BACK TO THE FUTURE?

ARVIND SHARMA, MD, LEO BURNETT (INDIA)

It’s not the king of India’s advertising jungle yet, but this Leo is loving the slowdown. Why? Well, no one’s trying to poach their key people, that’s why!

“It’s a mistake to change your existing strategy because of a downturn. A better thing is to sharpen your existing strategy,” exclaims Arvind Sharma, MD, Leo Burnett (India). And it is this strategy, Sharma says, which has helped Leo Burnett grow by 10% even in a tough environment. At a time when most marketers are trimming their ad budgets or expecting their agencies to deliver more for less, Sharma is glad that his agency’s clients (except financial and tourism clients) are doing relatively well. Of course, he is quick to take some credit for it. “Our brands like Mazaa have been growing at 50% and Thums Up is an undisputed number one in its segment.”

So, while news about loss of accounts and retrenchments are hogging most agencies, market watchers believe that Leo Burnett has been bearing the slowdown storm quite well. Not only have they not lost a single account, they have also bagged new accounts, including Tata Capitals, HPCL and Samsung Touch phones.

So, was it possible to achieve this with no real change? Says Arvind, “The change was brought by the environment. For three years’ preceding the slowdown, our best people were getting an offer a month. That has now stopped. So our best people have been able to focus on our clients’ businesses. It is a joy to see what a difference a little focus can make.” But since that would have been true for most agencies, what makes Leo Burnett’s dream run special? We asked Rajeev Sharma, National Brand Planning Director, Leo Burnett (India) and here’s his take: “First, our senior-most people have always been closely involved in our client’s businesses. Secondly, we’ve always had a culture of proactive consumer contact and interface by our planners. It’s not uncommon even for our senior management to actually meet consumers. And now even clients are realising the importance of these things.”

Another learning that clients have had amidst the current turmoil is that there is no magic wand that works for all. While TV may work for some, innovating and experimenting with new age media could be just the push that another brand may need. On this front, Leo Burnett has done some interesting work for HPCL at their petrol pumps. Similarly, the Jaago Re campaign for Tata Tea has done well on television, as also directed considerable traffic to their website. As a matter of fact, Leo Burnett’s marketing services division, Arc, has been doing some path breaking work in the digital space. It brought home India’s first Cyberlion last year. This year, Arc’s work on Jaago Re even won a webby. Consequently, the agency’s digital revenues are up sharply. No wonder, Sharma is keen to continue investing in the high-potential marketing services division, Arc as always. About 30% growth – that’s Sharma’s personal target for Leo Burnett in this fiscal. This Leo is certainly roaring in India’s advertising jungle...

Surbhi Chawla

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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McService all the way

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Way back, Ray Kroc had said that McD’s is not a burger company serving people but a people company serving burgers. No surprise then that McDonald’s India tops amidst six fast food chains on their ‘service delivery’ says Angshuman Paul

His typical day starts at around 6:00 am, when he sets off for his morning jog – a must for all McDonald’s managers as instructed by their corporate headquarters. Not that 24-year-old Akash Girdhar, Restaurant Manager of the McDonald’s store in New Delhi’s posh South Extension market, is complaining. After all, the jog allows him to remain physically fit and also gather his thoughts for the long day stretching ahead – Is the French Fries stock in the restaurant enough for this day and the next; how to tackle the new trainee’s unkempt nails; is my staff acclimatized to the training imparted to serve the new launch - McChicken Nuggets?!

Akash’s thoughts are not very dissimilar to the ones that Ray Croc, founder of the hamburger chain, harbored each morning during the swinging 60s in the US, as he zealously went about expanding the innovative hamburger restaurant into the most successful fast food operation in the world. Right from the day that Croc opened his first restaurant, he tried to give his customers quality products, served quickly (with a smile), in a clean, hygienic ambience. Needless to say that the Oakbrook headquartered company is always on the go to instill this Kroc-like perfectionism into its 5000 employees in India. Akash for one is considered a rising star in the company for his commitment to the McDonald’s values of quality, service and cleanliness and his restaurant has been internally adjudged as one among the three most popular McDonald’s restaurants across India, for five consecutive months.

Ask him and Akash rattles off the names of his restaurant’s 20 most regular customers saying that he always keeps in touch with them on a personal level. McDonald’s staff are encouraged to not only know the names of their regular customers, but also personal details about them and their eating habits. “This additionally helps in saving time during rush hours,” Akash points out. This service focus helps the restaurant maintain the international McDonalds’ standard to deliver in 60 seconds. “We have to constantly challenge ourselves to meet that bench mark,” agrees Akash. Akash enjoys every bit of his role at McDonald’s and is especially excited about his Global CEO Jim Skinner’s latest penchant for cajoling kids. Skinner believes in encouraging kids to walk-up-to-the-counter and place orders. “We train our crew members to give children extra importance so that they feel like adults when placing orders at McDonald’s,” says Akash.

At their corporate HQs in New Delhi, Sandip Maithal, Director, Operations & People Resources, brings out a sand watch to demonstrate McDonald’s service and delivery focus. “Globally, our service has always rotated around 3Cs – Communication, Co-ordination and Cooperation - now supported by the ‘60 seconds challenge’, where our crew members are trained on how much work they can do in one minute,” he says, inverting the sand timer meaningfully. But at a time when rival Domino’s Pizza home-delivers in 30 minutes, this ‘time fascination’ is clearly not replicated in their McDelivery service, causing them to lose out on a significant chunk of the market. Besides, their winning proposition of ‘value for money’ too does not translate to their McDelivery consumers as they are charged for every delivery.

The beginning of 2009 also saw a decline in the number of McDonald’s goodies under the Rs.20 tag. But higher prices are not likely to hit McDonald’s sales in India anytime soon as most fast food chains have either already raised or are contemplating a hike in their prices because of rising input costs. The burger conglomerate has recently started giving away a freebie within the restaurant even if a spillage is the customer’s fault, resulting in an average loss of Rs.350/day per store, but as Vikram Bakshi, MD, McDonald’s India says, “The customer satisfaction we get is enormous and cannot be bound by money.”

No wonder, McDonald’s India operations claim to be recording about 20% y.o.y growth in same store sales despite words like slowdown and recession being bandied about by other eating out joints. To ensure that their employees remain quick on their feet even in these bad times, the burger company has begun conducting surprise checks on its various franchises’. In fact, Akash later informed this author that most of his restaurant’s crew members had mistaken me for an inspector in disguise, when I went visiting. Now that’s keeping your employees on their toes, literally!

Angshuman Paul

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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A proposition whiter than white light!

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Brand: Happydent
Agency: McCann

This ‘white palace’ campaign gave Happydent a clear lead over rival Orbit. Executed with rare grandeur (at least for a confectionery item), the idea of lighting up an entire fantasy world appealed to the target segment. Says Anand Halve of Chlorophyll, “The campaign took the proposition ‘teeth so white, they shine as bright as lights’ to a completely new level. It is the confidence of the brand to take it to this scale.” Said differently, the campaign sent out the strong message: ‘a chewing gum a day, keeps the darkness away!’

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).


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A ‘Chocolaty’ Affair

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Brand: Cadbury’s Dairy Milk
Agency: O&M
This Cadbury’s ad defined a moment of pure magic in Indian ad-frat. The ad, which had a girl dancing in the cricket ground on seeing her boyfriend win the cricket match brought in the Yash Raj effect into advertising. The idea was to change the perception that chocolates were just for kids. Cadbury effectively conveyed that a chocolate bar can be enjoyed by people across age groups, besides establishing an emotional connect with the viewers (remember cricket is India’s national religion?).

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They finally got a good idea

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Batata! Well, that was the name proposed for the joint venture between the Aditya ‘B’irla Group, ‘AT’&T wireless and the ‘Tata’ Group. Thankfully they got an idea on time! However, like the proposed name the JV also failed to sustain, and resolving all problems AB Group finally bought Tata’s complete stake in Idea in April 2006. But oops, what an idea it turned out to be. It not only kept Birla’s telecom interests alive, but also helped them rake a whopping Rs.28,187 million via an IPO. Now you understand, why they say that an Idea can change your life?

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