Cutting the Line

With advanced technology & fierce competition the concept of Sales gradually became ineffective & insufficient. Long term relationship with the consumer gained much more importance to sustain business. And thus the concept of Marketing gained popularity in the buyer’s market. Slowly the concept of Marketing became the integral part of the strategy & an inevitable tool for revenue generation. Over time, many facets of the concept of marketing emerged, one of which is promotion. Over the period this facet of marketing has evolved along with the evolved consumer has seen many innovations to differentiate itself in communicating the differentiation of the brand.

ATL (Above the line), BTL (Below the line) & TTL (Through the line) are the products of evolution & innovation in the promotional field. Initially companies & advertising agencies were dependent only on advertising (ATL) for the promotion of brands but as the competition increased they felt the need to innovate with a view to reaching the consumers and luring them. Thus the concept of BTL came into existence.

ATL or “Above The Line” is a gamut of promotional activities done through traditional marketing channels which spread the brand awareness by reaching to the mass audience. ATL doesn’t have direct consumer involvement. The marketing channels generally used in ATL are TVCs, Radio, Print, OOH etc.

BTL or “Below The Line” is a range of promotional activities done through non-conventional media channels which intend to establish the targeted relationship with the target consumer through direct consumer involvement. BTL activities are mostly consumer and geography specific due to the advantage of the flexibility of communication. This comprises brand activation events, exhibitions, road shows etc.

TTL or “Through The Line” is the term used when both ATL & BTL are utilised simultaneously for a particular brand campaign. Please note that at a given time ATL &  BTL activities are carried out through the specified channels & though the message is same, the activities are different.

Now we are aware of the characteristics of both ATL & BTL. Let us now categorise the following examples into ATL or BTL.

In one of the Big Boss seasons, Chevrolet Cruze was one of the sponsors. Chevrolet had planned a particularly distinct activity with the participants of Big Boss to promote Cruze. As a part of the activity the participants were divided into two teams and were briefed about the features of the car. The task was to come up with the TV commercial for Chevrolet Cruze by using its features. And the whole competition was telecasted on Colors, the general entertainment channel.

Yes at first sight anyone will categorise it as ATL activity. But just think by another angle, isn’t it also a BTL activity? Those participants are the target consumers for Cruze, they are directly involved in the brand and that was the kind of brand activation event. What would you call this kind of promotion which shows the characteristics of both ATL & BTL?

I now propose to introduce a term that I have coined for it.

The term is called CTL (Cutting The Line).

The promotional activities which show the characteristics of both ATL & BTL are called as CTL. Here brands really cut the line of the media & the type of activity to reach to their target consumer.

The reasons behind this evolution in the 4^th ‘P’ i.e. promotion:

1.     The cluttered communication:

Increased competition in a particular category leads to the consumer confusion. To break this clutter brands feels the need of differentiation to stand out in the competition. CTL may come to the rescue of such brands.

2.     Fragmented media:

The no. of media options available to the marketers makes it difficult to maintain the consistency in the message. CTL integrates the media and gives the solution to this problem too.

3.    Evolved consumer:

The modern consumer is so evolved that he always makes an informed decision. CTL gives the way to involve him with the brand directly or through people who have shared a common problem.

4.    Decreasing attention span of the consumer:

This is the result of fragmented media & cluttered consumer. CTL gives an option of interesting & involving communication. The consumers either experience the product themselves or observe the company representatives using the product.

5.    The efficacy (in terms of money) expected from marketers :

Some of the cluttered industries expect a lot from their marketing departments in terms of optimum effects of campaigns in monetarily low budgets. By integrating two means of communication CTL becomes the rescuer for these marketers.

Let us look at a very popular example of “Cutting The Line Promotion”

The much-admired ‘Juicy Mango Surprise Project’ campaign of Frooti is an example of CTL in TVC. The ads captured people’s reaction to giant sized props in the form of mangoes which suddenly appear on the streets, rolling down from above a slope. In most cases, the mangoes seem to be chasing the people on the streets and the video captures their reaction to the charging mango. This is the pure integration of ATL & BTL.

In future, the day is not far when marketers will capture the excerpts of the BTL campaign to form the ATL campaign. This will help them to achieve the goal of maximum consumer involvement with lesser budgets.

The writer is a JBIMS alumni working at Reckitt Benckiser.

Manforce, doing it the other way

Take a look at these brand names - Premier, Josh, Ehsaas, Masti, Mauj, Ustaad and Rakshak - Did you get the product category I am referring to? Perhaps not. Okay, now take a look at these brand names - Kohinoor, Kamasutra, Moods, Durex. Did you get it now? Obviously yes! It's monsoon time, and this period is generally characterized not only by increased sales of conventional umbrellas but also by increased sales of these Chota Chatris (a popular slang for condoms). 

           Advertising is something which has always attracted me and hence I would like to focus on the advertising campaign of one of the new entrants in this category - Manforce condoms. Manforce condoms is the new product from the house of Mankind pharma and was launched in 2010. And considering that this category was already dominated by heavy weights like Kohinoor, Kamasutra, Moods etc., Manforce had to come out with an out of the box communication campaign so as to leave a mark on the minds of consumers. Well, traditionally most of the condom ads have had either sensual visual in them or have focused on male fantasies (Kamasutra ad campaigns). Moods was a game changer which brought forward the same message very subtly with the Moods - My Man campaign. These ads were made 5 - 10 years ago and the concepts were quite relevant back then. But considering that the consumer attitude towards this category has matured a great deal and the word condom is no longer considered a taboo, marketers for Manforce had to further dwell into the topic of sex and find some new or unexplored insights for the campaign. And boy-o-boy, didn't they find one?

You all must have heard the famous saying - Women need a reason to have sex, Men just need a place. Research suggests that most of the Indian males feel their partners are either shy or hide the excitement during the act. They are not that open to try out new things. But there is a covert want in the males wherein they want their partners to reciprocate with the same amount of excitement in the act and give pleasures they have only imagined. And this was the insight, Manforce focused upon in the campaign.

The current campaign includes 3 TVCs for the Manforce flavored condoms that have been aired very regularly for the last 5-6 months. What’s different in these ads is that they are not about the men but about the ‘Women’. All these ads show women in their early 20s sharing their sexual experiences. The ads show how the different flavors of Manforce condoms stimulate their desires. The stories used in these ads describe subtle, but naughty nuances of their experiences; for instance, using a strawberry flavored condom, simulation of the virgin experiences of “those early days” and the excitement of using the product.

             The purchaser of condoms in most of the cases is the male partner. And considering the insight that Indian males want their partners to be as excited and reciprocate in the act, Manforce will definitely be one of the brands in their mind while purchasing condoms. And that’s not all – the icing on the cake is the Tagline – “Excitement She can’t hide”. Its bang on!

           Certainly Manforce has got it right in terms of communication. And considering that Mankind pharma already operates in the Over the counter drugs segment, selling and distribution should not be a big issue for Manforce condoms. So, Manforce seems to have got all the right ingredients for the perfect recipe and it would be very interesting to see how the consumers react to this.

Let’s see how they carry their “force” into the market!

-The writer is a MMS-II marketing student at JBIMS