WHY I WOULD RECOMMEND HOLISTIC MARKETING TO CORNETTO

A marketer should realise that holistic marketing recognizes that ‘everything matters’ with marketing and that a broad, integrated perspective is necessary to attain the best solution. Four main components of holistic marketing are: relationship marketing, integrated marketing,  internal marketing, and socially responsible marketing.

This approach takes into consideration all the various stakeholders of a business including the customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, the community and the environment also. Any marketing decision is taken considering the perceived impact on the stakeholders.

The marketers today need to assure that any decisions made by them do not contradict the decisions made by any other department in the organization. It is only when the resources of the entire organization move towards a common objective; the firms can expect to survive in the current hyper-competitive marketplace. 

Marketers today look at the four components of holistic marketing, before making any decisions, these include:

  1.      Internal Marketing – the Marketer and Sales team would indulge in activities which involve senior management. Their main objective would be to embrace marketing strategies, seeking active participation of the whole team.

2.       Performance Marketing – Marketers in this approach analyses the financial implications of marketing strategies and their impacts on the ethical and social environments.

3.       Integrated Marketing – The marketer’s main focus is to create, communicate and deliver value.

4.       Relationship Marketing – It is very important for the marketers and sales team to maintain rich relationships with customers, channel partners and marketing partners, as these are the people who ultimately determines the fate of the  product, brand and the company image.

SALES MANAGEMENT

How the SALES PEOPLE do it!?

Sales Management is a business discipline which is focused on the practical application of sales techniques and the management of a firm's sales operations. 

Sales Planning

Sales planning involves strategy, setting profit based sales targets, quotas, sales forecasting and the writing and execution of a sales plan.

Sales Reporting

The sales reporting includes the key performance indicators of the sales force.The Key Performance Indicators indicate whether or not the sales process is being operated effectively and achieves the results as set forth in sales planning. It should enable the sales managers to take timely corrective action deviate from projected values. It also allows senior management to evaluate the sales manager.

Recruitment for Sales

The three recruitment tasks used in sales management are Job analysis; Job description and Job qualifications.

Its Functions:

   •     Sales planning

   •     Recruiting / staffing

   •     Training

   •     Controlling / directing

   •     Evaluating

   •     Effectiveness / efficiency

   •     Compensation

Effective sales management has numerous positive impacts. It can:

   •     Increase sales revenue and profitability

   •     Decrease variability of revenue due to inaccurate forecasting

   •     Increase sales productivity (revenue per salesperson)

   •     Increase customer satisfaction and loyalty

   •     Increase salesperson motivation

Sales Management involves activities like: 

(1)     formulating sales strategy through development of account management policies, sales force compensation policies, sales revenue forcast and sales plan,

(2)     implementing sales strategy through selecting, training, motivating

(3)     sales force management .

BRANDING AND MANAGING IT

 AS A BRAND

 

Cornetto today is a very strong brand, when it comes to which frozen cone ice cream you would want. It is not only that it is by Kwality Walls and HUL, but it tastes better than any of its counterparts.

Every kid knows what is a Cornetto, and there wil be very few people who might say “I don’t like that flavor of Cornetto.” But no one would say “I don’t like Cornetto.”

To just prove my curiosity, if I find anyone who doesn’t like Cornetto, I went and stood outside the shop in my campus that sells Ice Creams. I asked about 10 people, if they like Cornetto and they all said yes. But when I asked them you are having Mother Diary’s product, they were like is that so, for we all cones are Cornetto!

EVERYTHING ABOUT CORNETTO ATTRACTS YOU –

1.     Cornetto – A brand: It is one of the popular snack items, which no other ice cream manufacturers thought of before.

2.     Logo and Color: The Marketers and Brand Managers have come up with several logos of Cornetto while keeping the basic component of a heart and the word “Cornetto” intact.  if we compare the 2 cornetto logos, we can differentiate the way the heart blends in with the word cornetto, makes it fun and lively. Also the brown background color, symbolizes chocolate, which is the most popular ice cream flavor in the world and one of the best flavors Kwality Wall’s offers. 

3.     Slogan/Tag:  the slogan is catchy and joyful. The recent one is quirky and at the same time, delivers the value proposition -  “Enjoy the ride. Love the ending”. Though it is not as catchy as “Dil ka Connection” but leaves a similar happy experience on the cosumer’s mind.

SEGMENTING, TARGETING AND POSITIONING

MICROSCOPIC VIEW OF THE CUSTOMERS THROUGH THE EYES OF CORNETTO

Every marketer cannot connect to all the consumers, as it is too large and diverse. Thus, the marketers tend to use techniques/variable to segregate alike consumers into one homogeneous group based on their age, culture, geographic locations and many others. This is necessary for them to determine what promotion strategy would work for them, which channel would be effective and the prices are also dependent on it.

The following diagram gives a small brief on what are the variables based on which a marketer can segment its markets.

CORNETTO SEES EVERY MARKET AS A POTENTIAL MARKET

Marketers of Cornetto have tried to establish its product for young adults and adults in the age group of 16-30. But the popularity of this product has made it a favorite among the kids of age 10 as well as people aged 40.

They tend to attract consumers who belong to the middle and upper income level segments. Recently, to more and more customers, it has been successful to target the lower middle class families as well.

Recently, I was going through a post on Facebook page of Cornetto, where a consumer posted how his kid loved chocolate Cornetto, and eats everytime they go to a park or beach in Mumbai, i.e. almost every Sunday.

“I AM POSITIONED IN EVERYONE’S MIND!” – CORNETTO

Cornetto over the years, have positioned itself in every kid’s mind, whether he is in school or college. Whether you talk about couples or about the single friends, they all love Cornetto.

Why? They are cheap, easily available, it is like treating one’s self everytime they meet each other.

Cornetto is one of the first ice creams, which has been positioned as a snack item which can be consumed at any time or part of the day. Whereas, ice creams (a dessert) is usually eaten after a meal.

Finally, I would like to add ICE CREAMS has no age bar, they are liked and cherished by almost everyone, unless you are old or have cavities!

MARKETING COMMUNICATION - PROMOTIONS, AD AND MANY THINGS TOGETHER

THE WAY YOU COMMUNICATE THE VALUE TO A CUSTOMER CAN BUILD YOU

(CAN ALSO BREAK YOU)

Today where there is stiff bottleneck competition, jus developing a good product, pricing it attractively and making it accessible is not enough. The technological advancements has ensured that today doing these aren’t tough, everyone can imitate you and make something better. But what makes one different from its competitors is the method of communicating the product value to the customer.

Modern marketers concentrate on not just on element of marketing and promotions, but come up with plans with involve an extensive use of all the available elements of the marketing communication mix.

 Before they start working on the communication campaigns, marketers establish at what stage of communication process, the customers are in. They try to determine whether the consumer is totally unaware of the product, or have knowledge but not buying it.  They have shown interest but no sales happened. Also, they try to examine their behavior during purchase.

This response hierarchy model will help us understand better as to what stage comprises of what:

For every marketer it is very important to determine at which stage his consumers are at, and then he would plan that particular strategy suitable for that stage.

DEFINING THE MARKETING COMMUNICATION MIX

HOW DOES CORNETTO COMMUNICATE?

The marketers of  Cornetto usually use the following mediums to communicate the value to their customers:

1.    Advertising: Cornetto invests huge amounts on advertising campaigns through TV commercial and print media. The reason they take up TVC’s and newspapers, as their main medium of communication is mass reach. They have been running campaigns appealing to the emotional side of the consumer. With the competitors bombing into the market, Kwality Wall’s established Cornetto as the “connector of hearts”. Soon, TVC’s, print ads and hoarding were put up, with tag line – “Ho Jaye Dil Ka Connection”.

2.    Events and Experiences: Marketers of Cornetto often come up with creative ideas to provide a first hand experience with the company and also interact with their customers. They are known to sponsor music festivals or music nights at popular clubs in cities. They come up events, games and competitions in schools, colleges and shopping malls. Their main agenda is to bring people close to each other.

3.    Public Relations and Publicity: The marketers make sure the consumers feel connected to the company and thus make sure that right message has reached the consumer. Usually, PR team is responsible for the events and experience.  

4.    Interactive Marketing: With the rise of social media websites and internet, it is very easy for any consumer to reach the company and for any company to connect with the consumer. Cornetto today uses Facebook and Twitter to reach out their customers. They have dedicated pages, where the consumers can post their photos and experiences with their loved ones while having Cornetto. The team is quick to reply and comment on the posts, which makes consumers happy and appreciated.

But, Sometimes One Word can Spoil the Image of the Product:

Few years back, the marketers came up with this tagline " Pleasure Up" which looked like this –

                       

                                                 

Many people who saw the ad commented at first they mistook it for a condom ad. While they were trying to establish it as a family brand, this seemed to go to far for a consumer. Soon, this ad, was changed and old ad campaigns were resumed. 

The Recent AD Campaigns

The recent campaigns have been given a fresh look while keeping the basic frame and their value same. They signed in on Yami Gautam and SIddharth Malhotra, who are new young actors in Bollywood and quite popular. The fresh pair and their small fights to have ice cream bites, have a lot of hearts, be it kids, adults or men and women. They appreciated the small details - small places like (parks, beaches) where you would go out with your friends often has been payed utmost attention making it real and something at which they can look at and say, “I have been there, last Sunday I had ice cream there. Infact it was a Cornetto itself.”