DUS KA DUM

DUS KA DUM
The second edition of the Pitch India’s Top Marketers Awards, celebrates 50 brands, across 10 categories; with each category having five winners

What makes companies & brands like Britannia, McDonalds, Big Bazaar, Micromax, Nestle Maggie tick in the Indian marketplace? Are there success mantras – like the proverbial 4Ps expounded by Dr Philip Kotler? Which product & services categories are driving marketing thinking & practices in India? And of course which marketers stand for marketing excellence in our country?

These are some questions that we have tried to answer through our annual special issue & award-show that celebrates Pitch India’s Top 50 Marketers.

To add more depth and relevance to the awards, we decided we will identify key themes and then recognise the very best in each of these themes.

THE TEN THEMES
So, should one identify top markers based on the traditional practice of slicing the universe by industry verticals? But given the nature of Indian corporate structures, where top corporate conglomerates like Tatas, Mahindras, Reliance span many verticles, is this the best way, we asked? Not quite, we thought. After a lot of deliberations, Pitch editorial team decided to identify key ‘themes’ that are driving our marketing. Put together, we think these themes represent the marketing universe better than industry vertical driven segmentation.
Once these themes were identified, Pitch was ready to move closer towards identifying which specific marketers were a cut above in their thinking and execution.
But before we discuss the jurors and the judging process, let us look at the ten themes we arrived at.

JURY PROCESS
It was a three-tier judging process:

Stage 1: The first step included internal shortlisting of brands, and marketers, on 10 broad themes by the Pitch editorial team. About 200 brands were selected initially. The number was brought down to 100, weighing the merits of the work done by these brands in the last 12 months.

Stage 2: The next step involved an online community poll on exchange4media.com on the shortlisted brands. The polls voted out 30 brands/marketers; the remaining 70 went on to Stage 3.

Stage 3: The final and most crucial stage was to gather an external expert perspective on the entries by a jury panel comprising of four top market experts. The Jury members are: Anand Halve, Brand Consultant and Co-founder, Chlorophyll; Prafulla Y Agnihotri, Professor, Marketing Group, IIM Calcutta; R V Rajan, Chairman, Anugraha Madison Advertising; and Shripad Nadkarni, Founder-Director, MarketGate Consulting.
These jurors offered their opinion on each of the 70 brands on four broad parameters: Idea & Innovation, Consumer Connect, Communication Impact; and Execution & Results.
Pitch editorial team then added up all scores to arrive at a final tally of India’s Top 50 Marketers.
As you will see in the following pages, these winners exemplify the very best that Indian marketing has to offer. Come let’s learn & celebrate!

JURY MEMBERS
Mr Anand Halve is the co-founder of Chlorophyll, a brand and communication consultancy. Well known for his strategic acumen and creative work, the IIM graduate of 70s brings along a huge industry experience of over 30 years.

Dr P Y Agnihotri is Professor of Marketing at IIM-C. He carries 10 years of varied industry experience and over 14 years ‘ experience in academics. He has co-authored the 13th edition of ‘Principles of Marketing: A South Asian Perspective’.

Mr R V Rajan is Chairman of Anugrah Madison, a rural advertising agency. He is a veteran of rural marketing with over four decades of varied industry experience in advertisment with Clarion, Grant Kenyon & Eckhardt and now Anugrah.

Mr Sripad Nadkarni is Founder-Director of MarketGate Consulting. He has over 25 years of experience in marketing domain across the sector. With his result-oriented approach, Nadkarni has helped various companies enhance brand value.

PITCH INDIA’S TOP 50 MARKETERS 2010

1. Resurgent Brands
With fresh marketing strategies these brands have regained their lost ground. In a competitive market, this is perhaps twice as creditable

1. GM - Chevrolet
2. Ford
3. Mahindra Satyam
4. Britannia
5. Colgate

2. Rechargers
Reworking their corporate identity and donning a new look, these brands are gaining market share with brand new positioning

1. MTV 2. Dish TV
3. Videocon
4. Maruti WagonR
5. Aditya Birla Financial Group

3. Social Marketers
It’s not just Profit that matters, but the other two Ps too – People & Planet. These brands believe and live this dictum

1. Idea
2. Aircel
3. Toyota
4. Dettol
5. Nokia
5. P&G

4. Globetrotters
While it is early days, yet, many Indian coporates are turning the conventional beliefs on their head – and reaching out to markets far and wide

1. Airtel
2. Mahindra & Mahindra
3. Godrej
4. Marico
5. Dr Manmohan Singh

5. Bottom of pyramid
Late Dr CK Prahalad will nod in acceptance of the feats from this special group of companies that are serving billions – at a profit

1. Tata Magic
2. Tata Swach
3. Maggi
4. Mitti Cool
5. Dabur Amla Hair Oil

6. Value for Money
Offering consumers ‘more for less’, these brands have displaced customer loyalty for established brands and also expanded reach to newer segments

1. Big Bazaar
2. Tata DoCoMo
3. McDonald's
4. Micromax
5. Domino's

7. Marketing Innovators
It’s not just product innovation alone, but innovations across all Ps that can win the consumers. These brands are proving this dictum

1. 3 Idiot
2. Big Bazaar
3. Lay's
4. P&G Gillette
5. Frooti

8. Impactful launches
With power packed entries in the market, they created a buzz and managed to conquer the market in their initial stages

1. Micromax
2. Uninor
3. Twitter
4. Hippo
5. Aliva

9. Ageless Brands
Even though consumer mindset has changed big time in last few decades, these age old brands are consistently reshaping themselves

1. Airtel
2. Thums Up
3. Maggi
4. Bajaj Pulsar
5. Fevicol

1. IPL
2. Chetan Bhagat
3. LinkedIn
4. Idea Cellular
5. Aircel

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