Every single business, whether big or small, needs to have a suitable marketing strategy in place as it offers a huge opportunity for marketers to increase their brand awareness and expand their customer base. Promotional and marketing strategies are also important for guiding any business into the development of financial goals. However, for a truly effective marketing strategy, one needs to understand and evaluate its business and its target audience very carefully. Only after that a plan of action comes into the picture. Generally, Return-on-Investment (RoI) is accepted as the key factor by which companies measure their marketing efforts.
It is observed that the year 2013 was a year in which consumers increasingly adopted new technology, search and review tools and social media channels to help drive consumers their path to purchase. India has a significant student population who has a strong understanding and expectation of how technology can enhance their life. With the start of the new academic year, the Back-to-School/ College programmes have also kicked off. The education vertical has been one of the key areas of focus for different companies. Ketan Patel, Director, Computing Category, PPS, HP India, opines, “We believe that the way people are consuming IT is undergoing a massive change and with our ‘Back to School’ campaign we want to empower the new generation of students by making their learning easier, enjoyable and more affordable. HP is now offering the new and advanced Pavilion Premium notebook series designed to fit in with the unique and hectic lifestyle of students. Complete with Beats Audio and HP Connected Music, students can listen to their favourite songs and take advantage of educational features they can enjoy in classrooms like never before.”
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Smart brands have already started incorporating new social elements into their marketing strategy and are looking for ways to truly connect and garner engagement from the influential youth market as this kind of campaigns offer a huge opportunity for marketers to increase brand awareness and expand their customer base. Sandeep Aurora, Director, Marketing and Market Development, Intel South Asia, says, “Our focus this year would be to get the student community to realize why this pre-academic season is the best time to buy a personal computing device for themselves. Today, consumers have the option of choosing between a tablet, 2-in-1, a regular laptop, an Ultrabook or regular desktops and All-in-One PCs. With technology innovation progressing by leaps and bounds, the Intel processor-based devices currently available in the market provide better performance and a longer battery life than the previous-generation devices. Thus, now is the best time for students and college-goers across the country to buy personal computing devices and gain the advantage in their pursuits."
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As a part of the Intel “Time for New” campaign which encourages consumers across segments to buy a PC now, the company is targeting the student community especially as they get ready to go back to school. The campaign which is present across multiple media is targeting its young consumers, this season. Besides this, Intel has a strong retail programme that includes activation programmes, retail salesperson training and advocacy programmes as well as retail merchandising. These initiatives are designed to drive preference and relevance of Intel processor-based devices for consumers as well as help make their purchase decision easier. Sandeep Aurora further adds, “We have seen tremendous success in several demand generation campaigns and consumer campaigns in the past. In fact, during the course of last year, we reached out to over 20 million households in India through a focussed 10-state campaign. Through our flagship programme, ‘My Discoveries’, we also reached out to over 5 million youth in 2013. The My Discoveries programme has also won several industry accolades and awards.”
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HP is geared to deliver solutions that address some of the bigger social challenges in the country. This campaign is an extension of their existing focus on the student community. HP is not only providing a Notebook but also other attractive offers bundled with it which makes “Back to College” an exciting offer. The HP Pavilion Series Notebooks come with a 90-day free subscription to HP Videobook, a tool that creates textbooks across subjects, in association with the education boards and schools, selecting key subject topics that can be explored further through relevant videos. Presence in the regional media plays a critical role in reaching out to its customers in “C”, “D” and “E” class cities of India. It not only helps build any company’s reach in these markets but also enables a company to engage with customers in their own language. For the Back to College campaign, HP has an integrated marketing campaign with Deepika Padukone as its brand ambassador, which caters specifically to college-going students.
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To engage with school and college students across the country, Acer had launched the “Campus Craze campaign” on its Facebook page. Recently concluded, the campaign required contestants to partake in five activities, viz. school selfie, school yaadein, craziest campus moments bitstripped, college grand masti, and most freaky gang. The players participating in all the five were eligible to enter the final round of activity called Campus Ke Rockstar, where one lucky winner won an Aspire V5 notebook. Acer received phenomenal feedback, with participation from more than a 1,000 number of students. Saji Kumar, Director – Product Management, Acer India, says that targeted towards school/ college students across the country, their “Back to School” campaign has received tremendous response. He is confident of leveraging the opportunity and gaining further momentum in the coming weeks. For this, Acer has also trained and supported its partners to address customer queries effectively and offer more to their customers by identifying and recommending appropriate products from Acer's wide array of offerings.
Keeping in mind the time when holidays are going to over, Lenovo brings innovative form- factors closer to college students with the launch of Flex 2, a budget-friendly 14” two-in-one laptop with a touchscreen that flips 300 degrees from laptop to stand mode. The perfect style statement for college goers the new Flex 2 promises to transform how students create and consume content on a PC, owing to its user-
friendly features and sensible design. Shailendra Katyal, Director, HSB (Home and Small Business), Lenovo India, says, “Our devices are becoming smarter and sleeker to help today’s youth cope with the performance pressure, while remaining cool and stylish. The Flex 2 enables students to work hard and play hard, and at the same time shine in a crowd. Its design and performance is geared towards providing the user an edge over the others, to help make the most of one’s college years.”
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As far as Dell is concerned, in time for the Back to School season, Dell has introduced its new Inspiron 3000 Series laptops, its Inspiron 20 3000 Series and 23 5000 Series All-in-One (AIO) desktops. P. Krishnakumar, Executive Director & General Manager, Consumer & Small Business, Dell India, adds, “Our endeavour remains to deliver the maximum potential that technology can possess in making both personal and educational pursuits more productive as well as engaging. The new Inspiron laptops and AIO desktops package all the right features into compact devices which are stylish, yet powerful to use thereby not compromising on quality of the work performed.” Combined with special offers for back to school and college students in Dell’s “Learning meets doing” themed campaign, students and parents alike will find that the new Inspiron devices are a smart investment which brings a wholesome computing experience for the whole family.
Dell is also offering vouchers from Bata on the purchase of either of the products and is also offering warranty extensions on AIOs, which are currently in the market.
The bottom line…
The bottom line says that these marketing campaigns are about raising the contour of brands and encouraging customers to buy a company’s products or services. However, one of the critical elements of getting people to buy is trust. Whether any particular product represents quality and luxury, or comfort and value, it is the brand name that encourages buyers to buy particular devices. So, these kinds of marketing campaigns should be designed by keeping some vital points in mind like building a brand image, increasing sales of a product already on the market, or even reducing the impact of negative news.
