Part 5 of my e-book on social media marketing

Part 5 of my e-book on social media marketing

Product Launch:

I have made several assumptions while making this plan, its markets being obviously one of them.

Once the product is ready to be shipped, it is sent to all the BRIC nations, our neighbors, the U.S (as the U.S. is seen as an emerging market as far as milk is concerned), Russia, and Africa as well, where the poor are in great numbers and in dire need of help.

The Day of the Launch:

On the morning of the day of the launch, the nation is greeted with a “Namaskar India” (“Salaam Pakistan” /” Bangladesh” in their countries) on the front page.

All communications on Twitter obviously have its own account for each of the respective countries.

And with that the product rolls in.

NOTE: For the purpose of this exercise, as the focus is on the creative use of marketing with particular reference to social media, all other aspects of marketing - including guerrilla marketing - and sales have been excluded.

Ads for brand Nutramil:

I have envisioned separate ads for the urban and the rural populations of India.

The copy for the ad directed towards the rural poor:

Garib bachche paatein hai

Joh amir bachche pitein hai

Sehed bhi, shehed bhi

Kanji  tthukrao, Nutramil apnao

Na bhookha rahe, na  pyaasa

Yehi rahi hai hamaari aasha

Ab dur nahi hai woh kal

Jab garib ko hoga munasib Nutramil har pal

Nutramil – Mumkin hai

For the urban – a corporate ad:

[Pic of woman giving milk to a young boy. The picture zooms out and shows millions of such pictures making up the map of India or the pupil of the eye of a girl child grinning.]

Namaste India

Salaam India

Launch in Pakistan/Bangladesh:

Namaste Pakistan or Salaam Pakistan

With the aim to reach 1.7 billion Indians on the day of launch, an attempt has been made to think on the lines of the following:

1.       Every newspaper carrying the ad has a sachet of Nutramil attached to it

2.        Send out an ad in regional newspapers for local consumers on a Sunday

OR

3.       A national ad in leading newspapers to switch off their TV sets and switch on their phones at 7 a.m., for example

A teaser ad could possibly be:

Where will you be tomorrow at 7 a.m.?

4.       At 7 a.m., all the mobile users receive a personalised call from Nutramil telling them of the launch of the product. For example, “Vanakkam Chennai/Madurai etc., Nutramil announces the launch of...For more information sms to ____ or call us at:____....”

In the background can be heard the suprabhatam song.

Tune in tomorrow for some more exciting stuff...

Part 4 of my e-book on social media marketing

Part 4 of my e-book on social media marketing

Prologue: Operation Kamadhenu

Before the commencement of this plan, it is assumed ITC has evolved a way to make cows yield n litres of milk. This fact is kept in tight wraps from the general public:

A.      The research is done and the pilot project in a village successfully completed

Let’s imagine that ITC’s R&D department has proven that a buffalo yields n number of litres of milk a day. Let’s assume 10 liters of milk a day

B.      Other villages that have already been identified for the Kamadhenu project from different parts of India (and Nepal) follow the path as prescribed by the researchers

C.      Once the cows start yielding 10 liters of milk, the farmers, from all the happening regions of India and Nepal, claim that their buffaloes are, in fact, Kamadhenus. That a miracle has happened...

D.      A sales representative or a journalist arrives at the scene after they hear of Operation Kamadhenu

Operation Kamadhenu, in summary:                                                     Duration: One Week

For purposes of convenience, the marketing team is divided into four zones: east, west, north and south, and the experiments are implemented simultaneously across each zone in the country.

According to my proposal, the R&D department of ITC has devised such a plan that each cow yields around 10 liters of milk a day.  

This development is phenomenal. And once every farmer who takes care of his cattle in the way as suggested by the R&D department realizes that this is nothing short of a miracle, they tell the other dairy farmers of the miracle, of their own Kamadhenus. It is hoped that word spreads to more dairy farmers who join the movement much like the cooperative movement of Amul.

Operation Kamadhenu – the Event:

When the dairy farmer declares his cow to be a Kamadhenu, a journalist gets a whiff of the news and he arrives at the scene to watch the spectacle. He takes a picture of the event on his mobile and sends it to the press and media who then report the sensational news.

But before this, the Nutramil website already has a video recording of it. In fact, a more elaborate one has already been uploaded even in its channel on YouTube. It also has videos of farmers who speak of the marvel done by ITC. There are interviews with lead managers, a glimpse of the cleanliness in the surroundings, and hygiene of the dairy farm etc all are readily available on the website.

There is but just a mention of the fact that the owner of Nutramil is ITC.

This is also uploaded on the Nutramil channel of YouTube.

An opinion leader like Amitabh Bachchan could receive a link from the journalist or sales executive about the phenomena and he could RT it to his followers on Twitter thereby making the event hopefully a viral. It is assumed that the followers would in turn share the video with their friends in other social media websites such as Facebook etc., and word would spread.

Barely have the people of that state digested this interesting piece of information when another dairy farmer declares his cow to be a Kamadhenu from another zone and then there is a third and even a fourth, etc. The whole country is agog with the news. It becomes the talk of the town. Reports allege of sightings even in Nepal where the cow is revered much like it is in India – and all this in a day’s work.  A whole week-long debate starts in all news channels, some with reverence, while others rubbish it as a ploy by some demented religious fanatic hell bent on converting the minorities.

Possibly, a rich and educated farmer could be interviewed by a channel and he tells the channel and its viewers that the R&D department of ITC was responsible for the sudden increase in milk production and he could give the details - thereby smoothly closing the chapter on supernatural elements and highlighting the good ITC has been doing behind the scenes.

At no point does ITC on its own agree with or veto the idea. All the credit comes from the farmers themselves.

There could be another few episodes on TV featuring the humble landless poor farmer now converted into a dairy farmer, doing pretty well and looking a little prosperous ending the episode on the note that he is about to buy another buffalo so that his wife and daughter can run the business on their own., leaving him free to try his hand at some other profession. 

This episode could be relayed on YouTube. It is hoped that this would ensure that the word spread swiftly all across the country and the globe.

The event can be announced on the company’s Twitter page with a link to its own YouTube channel.  In fact, all the videos, the electronic media interviews etc should find its secure place in the brand’s own channel on YouTube. 

The week could perhaps end with a spokesman of ITC speaking about the project and the company’s concern for the marginalized farmers, thus squashing all the rumors and putting the wild stories to rest.

For more of the same, tune in tomorrow...

 

Part 3 of my e-book on social media marketing

Part 3 of my e-book on social media marketing

MANDATE: EXECUTING THE CREATIVE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PLAN OF NUTRAMIL

FOR THE YEAR – 2013-2014

The brand vision: 

·         To be the #1 producer of dairy milk even possibly outsmarting Amul as the world’s largest cooperative dairy milk producer in the world

·         To ensure a healthy and nutritious way of life for all

·         To ensure that the brand plays a very important part in the daily consumption habits of the consumers (I refer to the Indian food habit of consuming yoghurt and ghee in small quantities on a daily basis.)

Target consumer base:

There are different products depending on the age group of the consumer.

1.       0-1 - Is for those women who cannot breast feed. Available in boxes of 10 sachets.

The milk powder is made available in singles too for very poor women convalescing in govt hospitals.

Ads directed towards this group highlight the tender and caring nature of a mother towards her infant, much like Johnson and Johnson.

2.       1-3 - Nutramil becomes the preferred choice of mothers, and the drink doctors would vouch for.

This paper deals with the 1-3 year old group of consumers

Aim for fiscal year 2013-2014:

 The aim of the brand is:

·         To become the single largest producer of dairy milk in India with dairy farmers exceeding 5.33 lakh farmers. (That’s the approximate estimate of dairy farmers of Amul.)

·         To set a target of at least 20 million litres of milk per day per state

·         To achieve a target of at least Rs 10,000 crores in the year 2013-2014

·         With a market-share of 60 percent in India (like DANONE in France)

·         And 12 percent in each country in which it is proposed to have a presence in (like DANONE in the different marketplaces overseas).

In short, follow the Amul story but catch up with DANONE. 

The aim would then be, to be a DANONE of France, in India

Ambition: to acquire a 60% market-share in Asia

To be second to none

Vision for the consumer:

A.       To touch the lives of 1.7 billion Indian hearts with a brand as powerful as milk powder in a world where even a pot of water is fetched some 20 miles away from home

B.      To try to make drinking milk a necessary and important supplement in a poor man’s staple diet of kanji before he leaves for work

C.      To make drinking milk from powdered milk sachets as important for the poor as drinking fresh juice is for the aspiring middle class

For the upper class:

A.      The ads say, “But of course, Nutramil” to any question regarding the preferred choice of milk brands

B.      It offers health bhi (sugar free) and taste bhi (In other words, healthy, and tasty too)

C.      It is packaged and designed in colours and tone that would appeal to the upper class

 For more, be there tomorrow...!

Part 2 of my e-book on social media marketing

Part 2 of my e-book on social media marketing

Careers in Social Media Marketing:

Social media jobs are hot these days and much of them are riddled with complexities.

The job descriptions are vague and know not what is to be expected when an “expert” begins his career with the company. As for the “expert”? His expertise does not extend beyond a “like”, “comment” and “share”.

They claim that they know their jobs because they are familiar with the territory.

 Only, are they? Are they familiar with customer relations or PR activities or how to put out corporate fires, the likes of Air Canada? Can corporate HR put the responsibility of such humongous proportions on shoulders of these babes lost in the woods, whose proficiency is determined by their propensity to “like”, “comment” and “share”?

It is this worrying thought that got me down to write out a campaign for the seasoned professional and/or the newbie, taking them through the process from one progressive week to another.

This campaign has been written for a fictitious soon-to-be-launched milk product brand, which details out week-long activities for the duration of a year. This campaign, however, leaves the daily workings to the imagination of the supervisor. 

 Further, I have tried to take you through a year’s worth of creative social media marketing plan.

I say “creative” because this book has a treasure-trove of sizzling creative ideas to market a fictitious brand of the not-so-fictitious company, ITC.

The fictitious brand, Nutramil:

Having read somewhere that ITC was embarking on a dairy products venture, I thought of a fictitious product that they could come out with: a dairy milk powder venture was what I had in mind. I gave it a fictitious name, tentatively calling it Nutramil: “Nutra”, a shortened version of the word “nutritious” and “mil” standing for “milk”. Of course, it has a striking resemblance to the much more widely known brands of Danone, but that is a subject of another “copy them” story. (Just kidding!)

But don’t write me off just yet. I can assure you that the rest of the contents hasn’t been taken or even loosely borrowed from any other brand’s strategies.

 I invite you to an adventure; whether it veers to being a rollercoaster ride or a pedantic one is for you to decide.

The ride seems exhilarating. So let’s hop in, shall we?

Alright then, here we go...