COURSE CASE MAPS @ IBSCDC

IBSCDC, continuing its tradition of advocating case methodology and case pedagogy at MBA programs, has put together all the relevant case studies meant for a specific course in the form of a Course Case Map (CCM). Now you can teach an entire MBA course using IBSCDC's case studies. Like it is said in ibscdc.org's home page, if MBA is all about case studies, you can define the focus and the rigor through IBSCDC's case studies. Each Course Case Pack (CCP) comes with a pack of resources that can be ideally and effectively used for delivering a course. Each CCP consists of:
(a) Case Studies
(b) Structured Assignments
(c) Teaching Notes
(d) Executive Briefs (Video Case Studies)
(e) Video Interviews
(f) Effective Executive Interviews

Identifying the Scope for Social Cause Marketing: Brand Image Vs Social Consciousness

As the general elections for 15^th Lok Sabha (2009) were drawing close, the battle for votes stirred up in India. While, political parties were busy launching election campaigns, few brands took up the responsibility of sensitizing the citizens about their responsibility of exercising their voting rights. Tata Tea’s Jaago Re! campaign was one such campaign that went down very well with the citizens and redefined the nature of brand association and social cause marketing in India. With message, “Election ke din, agar aap vote nahin kar rahe ho, to aap so rahe ho” (If you are not casting the vote on election day, you are sleeping), Tata Tea pulled 618,157 people towards www.jaagore.com site for voter registrations. People instantly connected with the tag line.

Jaago Re! ad campaign, was started by Tata Tea as a Cause Related Marketing (CRM) initiative in September 2007. In June 2007, Tata Tea Ltd. (Tata Tea), one of the world’s leading companies in branded tea sector, became the largest tea vendor (in terms of volume share) in the world. Soon after attaining this position, Tata Tea elevated its communication efforts to the self-actualization level through Jaago Re! campaign. As part of Jaago Re! Tata Tea is spearheading many social issues and in the process was able to build a social aura around the brand which should augur well for the brand in the long run.

Tata Tea’s Jaago Re! campaign so far received good response from critics and also brought success for the brand (both tangible and intangible success). Nevertheless, the question rises, when does a CRM initiative become successful or when is the scope for CRM programme high. Companies, usually take up CRM initiatives after they had built strong brand heritage and value. Similarly, Tata Tea also initiated Jaago Re! campaign after it had built a strong brand image and market leadership. Could it have been as successful as it is now if the same campaign was launched, let’s say, several years ago when the brand had not yet become a global brand? Therefore, is there any relationship between brand life cycle and the timing of a social cause marketing initiative? There is also another important element that has an equal impact on the success of CRM intiatives – company’s target customers. If a company’s customers are highly ethical and socially sensitive, CRM initiatives will receive huge response.

The scope for CRM programmes, at various levels of consumer’s social awareness/ social consciousness, can be assessed with the help of the following matrix.

In the above matrix, X-axis indicates social sensitivity/social empathy/social consciousness of customers and Y-axis indicates brand image/reputation of the companies. The following possibilities can be derived from the given matrix –

• When social awareness (SA) among customers is low, and brand image of a company is also low, there will be no scope for CRM initiatives. For instance, if a not-so-well known company propagates social awareness to less social-conscious consumers, the response from consumers is negligible and hence the success of CRM initiatives would definitely be null. This is because, primarily, consumers would not pay heed to company’s good messages since they are highly individualistic. Secondly, the company is not carrying any brand image.


• When SA is low and the brand image is high, CRM can still work for companies. For instance, when a renowned brand promotes a cause using its image, the response from consumers would be minimum. This is because, the number of consumers who have the ability to appreciate the company’s efforts of promoting social causes are low.
• When SA is high, brand reputation is low, success of CRM is moderate. This is because; the number of socially sensitive consumers is high. As such, once the company wins the trust of the customer, its CRM initiatives clicks very well.


• When SA is high and brand image is high, the success of CRM is very high. This is the ideal state for initiating CRM initiatives. Company is sure to witness the success of its CRM initiatives.

Thus, the success of CRM depends on, at which stage of the brand life cycle a company is taking up CRM program and who are the target consumers.