Markathon October 2009

Dear Readers,

Marketing theories undergoes rapid modifications thanks to the era of cosmetisation of texts and beliefs. My recent encounter with two such buzz-theories left me baffled and led to a prolonged research, whose findings I am summarizing in this editorial. The first one is called ‘Marmite Effect’, which says, “it’s better to be a polarising brand that people love or hate than to be ignored”. Drawing the same concept into the human psychology, Oscar Wildly once said, “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Marmite effect is a really wonderful tool to gauge the consumer’s psyche about your brand, that whether they loath about it, are deeply influenced by it or leave it into disdain. It is really important to gauge the brand effectiveness because the basic premise of creating a brand is to elicit response from the whole generation of consumers. The response may be on the right side or on the wrong track, which is immaterial. A recently conducted study further reiterates the theory that brands that have been mostly talked about be, it loved or hated, are highly successful as compared to brands that people just ignores. Moreover most successful brands have almost a similar size of adorer and defector but a huge chunk of them buy their products proving the fact that Marmite Effect holds true. The second theory is about transformed ‘Gen-Y’ in the era of Web 2.0 and talks about, what it requires for marketers to keep pace with the generation of tweeting, texting and social networking obsessed youth to increase their visibility and understanding in their wired world. The need for adopting a differential approach can be measured from the sheer size of this consumer base as well as their purchasing potential, their demands from brands to become more transparent and provide more value for their limited investment. I strongly advocate brands to learn the right way to approach this interconnected environment to become part of the wallpaper of these ‘CyberGens’ modern life; unless they will be dropped into the trash bin in an instant.Our new issue has identified couple of such brand concepts those are going to define the marketing world vigorously. It begins with the wide use of In-film placement as a tried and tested format of advertising to reach the prospective consumer base more accurately than any other media. A new flavor in the form of ‘swarm theory’ is added to the concept of viral marketing while, brand enhancement through disparate association of brands makes a good read. The cover story by marketing consultant, Jigyasa L Dhir revolves around the rapid use of value added services as the augmented value tool, to elicit Indian consumers vis a vis boost the ROI of marketing.
I hope the issue will definitely arouse, elevate and keep you occupied with the world of marketing. Looking forward to your comments and wishes to bring out more smoking issues in the future.

Asit Kumar Jain