1. Volume 1, Issue 6
MAGMA
MAGazine of MArketing
A SIMSREE Marketing Forum inititative
Cover story Special Coverage
CROWDSOURCING
Green Marketing
Green Energy
Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education

2. CROWDSOURCING
By Chandan Patekar, SIMSREE 2011-13 ( Marketing )
The marvels of technology and the shrinking of distances have unleashed the power of crowdsourcing.
Crowdsourcing is a term that was coined back in 2006 by writer Jeff Howe for a Wired magazine article.
‘Crowdsourcing is the act of sending out tasks that are normally performed by an individual to a group
of people.’ The idea is that more minds and hands are better than one and that collaboration creates
innovation. It dramatically reduces costs, cycle time and unleashes creativity.
“Crowdsourcing has virtually overnight generated huge buzz, enthusi-
asm, and fear. It's the application of the open-source idea to any field
outside of software, taking a function performed by people in an or-
ganization, such as reporting done by journalist, research and product
development by scientists, or design of a T-shirt, for example, and in
effect outsourcing it through an open-air broadcast on the Internet.
Crowdsourcing has already had a huge impact on large corporations
such as Proctor & Gamble.”
Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of
Business by Jeff Howe.
Crowdsourcing is profoundly impacting nations. We have seen
how collaboration using social media, mobile technologies and
the internet converted sparks of muted dissent into revolt in Ar-
ab countries called The Arab Springs. Iceland has decided to
change the original constitution based on suggestions posted by
its 320,000 citizens via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. By the
same token, the Lokpal Bill was caught in the web of high deci-
bels, political overtones, hunger strikes and media frenzy. How
about using a crowdsourcing approach to the issue? The aam
admi—the real citizens- and not just their self-appointed spokes-
persons could participate in shaping the law through
crowdsourcing? The “crowd” could include constitutional ex-
perts, students of law and ordinary citizens who have a smart
idea. Of course the parliament will pass the bill into legislation.

3. How is this altering the business landscape? Business, whether global or local, large or small can no longer
ignore the potential or power of crowdsourcing. The objective of collaboration can be to co-create a prod-
uct or service with designers, customers and marketing people working together using an easily accessi-
ble, open platform. In essence, crowdsourcing will tap into a world of ideas and creations. You
“outsource” to a diverse crowd. You may not even know who may be part of this “crowd” and you may
not have any connection or prior relationship with some of the key participants. Using crowdsourcing
brings some genuine advantages to companies and individuals looking to complete defined tasks with
affordable price. The main attraction so far has been its fairly lower price, compared to the price for hiring
a dedicated professional. Also the best thing with the low price is the high number of people who are
ready to work for you anytime.
Not long ago, a blog post on the Harvard Business Review (HBR) website challenged the readers across
the globe to design a house that can be con-
structed for less than $300. With partners
Jovoto, a crowd-sourcing forum for spon-
sored design competitions, and US$25,000
prize money underwritten by the interna-
tional industrial firm Ingersoll Rand, the blog
post resulted in a challenge to bring afforda-
ble housing to the world's poor. The global
award was won by an Indian company:
Mahindra Partners. It started with brain-
storming sessions amongst a diverse group
ranging from structural experts, clean-tech
professionals and technologists. It culminat-
ed into investment of personal time and
effort towards designing a low-skill and low-cost solution. The design that finally emerged as a winner in-
corporates materials which are abundantly available in local markets and utilizes low-technology inputs
and simple design that can be built easily at low-cost.
“In this country we need both economical innovation and crowdsourcing. When resources
are scarce, creativity must be both boundless and borderless.”

4. Let us take a look at an Indian case of crowdsourcing. Three Goan entrepreneurs have started a
crowdsourcing application called Foodlets ( http://foodlets.in/ ) . Foodlets posts and shares pictures of
food from restaurant menus. Foodlets is an exciting new way for people to discover good food and con-
nect with foodies. It is based on the core concepts of content co-creation and sharing. People can create
foodlets and share with friends, they can affirm the food they have eaten and loved, and tell their experi-
ences about a particular dish. Alternatively restaurant owners can create visual menus and engage with
their patrons Tourists can now see more than a 1000 dishes from some of the best restaurants in Goa be-
fore planning their next holiday. These include local specialties such as Chicken Cafreal, Squid Calamari,
Bebinca, Xacuti, Sorpotel and Pork Vindaloo.
Foodlets’ basic service is free of cost – restaurants can create their own profile pages and foodlets of the
dishes they serve. They also provide a premium paid service, where they create the restaurant profile
page, assign a professional photographer to take pictures of the food and create foodlets with all details.
Additionally, the restaurant and its food are promoted on Facebook and Twitter because that’s where the
people are.
As with all things, there are disadvantages, and interestingly the main disadvantage mirrors the main ad-
vantage: cheap labor results less credible product, compared to professionals. You pay professionals for
their expertise, experience and dedicated spirit, but you buy labor for completing simple tasks. Any task
considered above simple is risky for crowdsourcing. With the crowdsourcing also comes the issue of man-
agement. In most cases you have to manage a large scale of workers, which pretty much waste more of
your time for management instead of solution. Besides, it’s difficult for collaboration between crowd
members as they compete with each other in nature. Worst of all, there’s no contract in most
crowdsourcing cases. Workers can run anytime they want, and your design might be reused by anyone.
But the power and potential of crowdsourcing is too large for companies to ignore. Therefore many com-
panies are looking towards contractual agreements, limited liability agreements, NDAs, modular
crowdsourcing and other techniques to resolve many of these issues. Moreover it is never a good idea to
crowd source your core business process, only initial seeding and data/insight gathering stages.
END

5. NEWS
iPhone 5
On September 12, Apple CEO Tim Cook, launched
the iPhone 5, touted as the thinnest and lightest
iPhone ever. It features a completely redesigned 4-
inch display, a faster A6 processor and a 8 megapix-
el iSight camera. Philip Schiller, senior VP of world-
wide marketing said that “iPhone 5 is the most
beautiful consumer device we have ever created”
http://www.apple.com/iPhone
FDI allowed in Retail, Aviation
In what is being touted as the boldest reforms yet in
prime minister Manmohan Singh’s government, on
Friday, 14th September, the cabinet has thrown
open the gates for foreign chains to enter the Indian
supermarket sector. By allowing 51% FDI in multi-
brand retail, this move allows global giants like
WalMart to setup shop in India and sell directly to
consumers for the first time. The cabinet has also
allowed 49% FDI in the aviation industry. These
moves will undoubtedly help the cash-deprived air-
line carriers.

6. Green Marketing
By Pranav Koli
SIMSREE 2011-13, Marketing
Member of Marketing Forum
The American Marketing Association defines green marketing as “the marketing of products
that are presumed environmentally safe”. It includes a broad range of activities, including
product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modi-
fying advertising.
However, this definition does not do the term justice. Green marketing ( or Environmental
Marketing or Ecological Marketing as it is also called ) does not just include the marketing of
green products, but also suiting your marketing methodologies and strategies so that they
themselves are more environment friendly.
Let us attempt to understand this with the help of our tried and tested : 7 P’s of marketing
Product
It all begins with the product. First of all you have to ensure that
your product is environment friendly.
You have to pay special attention to things like manufacturing pro-
cesses, packaging, waste management, sources of energy and others
to achieve this.
Some of the major considerations are :
 What is the impact of production, sourcing of materials and
packaging on the environment?
 Can minimum levels of packaging and environment friendly
packaging be achieved without compromising product quality
or appeal?
 Are your suppliers at least as environmentally friendly as you?

7. Price
Employing green manufacturing techniques might lead to increases or
decreases in the cost of production. In many cases the initial high in-
vestments will be off set in the longer run by lower fuel bills through
energy efficiency measures or an increase in sales caused by a positive
product image. An organization might be able to pass the increase in
production costs to its customers, but this would depend on various
factors such as the level of increase, type of consumer, competitor
prices and the strength of the economy.
Place
Organizations need to carefully plan their distribution centers,
distribution timings, distribution strategies to ensure that they
have minimum impact on the environment.
The fastest mode of transportation might be damaging to the environment ( e.g. AirPlanes ), a
environmentally friendly mode of transportation might not be fast enough to meet your needs
( e.g. Canals ), a method of distribution that combines speed with “environmentally friendli-
ness” may increase distribution costs ( e.g. Electric Vehicles ). You have to ensure that you
strike a proper balance between the three
People
Your employees are the face of your organization. They
must not behave in a manner which would conflict with
your organization’s image as a green company. You should
encourage your employees to use environmentally friendly
methods of transportations while commuting to their offic-
es like mass transit systems, hybrid vehicles, carpooling
etc. For example. Google offers incentives to its employees
who opt-in to buy hybrid vehicles. One other example is
the increasing use of teleconferencing to replace frequent
travel.

8. Process
Processes are referred to the systems that enable
an organization to effectively deliver its goods and
services. They refer to the activities that your or-
ganization performs which are not the core activi-
ties of your company. It is very important to incor-
porate environmentally friendly processes in the
day-to-day activities of your organization to con-
vey to world that you take the environment seri-
ously. Croma, the electronics retail chain by TATA
has recently started allowing customers to opt-in
for an eReceipt. IRCTC has allowed customers to
carry digital copies of their reservation receipts.
Physical Evidence
Much of what your organization does to incor-
porate green practices is back-end oriented,
many times it is intangible. Therefore it be-
comes very important to let your customer
know the steps you have taken to ensure the
future of the planet. Many a times, this is as
simple as letting your customer know why cer-
tain things are done the way they are done. E.g.
To preserve water many hotels wash towels,
bed sheets, etc, only when you explicitly ask
them to do so. Some customers might believe
that this has been done by the hotel only to
save some money. In this case it becomes im-
portant to convey the thinking the behind your
actions to your clients. This is done by placing a
green card in hotel rooms ( as shown alongside ) which conveys this to the customers.

9. Promotion
Now that you have ensured that your product and your mar-
keting is environmentally friendly, it is very important to convey
that to your customers. Some of the above pictures / logos are
an internationally and instantly recognized signs of a green
product. Incorporating these on your product packaging and on
your communication is an instant signal to your audience that
your product is environment friendly.
At the same time, its is also very important to ensure that your
promotion strategy itself is environment friendly. Example :
 If you cannot completely avoid using pamphlets to promote your products, you can at-
least ensure that they are printed on recycled paper
 Employ environmental friendly methods when filming your advertisement films
 Avoid use of paper as much as possible, don't ask users to fill in unnecessary forms, try
and utilize the internet as a medium as much as possible
 If you are using outdoor mobile advertisements, ensure that the vehicles you use are en-
vironment friendly
 Make extensive use of mobile advertising, online advertising, social media marketing and
other such means of marketing which would reduce the impact on the environment as
compared to using newspapers, television ad spots, etc;

10. Roadblocks
High Initial Costs
The initial investment in going green is quite high. Not just in terms
of money being invested, but in terms of huge R&D involved in fig-
uring out newer, better and environment friendly methods of man-
ufacturing, packaging, etc; a huge change in the operating of the company itself , changing of
the company’s corporate structure, time lag required to get your company onto the green
track.
Going green as a CSR initiative
Many companies undertake green marketing strategies as part of their CSR activities. However,
every company should realize that going green is not just a CSR activity but something that
should be incorporated in the corporate structure of the company itself.
Customers not ready
In a recent study published by MeidaPost, much of the American customers think that green
marketing is nothing more than a marketing ploy. This mindset has be changed with effective
communication.
Green Washing
Green washing is a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to
promote the perception that an organization's aims and policies are environmentally friendly,
when they might not really be so. Whether it is to increase profits or gain political support,
greenwashing may be used to manipulate popular opinion to support otherwise questionable
aims. ( more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing )
The Road Ahead
Why should a company go green ? Well, because it’s the right thing to do. And in the long
term, you might not really have any other option. Costs of traditional fuels is skyrocketing day-
by-day. The rate at which the environment is deteriorating is alarming, this is causing even the
most arrogant governments to take notice. And many countries are passing laws which are in-
centivizing or even forcing companies to adapt green practices in their business. Eventually
every company will be required to conduct business in an environmentally responsible way.
So why not do the right thing now instead of waiting? Why not keep up with the competition—
maybe even beat them to the punch—by becoming the company that owns green in your cate-
gory?
And if you think the economy will keep customers from paying more for an environmentally
responsible product or service, think again. A recent survey has shown that 82% of consumers
are still purchasing green products during the recession.
END

11. Green Energy
By Prathmesh Limaye
SIMSREE 2011-13, Finance
As you try to incorporate more and more environment friendly techniques in the manufacture
of your product and in your marketing strategies, your initial costs shoot up drastically. The
major off-set for this steep rise in the long term is the savings you do by moving away from
conventional fuel and energy sources. Let us take a look at how employing various green ener-
gy techniques, specifically solar electricity panels can help you achieve just that.
Mumbai, India’s commercial capital runs on the electrical power from utility companies such as
Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Corporation Limited (MSEDCL), Reliance and Tata
Power. The office spaces that are categorized as commercial consumers attract commercial
power tariff at a rate much higher than the industrial or residential rates.
The commercial rates have a two part tariff structure. One component based on the power de-
mand, attracts a fixed charge. The second the
variable component, is more expensive and de-
pends on the energy consumption of the prem-
ises, specially during daytime.
Commercial consumers find that their energy
bills’ variable component becomes high particu-
larly during summer months and around mid-
day on account of more usage air conditioning
when a higher outside temperature requires
more power for maintaining a comfortable
temperature inside the building. Some con-
sumers say that air conditioning system accounts for as much as 75% of their total consump-
tion during summer months.

12. In 2001, the variable charge was around Rs.3.31 per unit (KWh). In 2012, it is around Rs.11.75
per unit (KWh). It has seen many increases in the last few years rising by more than 250% be-
tween these periods (See Graph). The increases were due to the levying of Electricity duty
(from 6% to 17 %,), introduction of a tax on sale (at a rate of Rs 0.08 per unit) and introduction
of fuel surcharge. Some utility companies even ask for a reliability charge on electricity to con-
sumers. If the past rate increase is any indication of the future expenses for using electricity, it
is time commercial consumers think about consuming electricity smartly.
Fortunately, to counter the variable cost challenge, they have a choice. They can now install a
grid interactive solar photovoltaic (SPV) system on their properties’ roof tops. These days a 1
KWp SPV system comes for about Rs.1.5L. The advantage of using this system is that the power
generated is consumed immediately without the need of having to storing it in a bank of
batteries. The buildings run on a duel power system permitting parallel consumption of power
from the utility companies’ when the solar power falls short or is not generated.
The Government of India provides an accelerated depreciation on such installations in addition
to a subsidy. A good solar photovoltaic system could generate about 5 units (KWh) per day
from a 1 KWp system giving some relief to commercial consumers from the costly grid power.
It is time corporate houses think about installing a roof top SPV system and going for the green
energy. Those with clear sunshine, roof top area and capacity to spare some capital will not
only reduce their power bill but also enhance their public image by generating solar power a
green renewable source of energy.
Many companies are having their warehouses with air conditioning system in Maharashtra es-
pecially the pharmaceutical companies and paying commercial tariff and the above case is also
applicable to them and they can also avail the benefit of nature by going solar photovoltaic en-
ergy generation system on the roof top of the warehouses.
END

13. Maggi
2 Minute Mein Khushiyaa
Maggi , which created the noodles category in India has now none other than Amitabh Bachchan as its
brand ambassador. The brand is being endorsed by a celebrity for the first time in its history. And Big B
is an intriguing choice for a brand which is most patronized by young children.
Maggi holds a commanding position in the Noodles Segment with over 60% market share. Off late, the
brand is facing competition from brands like Horlicks, TopRamen Sunfeast Yippie etc. And further the
brand is feeling a disconnect with the new generation customers who now have more choices for indul-
gence other than noodles. Maggi now faces not only brand competition but also industry competition
from similar products like Pizzas. Even fast food joints are taking away consumers from the brand. At
this point , the brand needs to stay relevant to the consumers since consumers have a wider choice of
indulgence.
Maggi's choice of Big B as the brand ambassador is little puzzling. Amitabh Bachchan as a celebrity com-
mands immense respect among the audiences. He is an amazing story teller and has unmatched screen
presence and Maggi wants to build more authenticity through his endorsement. The new campaign fea-
turing Big B is an extension of the highly successful Me and Meri Maggi theme where the brand tried to
crowdsource stories of customer experi-
ence with Maggi.
The campaign brought back many seg-
ments of consumers who moved away
from the brand since they have grown up.
The brand again brought back focus on
itself and its heritage and the USP of 2
minutes. The campaign in a way was the
counter strike against the competitor's
focus on health and nutrition.
Big B was introduced as a story teller who
narrates the various stories supplied by the consumers through the various touchpoints created by the
brand. The brand is running a campaign featuring this stories.
View the complete advertisement at :
http://youtu.be/ww8o0aCNDR0

14. Volume 1, Issue 6
The ads focus on the ease of cooking ( convenience) and the happiness thereby attempting to take the
consumer's focus away from the health platform adopted by Horlicks, Sunfeast Yippie etc. Sunfeast has
roped in Saina Nehwal as its endorser.
The brand has a new slogan " 2 minute mein Khushiyan " . It is interesting to note that the brand has
brought back the 2 minutes proposition after a long time.
Although Amitabh Bachchan is a master story teller, I find some how a disconnect between the brand
and the celebrity. The thought is that " he is not the right person to endorse the brand". This is despite
the fact that he commands respect from across age groups.
Having said that the presence of the powerful celebrity along with the smart collection of real life sto-
ries of brand consumption adds a big boost to this brand. The brand exactly needs such a boost at this
point of its life cycle. The problem with such heritage brand is that over the period of time, the commu-
nication becomes boring. Booster shots like these will again revive the energy levels for the brand to
move and face competition head on.
END
Original Article by Harish B, posted on Marketing Practice blog at
http://marketingpractice.blogspot.in/2012/09/brand-update-maggis-2-minute-mein.html
Article recommended by :
Devans Patwaa
SIMSREE 2011-13, Marketing
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