MARK ADS

Final Event Date: 12th June, 6-8pm

Team Size: 2-5 members

Aspiring marketers, assemble!!

Each section will be randomly assigned a product case.

Mark Ads consists of 2 simple categories:

1. Go to Market Strategy (60%)

2. Ad Concept (40%)

Intra-section discussion – Call at 7th June, 11:30am ; Event brief by Gunjan/Aksh at 7 th June, 12:30pm

GTM strategy

Create a GTM strategy for the given product scenario that will be provided to you.

Judging criteria in handbook below.

Deliverable – 3-minute live presentation on your GTM + QnA answers from judge panel

Judging – Panel of ISB marketing professors (60%) + Co21 student panel (40%)

Refer to GTM document for concept briefing.

Ad Concept

Create an Ad concept for your product and explain the pitch

Judging criteria in handbook below

Deliverable – max 1-minute ad video (recorded) + max 1-minute elevator pitch

Judging – Panel of ISB marketing professors (30%) + Co21 student Panel (30%) + Co21 Alum buy-in (3
day window) (40%)

Guidelines

 Keep your deliverables crisp and to the point. No faff please!

 Make it simple and easy to understand for the judges.
 Please avoid any form of discriminatory remarks in your deliverables (racial, sex, age,
orientation, etc). Doing so will attract a penalty.

Points

1st Place – 100pts

2nd Place – 75pts

3rd Place – 50pts

Reach out to section mentors for help understanding Marketing concepts. They wont help you in
creating the strategy or the video.
 MARK ADS HANDBOOK
RED – Required for teams to present

GO TO MARKET STRATEGY
The central role of marketing for an enterprise is to create value by meeting customer needs. Thus, a
firm needs to define itself not only by the product it sells, but by the customer benefit provided.

Marketing Strategy involves two major activities:

(i) Selecting a target market and determining the desired positioning of product in target
customers’ minds (known as STP), and
(ii) Specifying the plan for the marketing activities to achieve the desired positioning (known
as the 4Ps)

While determining the appropriate Marketing Strategy, we need to consider the following:

 The business objectives.

 The financial viability of the strategy.
 The operational feasibility to market successfully.

Segmenting Targeting Positioning (STP)

A heterogenous customer base needs to be divided into smaller serviceable segments for the
company to effectively cater to a particular customer’s needs. Servicing this smaller segment leads
to higher customization, allowing a company to provide more value to its customer, and hence
appropriate more value from them.

Each segment that you choose, has its own unique purchase pattern and reason, and those are
essentially the “rules of the game” that the company needs to play to. The segment(s) that the
company wishes to target will be the target audience. How the company wants potential buyers to
see it, defines its positioning. The answer should be formalized in a “positioning statement”
specifying the position the firm wishes to occupy in the target customers’ minds.

A positioning statement usually addresses the following:

 What is the product? – Name and type of product

 Who is it for? – The target customer
 Why should they buy it? – Most important characteristic(s)
 How is it better than other alternatives? – Advantage over competitors

Examples:

Pepsi (what) is for people who want great tasting soda (who), and it offers a unique cola flavor that
is great for all different types of occasions (why). Pepsi stands out by being a youthful, forward-
thinking company that has been around for many years (how).

Amazon sells books, movies, household items and more online (what). For people with limited
time in their day who want to reduce the stress of heading to the store or the mall to shop (who),
Amazon has nearly everything you need all in one place (why). Plus, it delivers products to
customers quickly, using a dedicated fleet of drivers (how).
Product, Place, Promotion, Price (4Ps)

Product – The main and unique features of the product

Explain product changes, if any

Place – The channels by which the product ‘goes to market’

Mention modifications to marketing channels, if any

Promotion – How the company communicates about its offering

Mention a brief overview, cover explanation in the Ad Concept segment

Price – What is the best way to appropriate value from the customer
Describe the pricing strategy

For the presentation:

1. Lay out the Go to Market Strategy

2. Emphasize on the important aspects of the strategy
3. Justify the strategy in connection with the objectives

Evaluation Criteria:

1. Strength of strategy
2. Innovative or simple, yet effective solutions
3. Presentation and ability to defend the idea in Q&A

Presentation time: 3 minutes

Since there will be a lot of content to cover in short time, pitch only concise and important points in
the ppt. Keep details handy for Q&A from the panel.

Ad CONCEPT
Show a one minute ad concept video which is in line with the intended marketing communication
plan. After the video, in one minute explain the ad concept and how its message links with the
promotion strategy.

Points for catchy, innovative/creative, simple and easy to understand, and in sync with the GTM
proposal. No points for quality of video or editing, but please maintain a minimum so that it doesn’t
affect your delivery.

Offline Direct Marketing

Any member of a section can reach out to Co'21 alums ONLY to talk about their section’s idea. You
need to collect buy-in from Co21 on a form that we will roll out on the day of the event. Same
section alum fetches you 0.5 points, and different section alum fetches you 1 point. An Alum can
buy-in on multiple ideas. The form closes on 14 th June, 2021 at 11:59pm.

Grading will be done relatively based on points accumulated. Results on 15th Jun 2021.
Contact for any queries:

Aksh Sahni – 9830059873 – aksh_sahni2021@isb.edu

Gunjan Suyal – 9717722411 – gunjan_suyal2021@isb.edu

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