Nike cuts ties to armstrong’s foundation
Footwear giant Nike has pulled the plug on its ties with former cyclist Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation after a nine-year relationship with the nonprofit that helps cancer survivors. The relationship had helped the foundation raise more than $100-million and made the charity’s yellow wristband an international symbol for cancer survivors. Nike had already dropped its personal sponsorship of Armstrong last October after US Anti-Doping Agency exposed the team doping program and portrayed Armstrong as its ringleader. And after years of denials, Armstrong admitted earlier this year he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France seven times. The foundation said changes in its corporate partnerships won’t affect the services it provides to cancer survivors. Livestrong still has some corporate sponsors, and it has started seeking others. The foundation has taken other steps to reinvent itself, including moving its “call-to-action” day – which was celebrated on the anniversary of Armstrong’s cancer diagnosis – to May 17, the day that its yellow wristband was introduced.
WPP and Twitter come together in a global strategic partnership
The world’s largest advertising company WPP and Twitter have announced a global strategic partnership that will greatly expand collaboration between the two organisations. WPP is looking to improve its data management and thus its campaigns; Twitter is looking for new revenue sources as it moves toward a possible initial public offering. The companies say the deal will integrate Twitter data into a number of WPP’s units, including GroupM, Kantar, and digital agencies such as Wunderman. The partnership will see the launch of new data products and services, the integration of Twitter data into key WPP media and analytics platforms, training for staff in the application of these new capabilities and a partnership approach to key clients and markets. Commenting on the deal Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, said: “We are delighted to announce this very wide-ranging strategic partnership and to ensure that Twitter data is a key ingredient in many of our disciplines. We look forward to leveraging the platform in a variety of ways for our clients around the world.”
APPLE’S ITUNE RADIO TO COMPETE WITH PANDORA
Apple has announced its own streaming music subscription service dubbed iTunes Radio, which will offer consumers a Pandora-like personalized streaming experience and comes with a free, ad-supported tier as well as a premium offering for ad-free streaming for anyone subscribing to iTunes Match, which costs $25 per year. iTunes Radio will be part of iOS 7 and will also be available through iTunes desktop apps on Mac OS and Windows, as well as on Apple TV. Although streaming music services have been around for a long time, Apple appeared content to remain the dominant player in music downloads, offering only only an extremely basic “Radio” section of the iTunes app for online radio stations. However, user habits are shifting away from iTunes toward streaming services, market statistics reveal, and Apple clearly decided it need to compete in the space.
SALESFORCE’S $2.5 BN BUY
Salesforce.com, the largest maker of customer-management software, has agreed to buy ExactTarget, an Indianapolis-based company that specializes in cross-channel, digital-marketing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions, for about $2.5 billion, making its biggest acquisition ever to expand in online marketing. The Salesforce offer shows its Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff’s willingness to open the company’s coffers to add services that help businesses promote their wares on the Internet. Benioff has spent at least $4 billion in five years on more than 40 deals, including ExactTarget as well as social-media marketing firms Buddy Media Inc. and Radian6 Technologies Inc. With investments in digital marketing currently growing in excess of 20 percent, according to Gartner, the move is intended to help Salesforce more tightly integrate marketing functions into its existing CRM offerings.
Big mac’s new menu a hit
McDonald’s global same-store sales rose a stronger-than-expected 2.6% in May as the world’s largest fast-food chain’s expanded menu helped attract customers. Same-store sales in the U.S. rose 2.4%, ahead of the analysts’ projected 2.1% increase. The company attributed the growth to the introduction of the new Egg White Delight sandwich, a wide range of chicken options and the ongoing appeal of everyday value. In Europe, same-store sales were up 2%, topping the analysts’ forecast for 1.2% growth, as summertime promotions featuring premium burgers and specialty menu options drove positive results in the U.K. and, to a lesser extent, Russia. “McDonald’s strategic initiatives and diligent focus on the customer generated global comparable sales growth in May amidst ongoing uncertainty in the macro environment,” said CEO Don Thompson.
“All our programs help improve clients’ business”
Girish khare speaks to 4Ps B&M about how grass roots’ services help in making a measurable contribution to an organisation’s objective
How does Grass Roots contribute to improving the business performance of its clients?
Grass Roots bases its corporate doctrine on the premise that any service provided must result in measurable contribution to an organisation’s objective. It is with this principle that we approach a prospect or plan and implement a program. It could be in the Employee, Customer or Channel partner space, but we seek to ensure that our programs deliver results each and every time. To start with, we firmly establish what the need is, design a program always interacting with the users and finally execute it keeping in mind benchmarked service level parameters. It is these parameters that eventually help in determining whether the program has made a difference and to what extent. For instance, for an Employee program where the issue is attrition, we’d design a program using historic data. We monitor ongoing decisions and tweak the program till we see a change.
Most of the firms these days are sales-driven rather than objective-driven. What solutions do you have for organizations that are sales-driven and not objective-driven? That is an absolute statement to make…in today’s fluid and volatile market environment; it is dangerous to make such absolute pronouncements, worse still build a plan based on one; organisations need to be prepared to face an ever changing environment…all the time. For instance, we have a host of ideas and products that can be used in sales promotions…but we even design and implement long-term programs that help increase keep customer footfall, engage channel partners to sell more…and motivate employees to walk that extra mile….
What kind of role does effective communication play in enhancing the performance or productivity of any organization?
Almost no job can be undertaken without a clear communication brief. Employees will perform well especially when they receive feedback on issues regularly and are given adequate encouragement. Loyal customers need to be communicated to again regularly… channel partners need to be communicated to, this keeps them in the loop and makes them feel part of the organisation. Without articulate and constant communication of its plans, products offers, etc, no organisation can hope to get their employees, channel partners or customers to move ahead in their relationship with the company.
Why should one pick Grass Roots for its services over its competitors? How is Grass Roots different from the rest of the clutter?
There are several reasons people opt to employ us over other service providers; reliable program delivery, Grass Roots’ globally proven IT backbone upon which all programs are configured, excellent range of products and services that fit most corporates’ process needs, besides many other reasons. There is a handful of indigenous or global service providers capable of offering the Grass Roots’ range of services.
Since entering India, what kind of growth has Grass Roots achieved?
Grass Roots was established in 1980 in the UK. However in India it started out in 2008 with a series of surveys and studies that helped develop greater insight into the buying psyche of the Indian Diaspora. Since then we have designed and developed a host of programs for Employees, Customers and Channel partners of a variety of Indian firms and MNCs across the country – from one of the largest computer hardware companies, the largest public sector bank, to cement, FMCG, retail organisations, etc. We have seen double digit growth year on year, ever since. In the next three years I foresee a four-fold growth in business opportunities.
Since UK and India are two completely different markets, what major challenges do you see in India that don’t exist in the UK?
The UK market is completely different to India’s. We are still experimenting with various options in the loyalty space here. Indian Managers are a confident community with strong opinions. None of them will jump into anything without understanding the space adequately. This means a lot more work and opportunities for service providers in our space.
Ebay and snapdeal join hands
US-based online marketplace firm eBay has invested an undisclosed sum in e-commerce firm Snapdeal and has entered into a commercial partnership with the company. While eBay has not revealed the amount of investment, market sources said the deal size may be $30-50 million, which also includes investments by a Japanese firm. “The partnership seeks to drive more consumer demand for eBay and Snapdeal merchants along with wider selection for India consumers in a rapidly growing market,” eBay said in a statement. Founded in 1995, eBay is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces with over 100 million active users. Launched in February 2010, Snapdeal employs over 1,500 people and delivers to more than 5,000 cities and towns in India. According to recent research from the Internet & Mobile Association of India, the Indian e-commerce market is projected to grow from approximately $1.2 billion in 2012 to $1.8 billion in 2013. Commenting on the partnership Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder & CEO, Snapdeal said, “We are excited about partnering with eBay and working closely with the eBay India Leadership team to grow the local market for the benefit of Indian consumers and merchants.”
Supersonicads comes to India
SupersonicAds, a global leader in advertising monetisation for social entertainment applications on web and mobile, is foraying into India in partnership with PlatformPlay Media Ventures, a monetization partner for online companies in India. SupersonicAds offers consumers the opportunity to opt-in and earn virtual currencies or digital content by completing targeted offers, watching video ads and engaging with leading brands. It also helps publishers achieve the industry’s highest eCPMs via reward-based and video advertising monetisation. With the largest youth population worldwide where 60% is under 30 years, India is an extremely strategic market for SupersonicAds to enter. Over 50% of India’s Facebook users play social games, growing at 14% annually. Rammohan Sundaram, CMD, PlatformPlay says, “SupersonicAds are unique because of the environment they are in, which is social gaming. When incentivised to a consumer through credits, as it happens on Facebook which is an exclusive partner worldwide, it adds to the potency of the offering. A video advertisement in such an environment adds to the limited opportunity that currently exists in a marketplace such as India, which is why I am extremely gung-ho about our partnership.”
E-Tailing to Touch $76 Billion
The total size of the business of selling retail goods on the Internet, commonly known as e-tailing, is set to touch $76 billion mark by 2021 in the country, according to a study by Technopak. E-tailing, which is around 6% of the total e- commerce, is estimated to be around $0.6 billion in 2012, said the study ‘E-tailing in India Unlocking the Potential’. The total e-commerce business in India, including other products and services such as travel and financial services, is estimated to be $10 billion in 2012, it said. It said in India, the retail market at present is primarily served by traditional brick and mortar stores which make up 93% of the total market. Corporatised brick and mortar retail caters to nearly 7%, while e-tailing’s share is 0.1%. The study observed that the brick and mortar formats would undergo a few changes and the share of e-tailing in the total organised retail pie to grow from 0.1% at present to 5.3% by 2021. The report also found that the e-tailing sector can create jobs and provide employment to 1.45 million people by 2021. “The key reason for this disruptive growth lies in the fact that the market-enabling conditions and ecosystem creation for e-tailing will outpace the same for corporatised brick & mortar retail,” Technopak said.
