Marketing Q&A : Marketing Career Vs Sales Career

Sir , I want to build a career in marketing but I don't like to do sales. How can I get a marketing job without doing sales ?

- I have come across this question a hundred times in my career as a teacher. The eager beaver MBAs wanting to build a career in the glamorous world of marketing without having to sweat it out in sales. By marketing careers, they mean all those jobs that involves creating marketing strategies, brand management etc and not the field sales jobs.

Understandably so !

Sales jobs , although plenty to find, are tougher than ever before. Many firms focusing on growth at any cost has virtually eliminated all possibilities of ethical selling. Many firms believe sales can be /should be done by everyone in the organisation irrespective of whether that person is fit for such a function. It is not how you sell but how much you sell that is now counted.

MBAs , from those tier II business schools ,who inevitably land in such sales jobs find their dreams of a professional marketing career shattered. The high pressure selling, four letter expletives, hire and fire stories, rude clients make their initial corporate years something comparable to hell. It seems to them that they are in a rut from where there is no escape...

Is this the marketing that Kotler speaks about ? When am I going to think about the strategies, 4 P's , branding etc ? How long am I going to wait till I get such a job ?

These are my thoughts about building a career in marketing !

My personal opinion is that it is better to have some hardcore sales experience in sales before thinking about a career in the so called glamorous world of Marketing. Sales will give you lot of inputs about customers, their needs, behaviour, how the channel works etc which will be of tremendous help to you when you enter into the world of marketing strategy. You will be able to device practical marketing strategy since you know how the market works.

Having some sales experience also acts as a career insurance . That experience will help you to be employable even in times of recession. Hence even if you have landed yourself in a sales job you did not like, it is better to stay there for the experience of it ( if all other factors like pay, working environment etc are good ). I have seen many students who initially were skeptical of a sales job later thriving in it. So shed all those inhibitions on being a Salesman. You have nothing to lose except those meaningless calender years.

Having said that, there are marketing jobs that young MBAs can look for which may not have a sales content. Marketing research , Analytics, Creatives, Designers, Retailing , Business Analysts etc are some of those marketing jobs where direct sales component is not present. But these jobs are limited and hard to get.

Also remember that hardcore marketing jobs like Brand Management, product management are often not advertised. Most of these jobs are filled through lateral placements. The point is that these jobs may not come to business school campuses other than the top 10. Hence the task is to network while on the job and find the right contact who can land you that dream job.

My advice to fresh MBAs is not to be heartbroken if you don't land up that marketing job of your dreams. Slog it on sales job , get some experience, network and land your dream job.

Brand Update : Logan Loves India

Automobile enthusiasts were curious about the future of Logan after the brand was taken over by Mahindra. The Renaulth - Mahindra JV was in trouble after Renault began to aggressively pursue multiple JV in the automobile market. The issue resolved after Mahindra buying out the JV. As of now Mahindra will be promoting the Logan brand.

The first move that Mahindra made after the buyout was to rationalize the price of Logan. The price of Logan was reduced by a massive Rs 60,000 and the brand is now retailing at Rs 5.35 lakhs . Logan was struggling to make decent numbers because even at Rs 6.5 lakhs, it was finding it difficult to convince the customers about the value proposition. The market is also witnessing a new consumer attention towards premium hatchbacks which is eating into many sedan's market share.

Once Logan got the attention of consumers with its attractive pricing, the brand moved into the next marketing step - communicating its new value proposition to the consumers. Logan is currently running a new campaign " Logan Loves India " ( which is also the new tagline). The new campaign is highly rational and talks about the brand's strong points like Space and Mileage. Although these attributes are talked about by every brand in the class, Logan is trying to project itself as a brand made for India.

Watch the campaign here : Logan Loves India

In the new campaign , the brand uses testimonials of customers to drive home the value proposition of the brand.

One of the burning issue between the Mahindras and Renault was over the product specifications. Mahindra wanted the size of the Logan to be trimmed to take advantage over the tax rules but Renault was cold on such a move. With Mahindra now in full charge of the brand, such a move can be seen in future.

Logan was always trying to position itself as a value brand and the latest commercial only refreshes the brand's core positioning. When the brand was launched , consumers were convinced about the brand's value but the brand messed it up. Now the onus is on Mahindra to bring back the trust factor in consumers. With Renault exiting from JV, there are serious doubts about the future of Logan. The task of the brand is to convey that trust to the consumers that Logan is here to stay. "Logan Loves India " campaign may be trying to do just that

Related Brand

Logan

Oxemberg : Body Music

Brand : Oxemberg

Company : Siyaram

Brand Analysis Count : 457

Whenever my wife purchases a shirt for me , 80% chances are that the brand will be Oxemberg. Although she knows my brand preferences which does not include this brand, Oxemberg will finally make it into her choice list.

The reason is that she looks for design/patterns and often other brands

fails to impress her.

Oxemberg is one of the pioneers of readymade branding in India. The brand which was launched in 1995 rightly envisioned the trend towards readymade clothing in the Indian market.

The brand has been in existence for more than 15 years and is worth over Rs 80 crore. In this highly cluttered and fragmented market, being existing itself is a big achievement for Oxemberg.

However I wonder whether the brand was able to realize its true potential ? Was it left out in the sidelines by the aggressive competitors ?

Oxemberg is a brand targeting the higher middleclass segment. The brand is priced little higher than the brands like Peter England , John Players etc.

One of the factors that has slowed the brand's growth was the limited distribution and the low brand promotion. The brand is being retailed only through select MBOs and is not highly promoted across the media as compared to the competitors. The lack of brand promotion together with the high price may have caused many customers to opt for value brands like Peter England.

One of the reason for low brand promotion may be because the brand chose to grow very slowly. The brand never went for a high profile national launch but moving slowly from one geographical market to another. Despite being in existence for 15 years, I don't remember any memorable campaign run by this brand through any national media . Despite these constraints, the brand sustained itself all these years.

It seems that Oxemberg is now aiming for a much higher play. The brand is now very visible across the print media with the new campaign featuring the celebrity Niel Nitin Mukesh. The brand has adopted the tagline " Body Music " which contains the brand message : Clothes that Move to my Rhythm.

" Body Music " is a very good tagline and positioning of Oxemberg fits to the body like Music is a remarkable idea. The tagline perfectly conveys the message of " perfect fit " property of the brand . The use of word " Music "also gives a sense of coolness to the brand.

The print ads are well made and catches the attention of the readers very well. It is also nice to see the brand taking the positioning based on "body fit ".

As a brand user, I feel that the real strength of Oxemberg is the design. Its patterns have some quality which is not seen in other brands. Even though the cloth quality may not be the best, Oxemberg scores high in the design which should be highlighted in the marketing communication. The current positioning platform is flexible enough to talk about design also.

It is good to see aggressive marketing activity for Oxemberg at the national level. The brand commands fair share of brand awareness because of its long existence. The new communication thrust will take the brand to the next level of growth.

Marketing Strategy : How to Market The Intangible

Marketing the Intangible

Originally Published in Adclubbombay.com

Services contribute about 5o% of India’s GDP and have become an important growth engine for our economy. The growth in the service sector has opened up immense opportunities for new products and also newer markets. The huge service economy of India has attracted many players into the market. The market is now flooded with new players and new products.

Marketing of services is a challenging task primarily because services are largely intangible in nature. Because of this intangible nature, consumers find it difficult to visualize the service or evaluate the quality of service before purchase. For established services this problem is less because customers already have formed their opinions because of their past interactions. For a new service firm, getting the customers to try out the service is a very difficult task. This calls for a strong branding effort on the part of the service marketer to lure the customers into their offerings.

Creating a service brand is not the task of the marketer alone. The entire organization is responsible for crafting that brand experience. This is because of the fact that service cannot be separated from the service provider. When the brand promises a consumer of a definite experience, the entire organization should be working as a single unit to provide that expected experience. People who are a part of the organization form an important element of the consumer’s perception about the service brand. For example, the behaviour of the cabin crew in an airline service is a critical factor that defines the perception of the consumers regarding that brand. Hence managing a service brand is more of a strategic function rather than a mere functional task.

According to the branding guru Kevin Lane Keller, marketers should employ a full range of brand elements while crafting a brand strategy for service. The brand elements like Logo, Symbols, characters and slogans play an important part in the formation of brand image. These brand elements becomes important because services are intangible unlike physical products.

The first task for marketers is to make services more tangible so that consumers can visualize the service easier. This is done by adding tangible elements into the service. Hotels and resorts create tangibility by creating excellent infrastructural facilities which gives the consumer a fair idea about the service. For pure services the task of creating tangible elements becomes more complex. For insurance and financial services, the marketers have to build a strong brand image which acts as an equivalent of a tangible element.

For a consumer, evaluating a service before purchase is a difficult task. There is a strong element of risk which is perceived by the consumer before availing the service for the first time. Marketers’ task is to reduce the risk perception and encourage trust so that consumers try out the services. Many companies use branding as a tool to build trust and thus create a long lasting relationship with the customers.

Professor Leonard Berry in his article “Cultivating Service Brand Equity “in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science” talks about four ways to build service brand equity. According to him, the service brand should be (a) Different (b) Determine your own fame (c) Make an emotional connection and (d) Internalize the brand. Strong service brands create powerful differentiators to convince the customers that they are different from the rest of the crowd. Service brands should also be very clear about their core strengths which will inturn makes customers to come back to their service offering. The brand should then build emotional connection with the consumers. Another important requisite is that the employees of the service organization should internalize the brand values and then only they will be able to provide outstanding customer service.

While communicating the service brand’s message, firms should be able to project its credibility, expertise and trustworthiness to the customers. Brands use characters, logo,symbols,colors etc to reinforce its service promise. ICICI Bank successfully used celebrities to build its image as a trustworthy new generation bank. Global consultancy firm Accenture firm uses Tiger Woods to convey its core brand value of “Performance”. These brands have used brand elements like slogans to reinforce the brand promise. Brands like Bajaj Allianz use characters to convey its message. Bajaj Allianz uses the animated “Super Agent “character to convey the message of reliable customer service. These brand elements help the customers to visualize the services even in the pre-purchase stage thus reducing the perceived risk of service failure.

Marketing a service require a holistic approach where the entire organization is focused at fulfilling the brand promise. It becomes the responsibility of every employee in the service organization to take part in creating the experience promised by the brand.

Sure : No Sweat

Brand : Sure

Company : HUL

Brand Analysis Count : #456

HUL has launched a new brand in the Indian market - Sure . Sure is an antiperspirant brand from Unilever's global product portfolio. The brand is claiming to be the largest selling antiperspirant brand in the world. Sure is sold extensively in UK and Europe.

Sure is an interesting brand for a variety of reasons. The launch of Sure brand marks another era in the deodorant market in India. The deo market is divided into categories like Body Spray, Deo with germ fighting properties and Antiperspirants. The Rs 700 crore Indian deo market is dominated by the body spray categories. The launch of a global brand like Sure is going to develop the antiperspirant market in India.

For the promotion of Sure, HUL has roped in the actress Asin. The brand is currently running the launch campaign across South India featuring the celebrity.

Watch the launch ad here : Sure

Since the antiperspirant category is new to the Indian market, the brand has tried to educate the customer about the product category in the launch phase. The launch ad essentially talks about what the product is and the comparison between ordinary deo spray and antiperspirant.

Another interesting aspect of Sure brand launch is the question mark over the fate of Rexona. The fact is that Sure is Rexona !!!

While Sure is marketed across England and Europe, the same product is marketed as Rexona in other global markets including India. There are rumors that with the launch of Sure in India, HUL may kill Rexona deo brand in near future.

According to newspaper reports , Rexona which created the deo market in India is now a marginal player in the market with hardly 5% share. HUL virtually messed up the Rexona brand (soap) with lot of experiments like migrating to Hamam. Even in the deo category, Rexona was virtually neglected in terms of promotional spend.

Sure is marketed with the same tagline and brand elements as Rexona. Both Rexona and Sure carries the same logo - the Tick mark and the same tagline " It won't Let You Down". Sure is also using the slogan " No Sweat " in the launch campaign to reinforce the product benefit.

It is unlikely event where you see two different brands using the same logo and tagline. It does not make any marketing sense unless there is an underlying thought of migrating one brand to another. It can be assumed that Sure will launch its full range of deos and Rexona will be slowly taken off the shelves.

The deo market is witnessing intense competition these days with n number of launches happening. The trend these days seems that get a good fragrance, outsource production and do high profile marketing.

Even the antiperspirant market has seen new launches with Garnier launching its product in the category recently. By launching Sure , HUL is making sure that it does not leave any part of the category to the competitors.

Brand Update : Vivel Extending to Fairness Cream

ITC's soap brand Vivel has launched its fairness cream extension in the Indian market. The brand has been launched in Kerala and is expected to offer stiff competition to the market leader Fair & Lovely.

Vivel's fairness variant is branded as Vivel Active Fair and comes in three SKUs - the 50 gm pack is launched at a price of Rs 70, 25 gm at Rs 38 and 9 gm sachet at Rs 5. The brand is running its launch

campaign with big splash in major newspapers . Vivel Active Fair is banking on its ingredients like vitamins, minerals and moisturizers along with SPF 15 sun protection rating.

In a direct challenge to Fair & Lovely, Vivel is selling its sachet at Rs 5 ( introductory offer) compared to FAL's Rs 7. Indian personal care market is driven by sachets and the Rs 5 price point will help Vivel to achieve the important customer trials. Rs 5 price point is also beneficial

to both customers and retailers because of the coinage factor. This pricing may force HUL to lower the price of FAL's sachet.The Indian Fairness Cream market is worth around Rs 1700 and growing at 15% .

ITC is making lot of headway in its personal care business. The brands like Fiama and Vivel has successfully made their mark in terms of brand visibility. Although the company may not be making money in the personal care business because of the heavy promotional investments, these brands have built a strong foundation that can fuel further growth.It is common for brands in the personal care business to go for brand extensions. Vivel is trying to transform itself to a personal care brand rather than just a soap brand.

It is interesting to see that the brand refrained from using celebrity to endorse the fairness cream. I wonder why ?

Related Brand

Vivel