
hand, has come down below 50%.
6
As per the estimations, mobile
market in India is likely to grow
to Rs. 1,000 crore by 2015 from
125 crore in 2012.
It remains a fact that even today, one out of four
Indians are illiterate. But with technology becoming
cheaper, it is becoming more and more easier to reign
in all kinds of consumers, without getting bound by
language or educational constraints.
Mobile Marketing presents a plethora of
opportunities but it also comes with its own set of
challenges.
In the subsequent chapters, we have tried to gauge an
overview of what are the consumers are ready for and
where they would be needing some amount of
convincing.
7
THE FOLLOWING INFOGRAPH, ALBEIT A LITTLE OLD, GIVES A FAIR IDEA OF THE MOBILE
LANDSCAPE IN INDIA (2011)
8
SOME BROAD EXAMPLES
Growth of mobile has been due to customer pull but
are companies doing anything to bring them on the
platform and use it more often for interacting with
the brand?
Some of FMCG giants have leveraged the mobile
platform to reach out customers in remote areas.
Hindustan Unilever is using the concept of IVR
(Interactive Voice Response). The company sent a
SMS containing a number. If the user clicked on the
number and listened to the ad, he would get some
top-up instead. This has helped them win over the
problem of power outages for hours in Tier III and
villages in the country which see power outages for
about 8 hours every day.
Apart from FMCG, Auto companies in India like
Hero and Maruti Suzuki have been using this channel
for the past few years.
While some select companies, having the financial
depth and marketing prowess have been pioneering in
this area, but many others are still hesitant on using
the medium over the tried and tested OOH
advertising and TVCs.
Maruti Suzuki India wins the prestigious Global MMA Award for it's campaign - "Sports Sponsorship goes mobile"
•Executed around two major Sports events -
•Indian Premier League
•FIFA World Cup
•Two month long campaign
•Use multiple mobile media platforms -
•Apple's SMS 2.0
•Mobile Internet
•Voice Portals
•SMS Advertising
•Reached to over 7 million users and unprecedented engagement levels
•1.2 million engagements and a 7% CTR (Click Through Rate)
9
MOBILE ADVERTISING: IS IT THE NEXT BIG THING
We spoke a lot about the onslaught of mobile devices
and how they are changing the traditional marketing
landscape of the country.
In order to validate the claims obtained via secondary
research, we talked to some of the users who log on
to internet, play games, use apps, etc. Following is a
brief snapshot of the usage of mobile phones on a
daily basis.
All the above listed activities are a dream come true
for any mobile marketer as they can all be exploited
to place ads in various corners and slabs of the screen
in order to get one glance from the hurried user.
Since ROME is a very important measure of
effectiveness of any campaign, we tried to measure it
broadly through two facors - Acceptance and
Effectiveness.
We found that while mobile advertisements have
managed to guage a the users' attention, it has failed
to generate enough leads from that. As can be seen
from the charts below, a majority of the respondents
do remember having seen advertisements in most of
the formats. However, when asked if they ever found
it interesting and went ahead and clicked one - the
answer was more often than not, no.
One interesting discovery from the research was that
- while people find Promotional SMSes the most
irritating form of mobile advertisements, they are
also considered to be the most useful. This may be
due to the timing and personalization that they offer,
which is not found in in-app ads or push
notifications. On the whole, respondents found
advertisements within apps the most irritating.
ADVERTISING ON MOBILE VIA SOCIAL
MEDIA
Social Media Advertising has already arrived. And it
has conquered. Digital is easily becoming the most
preferred form of advertising, especially for small
startup firms. Every day, we come across new
examples of successful campaigns using Facebook,
Twitter, Youtube or Instagram. One recent campaign
that comes to mind is the Maybelline Baby Lips
crowdfunding which was done by Alia Bhatt. The
0% 5% 10% 15%
Chat
News
Weather
Games
Social Media
Online Videos
Reading
Internet Browsing
Shopping
Maps
Recharge
Other
I use my phone for..
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
SMS
Push Notification
Within Apps
Browser
Remember seeing ads on
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
SMS
Push Notification
Within Apps
Browser
Effectiveness & Acceptance of Ads
Most Irritating Most Useful
10
Facebook page asked girls to use the newly launched
Babylips Lipbalm and click a selfie of them pouting.
All entries were later used to create an anthem for the
brand. It attained a huge number of views, nods and
claps (and revenue) from all corners of the country. `
While this sounds hunky dory, the problem which
will soon present itself is - lack of competitive
advantage. Today, almost everyone is on Social
Media. Including all your competitors. So how do
you set yourself apart? By going social and mobile!
There are several advantages which can be easily
leveraged by any brand by using the mobile platform.
One of the biggest advantage is the visibility for your
ad. A staggering three-fourth of our respondents
remembered seeing advertisements on Facebook
while using it on mobile. This is because, the
advertisements gets an entire screen size on the
phone, while it is stacked away in one of the three
columns when put on the desktop version. This
increasing the effectiveness almost exponentially.
This effectiveness is validated by the fact that more
than half of the respondents said that they
remembered both, the ad and the brand in the ad
when they saw it in their mobile (while browsing
Facebook).
THE ERA OF SOMO
Also, apart from the traditional desktop social media,
there has been a surge of mobile social media
applications such as Foursqaure. SOCIAL MEDIA
ON MOBILE, ALSO KNOWN AS SOMO, uses
features such as GPS and real time, on-the-go
connectivity to connect with the customers RIGHT
NOW. Customer Engagement via Whatsapp, which
we have covered in detail later, can be categorized in
this category as well.
Localized applications allow businesses to advertise
their goods or specials through alerts that are
wirelessly beamed to consumers as they approach a
store or restaurant. Consumers can opt out of such
alerts, turn them off or ignore them. Privacy is still an
issue, but as advertising and search continue to go
local, we will see much more of this type of virtual
hawking.
How we experience the real world has increasingly
become augmented and enhanced through the screen
of a mobile phone. Search Engines are turning
camera phones into digital browser search tools. A
picture of a street corner, for example, could reveal
ratings and suggestions from locals on where to find
an ATM machine or a good cup of coffee nearby.
Community and social service organizations have
also jumped onto the mobile bandwagon. And for
political organizers, MODI’S ELECTION
Ad Effectiveness
Do not remember the ad and the brand
Remember the ad but not the brand
Remember the ad and brand both
No
Yes
Remember seeing ads on social
media on mobile
11
CAMPAIGN is the best case study there is for
mobile campaigning. Further, law enforcement can
also begin leveraging mobile media to deter protest
activities, and to coordinate rapid response activities
to emergencies on the ground.
Social media is literally on the move. While useful
for anonymous and asynchronous communications,
computer-based social media is rapidly becoming old
school. In comparison, mobile social media is
personal and dynamic -- and more closely tied to how
people engage in the real world. SoMo not only
provides us the freedom to meet each other where we
are, it also gives computing a distinctly human face.
Instagram launched in October of 2010. Two months
later, its community grew to 1 million and currently
has 200 million users, 20 billion photos shared in
total, 60 million photos shared every day. It’s a
global phenomenon with about 65% of the users are
outside US. The website has had 900% growth p.a
for the last two years with Over 2500 brands joining
every year. The top 50 brands 1.5million followers
on an average. An online platform with such huge
potential and growth can become a huge asset to
marketers, hence is an important field of study.
Sectors adoption by brands per Industry - Sectors
from left to right: cars, fast food, soft drinks, apparel,
retail, luxury, beer, personal care, telcos.,
technology, oil &gas, financial institutions, insurance
The Instagram potential- How brands are using
it?
• According to the study by L2, 93% of the
249 Prestige brands analysed are using
Instagram now. This is up from 63% in July
2013. Of those prestige brands, 72% are
posting videos. However, videos only
account for about 4% of all brand content.
• Only 14% of the prestige brands were found
to be using User Generated Content (UGC)
on their accounts.
• 54% of brands include an Instagram custom
tab on their Facebook page to encourage
Facebook fans to follow and engage with
them on Instagram.
Why users love Instagram?
• It also doubles up as a social network where
you can interact with others and follow and
like their posts
• With a multitude of filters on offer,
Instagram lets you put forth a picture the
way you see and interpret it
12
• Global exposure offered by Instagram is
unique, it lets you see photos clicked by
someone in Vietnam while sitting in your
front balcony
• Facebook has become too complex,
cluttered and advertisement heavy, while
Twitter has always been text intensive.
• Most importantly casual simplicity of using
the app and the ubiquitous camera-equipped
smartphone.
Instagram user demographics
Instagram has particular appeal to younger adults,
urban dwellers, and non-whites. The 18-29
demographic has the largest usage. 37% of users in
this demographic use Instagram. However, 18% of
those in the 30-49 demographic and 6% of those in
the 50-64 demographic also use Instagram. It is also
seen that there is substantial overlap between Twitter
and Instagram user bases. In India, strongest
adoption of Instagram is shown by men. Instagram
users spend an average of 257 minutes a month on
the site
How companies have used Instagram
In the wake of ‘Social Media Influencers’, Instagram
now plays a big role in supporting the ideal
philosophy for a brand. There are many celebrities
and influencers who use Instagram to give their
followers a peek into their life and also end up
promoting the products or services they use.
So the question that remains is ‘How can a brand
leverage its Social Media position via Instagram?’
A brand can easily do a background study of their
audience and pick their ‘Influencers’ and TGs. While
there can be various campaigns for a brand to connect
with its potential customers, here are some examples
of their success stories
1. Influencer Activities:
a. Contests:
These are the foremost and most obvious dynamic
interactions with the target audience. Not only are
contests popular with existing patrons, but they also
help develop an interest to attract potential patrons
given the peer branding that participants create with
posts on their own timelines.
CLINIQUE INDIA (premium cosmetic brand) did
a contest with fashion/beauty writer @lathasunadh.
In this case, the brand can rest assure that their host is
directly marketing to their target group- her followers
and the participating audience.
b. Product tests and promotions by selecting relevant
bloggers/ influencers:
Many restaurants/hotels are now encouraging
Instagram activities at food blogger events like
Chef’s Table and Cooking Workshops. HOTEL
FOUR SEASONS, Mumbai and NATURE’S
13
BASKET actively promote their Instagram by
hosting relevant activities and encouraging the
participants to upload interesting images/videos.
2. Insta meet-ups:
Ideal for a new product launch or a new menu, in
case of restaurants. Covering an event on Instagram
by using a common #hashag creates a healthy buzz
about an event. Good use of the hashtags also ensures
a wider reach to the target audience and creates a
more dynamic form of engagement with the
audience.
Eg- A Live Instagram session hosted by Haagen Dazs
and conducted by social media id @misseatingout, a
first of its kind concept. The event focused on basic
training about the app, followed by Instagramming
and tasting the signature desserts of Haagen Dazs.
Around 30 people participated in this event,
including popular food bloggers and social media
influencers.
All of this not only translated into an increased
number of followers for Haagen Dazs, but the first-
hand positive reviews posted by participating
Instagrammers on Twitter, Facebook and Personal
blogs, has its own benefits too
3. Brand Instagram account:
The recent trend has seen restaurants and fashion
brands making their way on to Instagram. Cosmetic
brands like L’oreal India and Maybelline, and
international food chain Pizza Express among others,
have been expanding their follower base with
interesting contests on a regular basis.
Oreo on Instagram: Whisper Fight campaign
(2013)
Oreo launched a Cookie vs. Cream fight during Super
Bowl 2013, where users had to choose between
cream and cookie as their favourite. There were two
virtual factions formed and the fight went viral. The
hashtags ‘#cookiethis’ and ‘#creamthis’ went beyond
the scope of what oreo and thought of and the
campaign snowballed all across Instagram and also
spilled over to other social media. The campaign also
set a legal context for Oreo to use all the photo shared
during the campaign with such hastags and tags. This
offered Oreo sustained promotion over a period of
many months across USA and was sustained beyond
February. Oreo also fuelled the campaign by airing
the ad beyond the super bowl period and also
featured the same on its packaging.
Mercedes-Benz: #Untamed Campaign (2013)
Mercedes- Benz had to promote the launch of its new
CLA model with the large scale Untamed campaign.
Participants were to log into a website with instagram
accounts and upload 3 of their pictures for
consideration, post which a score would be
computed. The top photos were put up in an
exhibition in Paris. The whole process was carried
out using Instagram’s API, which though incurred
extra cost but also provided greater freedom for the
contest design. The contest was designed such that
only willing participants entered and no one gets
signed up due to hashtagging a post. Instagram
influencers like @anasbarros and @laurenlemon
were also brought on board and their pictures were
used for Facebook ads of the CLA model.
14
M-COMMERCE: BECAUSE IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY
mCommerce is poised to be the next big thing is the
online payments space and the numbers show it all.
The table below shows the data from RBI. An
interesting fact to observe is that the value of mobile
transactions for the first half of the year has surpassed
last year’s value.
Year Volume of
mobile
transactions
in millions
Value of mobile
transactions in
crores
2011 19.26 1410.49
2012 44.68 4185.33
2013 83.00 16193.46
2014 (till June) 60.91 19832.35
Source: RBI
YOUTH ON MOBILE PAYMENTS
We asked them what do they use mobile payments
for and these were the responses we got. Recharge
was the major activity for which mobile payments
were preferred. 13% respondents did say that they do
not use mobile banking.
We also saw if mobile transactions were preferred
over desktop and the results were startling. Even
though mobile transactions are on the rise but the
youth actually doesn’t prefer using mobile. Probing
them further about the reason revealed the following
insights. The youth thinks that desktop payments are
more secure.
Also, desktop payments are more convenient and
reliable. This convenience is largely in terms of
interface and a stable set up. Net connectivity is
another issue that makes youth ware of mobile
payments. Fear of network drop and payment stuck in
between were the most common responses.
A bigger screen is another reason for preferring
desktops. Respondents also said that they fear
missing out on certain details while making payments
from mobile due to the small screen size.
13% 13%
18%
24%
11%
4%
Banking Services Travel Ticket BookingMovie Ticket Booking Recharge Shopping Restaurant Orders
Use of Mobile Payments
Mobile
34%
Desktop
66%
Preference for Online
Transaction
15
As we saw that stability of the inte rnet connection
was one the major reasons why desktop payments are
preferred over mobile payments. While 2G
connections are slow, there are other pr oblems with
the 3G connection in India as well. 96 thousand out
of the 736 thousand towers are 3G enabled in India.
Out of these 95 thousand 3G enabled towers, only 35
thousand have an optical fiber backbone. The rest are
connected through microwaves.
Microwaves give inconsistent speed because of
atmospheric interference by other frequencies and
physical obstacles. Spectrum allocated for 3G is
width of only 5MHz, whereas it is of 20 MHz in US
and Europe. This proves a bottleneck for speeds and
consistency.
On the other hand, the people who preferred mobile
give convenience as the primary reason. Able to m
ake payments on the go and no need to switch on the
desktop or laptop are the major reasons that account
for convenience. A small section also thinks that
mobile payments are more secure.
31.8%29.9%
27.3%
24.0%
4.5% 4.5%
Security and Safety Reliability and
Convinience
Net Connectivity Bigger Screen Typing Issues Never Tried
Reasons for Preferring Desktop over Mobile
Dhruv, 26
Mobile payments are
tedious, lapse at end
moment, success rate is
low
Gaoutham, 24
Mobile is irritating. ZOOM
IN/ ZOOM OUT.
Megha, 21
Small screen, mistake in
password typing
Rutvik, 22
On phone you
cannot see the
product clearly.
Sweta, 22
Always have the mobile
phone with me. Don't need
to go and open the laptop.
Mohit, 28
Desktops are generally
percieved more error free
as compared to phones and
mobile
16
Net banking is considered to be the most secure
form of online payments but still has a low usage
amongst the youth. Most of the low value
transactions of less than Rs. 1000 are generaly
done using mobile. Another observation was that
high value transactions are preferred using
desktop. Around 60% of the youth is doing
mobile transactions at least once in two weeks
ndicates a good usage frequency.
79.0%
18.5%
6.2%
Convenience Fast Secure
Reasons for Prefering Mobile over
Desktop
Almost
daily
1%
Once a
week
27%
Once two
weeks
32%
Rarely
40%
Frequency of Mobile Payments
Almost daily Once a week Once two weeks Rarely
55%
16%23%
3%
Debit Card Credit Card Net Banking Don't Know
Mode of Payment
74.1%
36.4%
12.3%
Less than Rs. 1000 Rs. 1000 to Rs. 5000 More than Rs. 5000
Value of Transaction
17
MISSED CALL MARKETING
To a lot of Indians, a missed call means a lot more
than just a call that went unnoticed or deserves a call
back. As opposed to pagers, right from the time
mobile technology penetrated the Indian market and
the usage of prepaid mobile users became big and the
concept of missed call became popular amongst
many Indians. Considering one won't be charged for
a call that went unanswered, to many this concept
became part of daily usage especially to prepaid users
who didn't want their minutes deducted.
Now consider a few data points to get a sense of its
potential. The latest data from Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (Trai) indicates there are around
772 million active mobile connections in India. Close
to 96 per cent of this user base is of the pre-paid
variety that uses missed calls the most, saving
hundreds of rupees in monthly pay-outs.
Take PEPSICO, which is currently running pan-
India mobile-based on-pack activation for Slice. Slice
had launched three new flavours in the market and
the challenge was to get votes for these flavours
without incurring a high cost. The brand wanted to
ensure that the customers do not end up paying hefty
special charges they used to pay while voting on a
long or a code. To address this, ZipDial offered them
a connected call solution. Under this, customers
could call a unique number assigned to each of the
three flavours and once the call is connected the
voice of brand ambassador Katrina Kaif thanked
them for participating. The participants just paid for
the call, which is usually less than 30 seconds in most
cases, and the bait was a chance to meet Kaif. A
simple mobile campaign like this will serve two
purposes. First, it is a cost-effective way of building
consumer engagement. Second, the brand will have
access to some granular data on consumer
preferences and geographies which can be useful for
innovation and future campaigns.
Cadbury India's BOURNVITA jumped to the
missed-call bandwagon last year with its 'Mom Don't
Waste Milk' campaign. The challenge was to educate
consumers about the vital role played by vitamin D in
aiding the absorption of calcium found in milk. The
initiative was kick-started with a teaser campaign via
print, outdoor, radio and social media which read
'Mom don't waste milk'. To know more about how
not to waste milk, consumers had to place a missed
call on a long code toll-free number. When a
consumer placed the missed call, they received a call
back from a call center executive who educated her
on the nutritional benefits of Bournvita. The
company tweaked the model by switching to IVR
thereafter. The results from the first campaign
encouraged the company to invest in another missed
call campaign, titled 'Miss cow', last month. Cadbury
received 1.25 lakh missed calls for this. The company
is also planning to build a loyalty club in this fashion.
Last year right after changing the packaging of its
skincare brand Fair & Lovely, Hindustan Unilever
turned to consumers for feedback. As part of a call-
to-action campaign, consumers were asked to place a
missed call. The company followed up by seeking
their participation for a survey through voice or SMS.
This helped the company establish a huge sample
base to conduct the survey. The survey asked around
30 questions on various aspects of the product.
Around 10,000 people across seven cities including
Mumbai, Aurangabad, Etawah, Hyderabad and
Kolkata participated in the survey; almost 55 per cent
of the total number of participants answered all the
questions. All the participants were rewarded with a
mobile recharge of Rs 30 - that would more or less
compensate the participant for the airtime she would
use up during the survey.
Many e-commerce companies are also toying with
the idea of leveraging missed calls. Players like
Flipkart and Snapdeal have already done a couple of
missed call campaigns.
Eyewear portal LENSKART has weaved in missed
calls into its CRM process. Shoppers on Lenskart can
also send a missed call on a long code number if they
are not able to complete a transaction for some
reason. CEO and co-founder Peyush Bansal says
missed calls can play a role in providing data on
prospective and existing customers. The company
18
aims to invest more in creating the right mix of voice,
text, and WAP to generate better consumer response.
This concept became a business opportunity for
Bangalore based startup ZipDial in March 2010. The
start-up offers a new way for advertisers to reach
their customers. Brands prominently display a phone
number in their ads, urging people to dial it. The call,
once made, disconnects automatically after one ring
and the caller is sent a text or a voice message
informing him of offers and discounts. Since 2010,
when it was founded, Zipdial has raked in 414m
missed calls, which translates to a staggering 375,000
enquiries per day. It currently runs 400-odd
marketing campaigns simultaneously and its clients
include Fortune 500 firms as well as start-ups.
However, the biggest challenge in the first couple of
years was to convince companies about the merits of
missed-call marketing.
BLOOMBERG TV Used ZipDial to get
participants for its reality show. International News
Syndicate owned Bloomberg TV India in 2010
launched The Pitch, a reality show. For season 2,
Contestants were asked to give a missed call to have
their entries considered for the season. A ZipDial
number was provided on promotional material – both
online and through traditional media. Contestants
interested in participating gave a missed call to a
particular number, they received call back to collect
their information so the first round of eligibility could
be determined. By enabling ZipDial on their
campaign, The Pitch was able to create a cross
channel promotion in order to garner participants. A
ZipDial enabled poll on mobile portability received
175 times the engagement when compared to the
brand’s regular surveys.
To give free tickets for IPL final matches,
KINGFISHER launched a book cricket game on
mobile with the help of ZipDail. Book Cricket is a
popular game that most Indians play as kids. The
players take turns to flip pages of a book and book
cricket depending on the page number you score
runs, or get out. ZipDial has enabled the same game
on mobile where the page flipping is replaced with
ZipDialling. Kingfisher and Zipdial launched Book
Cricket mobile game that can be played by giving a
missed call on 080 300 500 77 toll free number. As
soon as one called on this number the call
automatically disconnected after one ring, followed
by a message that directed one to play a 1-over game.
A player had to call on the toll free number each time
in order to proceed with the game and the next SMS
showed the target score after which the player bats
and scores random runs each time he bats. ZipDial
engaged over 1.1 million Kingfisher fans through a
Mobile Version of Book Cricket. Kingfisher and
ZipDial were able to successfully gamify the mobile
platform with 65.3% users opting to play the game
more than once, as per the company.
MORTEIN uses ZipDial to educate users and
distribute samples. Mortein’s campaign aimed at the
distribution of samples and also to create awareness
about harmful and common mosquito borne diseases
like Dengue and Malaria. As per the company, 50
ZipDial numbers were promoted through various
channels like buses, hoarding, pamphlets etc. Users
had to give a missed call to any one of those
numbers. They received a call back from the platform
with a Hindi recorded message delivering message
about mosquito borne diseases. After the call, users
also received an SMS saying thank you along with an
offer code. The user has to produce the code received
to a sales agent in order to achieve a free sample of
Mortein Nature Guard Coil. The campaign was a
huge success.
And hence, we saw that non internet medium for
reaching out to consumers and youth can be a great
success.
19
WHATSAPP MARKETING: IS THIS THE NEXT BIG THING INSTEAD?
We very well know about missed call marketing but
this post on the Shahrukh Khan’s new movie Happy
New Year’s facebook page did set our eyes open.
A request for the trailer on Whatsapp was sent and on
14th August (the planned date of trailer release) we
did not received the trailer. Execution still remains
the key for such a strategy. Red Chilies had
specifically tied up with Whatsapp to help the release
of the trailer. "The only challenge was the restriction
by WhatsApp where a broadcast message cannot be
sent to more than 250 friends/WhatsApp users but
WhatsApp has specially removed this restriction for
this campaign," Venky Mysore, CEO Red Chilies,
said at a press conference.
This is surely indicating a new trend that is coming
up. Whatsapp marketing is at a very nascent stage
amongst its peers in the digital marketing space but it
surely seems to be the next big thing.
ABOUT WHATSAPP
We all know how Whatsapp has changed the
landscape of communication. Whatsapp averages 1
million new customers per day without having no
marketing budget whatsoever. A 500 Million strong
user base with 48 million from India. Besides, India
is adding 4 million users per month in India.
Globally, users are exchanging 700 million photos
and 100 million videos every day.
Whatsapp today is globally accessible and has a wide
user acceptance. It is very simple to use and allows
messages of unlimited length. Being available for all
use OS platforms adds to its utility. With text, audio,
video, and image formats available for message
sharing, file transfer is the last feature that needs to
be added. It simplifies communications, works on
WiFi, and automatically adds people from a phone’s
contact list, provided they’re on WhatsApp. In other
words, unlike other social media tools, there’s no
need to send invites to customers or clients already
on WhatsApp.
The beauty of Whatsapp is that it doesn’t have any
media inventory. Chron defines media inventory as
“Advertising inventory is the number of
advertisements, or amount of ad space, a publisher
has available to sell to an advertiser. Ad inventory is
often calculated by the month. The term can refer to
ads in print or other traditional media but is
increasingly used to refer to online or mobile ads.
Online ad inventory is often valued in terms of the
site traffic or ad views that the publisher can deliver
to the advertiser.”
The importance of Whatsapp can be best stated by
the plans developed by telecomm companies just for
it. Airtel came out with a 200 MB separate allocation
available to both 2G and 3G subscribers and priced in
the range of Rs 36 and Rs 49, depending on the
service area. Reliance GSM came out with unlimited
WhatsApp and Facebook at Rs.16 a month. Tata
Docomo: It announced 8 plans starting in the range of
Rs. 199 to Rs. 1,099 under which user will get free
unlimited Internet usage for WhatsApp besides other
benefits. BSNL Whatsapp packs will be available in
20
the market starting August 1st. The WhatsApp pack
will cost Rs 30 which will offer free usage of 200
MB. And this is just to target the youth who thrives
on this app.
HOW SOME BRANDS ARE DOING IT
The trend for movies coming on Whatsapp had
started even before Happy New Year.
BANGALORE DAYS is a 2014 Indian Malayalam
romantic drama film written and directed by Anjali
Menon, and produced by Anwar Rasheed and Sophia
Paul under the banner Anwar Rasheed Entertainment
and Weekend Blockbusters. The story is about three
cousins who crossover from Kerala to Bangalore.
The film doled out exclusive content on Whatsapp to
develop deep engagement with the audience. And
this is necessary especially for films where marketing
is a short time and high intensity activity. This
obviously required great investments in terms of man
power but connecting to the youth on a relevant
platform justifies all the hard work.
Besides movies, other brands have also run creative
campaigns on this medium.
KLIK CASE, a chocolate snack from Israel, used
Whatsapp to increase brand engagement amongst
youth who are the most prolific users of the app.
Besides, Whatsapp is a marketing channel that
doesn’t deal with the media inventory issue.
Klik launched a “simon says” game on Whatsapp
called ‘Kilk Says’ with the help of their agency,
Great Interactive. It shared its Whatsapp number on
Facebook. The brand asked its fans to add the
number to their Whatsapp groups with friends. Once
the number was added the game began. The game
included short creative games and activities that
furthered interests of its existing customers who love
the brand. Creative competitions like instant photo
and video compositions and associated activities
furthered the interest, engaged interest, and helped
spread the word to the active youth on the app via the
existing customers and the hype generated through
such competitions. Competitions included send your
pictures with a moustache, send a picture with the
weirdest imitation, send a picture if you don’t get
Kilk, and so on.
Results were quick and Klik reported a 51.8%
increase in the brand engagement rate via addition of
new contacts. Over 2000 teens participated in the
‘Klick Says’ game and 91% of them completed the
provided tasks. It created over one million impression
on Facebook. A burned out community manager was
the sacrifice for this campaign but the numbers made
up for all.
ABSOLUT VODKA is said to launch the first ever
Whatsapp marketing campaign. Absolut Vodka did
that with Wonky, a South American digital Agency.
Wonky helped to put together a campaign to
celebrate the launch of Limited Edition Absolut
Unique Collection. The idea is to produce 4 Million
21
Absolut Vodka bottles that are each uniquely
designed. Also, the challenge was to build brand
awareness and close communication with a brand that
historically doesn’t speak.
In order to promote the launch of its exclusive
product through a party in Argentina, Absolut used
Whatsapp as the channel for selections while
profusely marketing their product at the same time. A
‘doorman’ as a company representative was
appointed in the form of a link between the company
and the users of Whatsapp. His name was Sven. A
competition was launched whereby the followers of
the brand or those interested in attending the party
were supposed to impress this ‘Doorman’ through
text or media like audio or video messages that
encouraged creativity as well as portrayed their love
for the brand at the same time. The aim was to
diversify the user base as well as acquaint the
existing customers of its new launch in an attention
grabbing manner.
The participants soon realized that convincing Sven
via simple text messages was a difficult task. So they
started being creative. They sent photographs with
handmade banners, attempted bribery, and songs as
audio and even videos.
The results were more than satisfactory. Besides all
the buzz that was created on the social media, more
than 1000 entries in form of texts, videos, and audios
were received in which people showed their love for
the brand. Following all the buzz and activity, 600
new contacts were added within hours which shows
the spreading of consumer base too. All this was for
the price of a SIM card and an exhausted community
manager.
HOMESHOP18 tried to overcome the clutter in the
ecommerce communication space by creating two
brand mascots: Billy, the father cat and Sunny, the
son cat, sitting across a table representing
Homeshop18. Mindshift Interactive was the digital
marketing partner and it claimed to have received
overall impressions of over 100 Million across Social
Media and 140,000 YouTube views for the TVC and
witnessed over 320,000 unique visits on the
microsite, with offers and contests like
#18HappyMoments, #HS18Trivia, #ShopForPop and
many other routes spread happiness amongst all.
But the differentiator was that Whatsapp was used as
a media channel. Considering the strong penetration
it has in India, the agency innovated in the campaign
by using WhatsApp to spread happiness for users’
on-the-go via amusing memes and jokes through the
father-son duo of Billy and Sunny, whilst providing
offers to consumers as well. Over 200,000 WhatsApp
subscribers were sent daily content. The customers
also had an option to subscribe to these entertaining
memes, updates on the Caturday Sales and exciting
offers and be part of the enjoyable life of Bill &
Sunny.
WHATSAPP USAGE HABITS
Whatsapp is witnessing an increasing degree of
usage and reliance. ‘Whatsapp kar dena’ has
become quite a regular phrase for the youth today.
This called for analyzing how the youth today is
analyzing Whatsapp. Our extensive primary
research yielded the following results.
An average young person is a part of 9 Whatsapp
groups and each group has, on an average, 14
members. Also, a person has on an average 6
people who send them forwards.
There is a healthy number of population that
circulates messages. However, the culture of
having groups for forwards is not so prevalent
right now.
22
Connecting with friends and family are definitely the
most important function of Whatsapp for the youth.
An important point to be noticed is that 25% had an
unaided recall that Whatsapp is for entertainment.
This indicates a rising trend that Whatsapp is no
longer only for chatting but also a source for
entertainment for them. Entertainment is largely due
to joke forwards. And it has been observed that like
Twitter and Facebook, content can also go viral on
Whatsapp the only disadvantage being that it cannot
be measured.
When asked to the respondents about the features of
Whatsapp they like, unaided recall revealed a
multitude of factors.
Looking at the responses of forwarding media and
forwarding text messages, there doesn’t seem to be
much difference between forwarding to group and
forwarding to individuals. However we can clearly
observe that media has a higher tendency to be
forwarded than text. 15% more respondents are likely
to forward media than text.
When asked about preference for the forms of
forwards, pictures and text emerged as the clear
winners. Text has no ‘downloading’ time and
pictures also can be downloaded very quickly. Audio
and video takes time to download and also playing
them instantly is not an option always. This is further
substantiated by the response on downloading
audio/video.
0
85%
1
7%
>2
8%
# of groups used only for forwards
that I am a part of
-5% 5% 15% 25% 35%
Never
Rarely
Sometimes
Often
Most of the time
Forward Media
Groups Individual
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Never
Rarely
Sometimes
Often
Most of the time
Forward Text
Groups Individual
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
1 2 3 4
Preferred Forms of Forwards (Rank)
Picture Text Audio Video
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Never
Rarely
Sometimes
Often
Most of the time
Download Audio/Video Content
23
The length of text messages also matter. Reading
forwards that exceed the size of the screen generated
a negative response.
Broadcasting is also not preferred feature by many
people.
IS THE YOUTH READY TO TALK TO
BRANDS ON WHATSAPP?
We probed all our respondents by first asking their
favorite brand, do they follow the brand on social
media, and then asking are they ready to talk to them
on Whatsapp and why. The results revealed that 54%
of the respondents were ready to talk to their favorite
brand on Whatsapp. 11% show neutral attitude and
the others were not willing to talk to brands on
Whatsapp.
Probing for reasons revealed further insights. A
majority of respondents who said they were ready to
talk to brands on Whatsapp were interested in new
product l aunches and gaining more product
information about the brand. They want to be updated
with what’s happening with that brand. A sizeable
section of respondents were interested in incentives
that brand can provide. On the other hand,
respondents who were not interested in talking to
brands on Whatsapp were largely concerns about
privacy issues (as they consider Whatsapp to be their
personal space), unnecessary flooding of messages,
and unverified accounts. A section of people said that
they didn’t have time to interact with brands on
Whatsapp. B ut a bottom line running th rough the
respondents was that they expect the brand’s
communication to be relevant and not intrusive.
Like other forms of digital marketing, even Whatsapp
needs to be permission driven. And it seems that time
has come for CRM to shift from calls and SMS to
-5% 5% 15% 25% 35%
Never
Rarely
Sometimes
Often
Most of the time
Read Messages which exceed
Screen Size
0% 20% 40% 60%
Never
Rarely
Sometimes
Often
Most of the time
Broadcast JokesYes,
53.6%
Don’t
Mind ,
10.7%
No ,
35.7%
Read to Interact on Whatsapp with
Brands
Nikunj, 26
I have low patience for
reading a lot of text. I
prefer short and funny
messages.
Rohit, 25
When you broadcast, a symbol appears
below the message indicating that it is a
broadcast. Other person might think that
this is not a personalized message
24
Whatsapp so as to reflect the shift in consumer’s
lifestyle.
GROUND RULES FOR WHATSAPP
MARKETING
There cannot be a single framework for building a
communication strategy in marketing, the same holds
true for Whatsapp marketing as well. But there are
some ground rules for sure.
The need for personalized communication can be best
fulfilled by Whatsapp. If Twitter can be extended into
CRM, then Whatsapp can be very well extended to
CRM replacing SMS messaging.
Integration with other media channels is again the
base rule. You cannot have one message theme
running across one channel and another on
Whatsapp.
Whatsapp allows you to use rich media such as
pictures, audio, and video to communicate and a
marketer should not miss this opportunity. Content is
the base for all marketing communication on the
internet and same applies for Whatsapp marketing.
Being innovative and engaging is again the
imperative.
Shaunak, 22
I would like to know how
did Axe came up with the
idea of attracting girls. I
would like to know about
their other products and get
some goodies too. Sonam, 23
I love to participate in
group activities but the
number should be credible.
Tanisha, 23
If Nike is coming with
something new then I get
instant information. I don’t
have to do research.
Rajesh, 24
No. Whatsapp is for
personal communication
only
Sanish, 25
I do not like such activities
because they are intrusive
to my privacy and a waste
of time
Venkatraman, 21
Yes I’m open to it as long
as it doesn't get irritating.
25
VIABILITY OF MOBILE MARKETING: ADDED SERVICE TAX FROM BUDGET 2014
In the recently declared budget, Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley has reinstated the online advertisement
into the domain of advertising on which service tax is
levied. Even though the Government has been pro
digital empowerment with allocation of Rs 500 crore
for the National Rural Internet and Technology
Mission, the service tax on online advertisement
industry is on an opposite line. Two years ago, in
2012, such advertisements were put on a negative list
by the government for exemption from the service
tax. That was seen as a welcome move for the growth
of the online advertising community with
expectations that this will continue for 3-5 years till
this industry gains a substantial growth. The
proposed measure will have online and mobile
publishers and advertising networks pay service tax
once again, after two years of service tax not being
applicable
ONLINE ADVERTISEMENT- THE
INDUSTRY
With a boom in social media, online advertisement
has grown very fast in the recent past. The revenue
from online advertisements has gone from 1500 crore
rupees in 2011 to about 3000 crores in 2014. This is a
200 growth in a span of 3 years. The CAGR for
online advertisement revenues is predicted to be 30%
till 2016 and the revenues are predicted to be around
5700 crores by 2016. Compared to any other form of
advertisement, the online advertisement has seen
better growth rates in the recent years.
TAX IMPOSITION AND EFFECTS
This imposition of tax by the government was an
unexpected move. A service tax of 12.36% will be
the added cost for the online advertising industry.
Currently online advertising comprises of about 10%
of the total advertising spend of the advertisement
industry. This service tax on this industry will not be
of substantial gain for the government as this industry
is in its growing stage and is yet to gain substantial
share in the advertisement sector.
On the other side, the sale of space in advertisement
in print media has been excluded from this tax
imposition. Print advertising, which stands at Rs
14,248 crore has not been subjected to any such tax
in the budget. It is the second-largest contributor to
advertising in India, will see 8.5 per cent growth,
compared with 4.6 per cent last year, ending the year
at Rs 15,459 crore.
Internet has been too important for advertisers to
ignore. The internet user base in the country is
projected to touch 243 million by June 2014 with a
year-on-year growth of 28%, as more and more
people are accessing the web through mobile phones.
As per report by Internet and Mobile Association of
India (IAMAI) the number of mobile internet users in
India was 155 million in March 2014 and was
expected to reach 185 million by June 2014. The
number of smart phone users is also to expect to rise
from 51 million in 2013 to 104 million in 2014. Also,
in the recently finished elections, online
advertisements were one of the major means of
attracting votes by the leading party. Thus, with an
extensive usage of this form of advertising, there will
only be a temporary dip for the online advertisement
industry due to tax.
The global average spent on online advertisement is
around 21% and India is far away from this mark.
The sentiment in Indian Advertisers also shows that
the online advertisement is on a high growth track.
70% of them feel that there spend is going grow in
future. So, India has a lot of growth opportunities in
this sector. Also online advertising is not more than
10% of the total advertising budget for many
companies, so in effect, this will at best add another
1% to their total advertising cost, which is negligible.
For an industry which is growing at the rate of 25 to
30% annually, this will not affect the company’s
spend on advertisements. The companies are more
concerned for performance in this medium and pay
for clicks and lead conversions in digital advertising.
Thus, this tax may not be a deterrent for the
advertising spent.
26
EFFECT ON SMALLER ADVERTISEMENT
COMPANIES/START UPS
As these firms are small in size, the impact of service
tax may be seen as a big push back. This service tax
will either hinge on these startups and may be a big
setback. As the growth of online advertisements is on
a boom, this tax will be having a detrimental effect.
Apart from this, many web publishers and mobile app
developers depend solely on advertising as their
revenue. They are already struggling to make decent
money through advertising. With service tax burden
now being added, they sure are looking at more
difficult times ahead. Also Most of the major
companies are prepared with their budget spends for
the year. So, the tax might lead to downsizing of the
advertising spend or give a lower reach to the same
advertising spend.
The sale of space for advertisements in the print
media (almost 10 times bigger than digital
advertising) remains excluded from service tax. This
is demoralizing for the online advertising community
as it supports the way old method of advertisement
than giving support to the emerging counterpart.
In terms of direct digital ad sales, the service tax may
be charged, it is yet not clear what happens in case of
online publishers who depend on third party Ad
networks like Adsense.
27
ABOUT IIFT
The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) is an autonomous public business school established in 1963 by the
Government of India (Ministry of Commerce and Industry) to help professionalize the country's foreign trade
management and increase exports. Its flagship program is the Master of Business Administration in International
Business (MBA-IB). It is the only institute among the top-10 business schools of India that offers this program.
ABOUT INSIGHTS – THE MARKETING RESEARCH CELL @ IIFT
Knowing your customer, competitors, markets, gaps not met, validity of your creative marketing ideas and gauging
your strategy for success are impossible without research. Marketing research is an application or a practical wing of
marketing which is a prerequisite for every aspiring marketer. ‘Insights’ the marketing research cell was started in
2012 to provide every IIFTian the true sense of research.
OUR RESEARCH TEAM
SENIOR RESEARCH TEAM
Devansh Doshi
Greeshma Rao
Manasi Jain
JUNIOR RESEARCH TEAM
Ankush Singh
Asheerwad Viswajeevan
Brajesh M
Naina Goyal
Nikunj Parasar
Pratiyaksh Singh
Rapaka Ramya
Saman Nayyar
Swati Duggar
Vaibhav Arya
