MUMBAI: With the number of e-commerce platforms growing at a phenomenal pace, it is become necessary to think of unique ways to catch the consumer through either eye-catching television commercials or through purse-catching offers.
Flipkart which is one of the earliest platforms in India has taken a new communication route promising consumers of the platform being not just convenient, but assured as well, to enhance its position. The new campaign, which has been conceptualized by Lowe Lintas Bangalore, has been weaved around the core thought that “Shopping with Flipkart is not just convenient, but assured as well.”
The campaign attempts to address that segment which uses online shopping but have a certain fears that cross their minds. Some fears that people have are around “the fear of unknown” like fake products, and cumbersome returns process. The campaign attempts to reappraise people’s perception about Flipkart’s Service Promise and reassure the core target group on the benefits of online shopping.
Commenting on the objective, Flipkart marketing VP Shoumyan Biswa said, “With over 50 million users, Flipkart is the largest ecommerce player in the country. We are seeing great traction with our consumers on the back of pioneering selection, service and pricing. While the start has been great, we feel the journey has only just begun especially when the majority of the country is yet to experience online shopping. In such a scenario, we believe that as market leaders it is our responsibility to develop the market and help onboard the next few million.”
He added that Flipkart had initiated an extensive activity across multiple cities and different target segments of potential shoppers some months earlier. While there were some nuances in terms of the reservations towards shopping online, the overarching challenges could be distilled down to two key points –Reassurance that the consumers will get original products and the Ability to return products with ease if needed
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Flipkart Matlab Bilkul Pakka is the new slogan and Biswa said, “Given the strategic importance of this project, our approach for this campaign was to design, plan and execute a complete 360 degree campaign leading with spots on TV, Integration and Sponsorships on key properties across genres like ICC T20 World Cup on Star Sports, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa on Zee TV amongst other key regional, youth and niche genre sponsorships.”
Over the next few weeks this will get amplified by a strong social, digital and outdoor plan reaching out to national metro as well as regional markets.
The campaign comprises a series of two films that focus on the assurance provided by Flipkart that the products sold on its platform are of genuine quality. In the first film titled ‘Easy Exchange & Returns’, a non-user of online shopping – who is also a boss - is asking his employee to buy a gift from a local retail store. But the employee suggests Flipkart. Not wanting to compromise on the choice and quality, the boss seems apprehensive of taking the online route. But upon further conviction by the employee on the assurance on quality and easy return policy, he decides to buy from Flipkart. He is completely satisfied as he gets to return the product without any questions asked.
In the second film titled ‘100% Original Products’, a doctor is shown complimenting his patient on his choice of shoes. The patient leads him to the Flipkart App that has a range of shoes he can chose from. As he is apprehensive that he may not receive a genuine product, the patient promises him that the product is indeed genuine and is something that is vouched by Flipkart as well. In fact he could even return the product if he does not like it. Now convinced, the doctor goes ahead and shops from Flipkart and ends up being totally satisfied.
Sharing his views on the creative thought process, Lowe Lintas CCO Arun Iyer said, “We wanted to get an entertaining creative expression which has the core cultural insight of our consumers ingrained in it. With our campaign “Flipkart matlab bilkul pakka”, we have been able to answer the most primary and oft repeated service related question, “Pakka na?” This campaign has been crafted with an attempt to connect to our consumers through instances which depict doubts which a lot of our prospective consumers have before shopping online. Hopefully through this campaign, we would have answered their questions and relieved them off their doubts regarding online shopping. Hopefully people enjoy it as much as we enjoyed working on this project.”
Adding his views, Lowe Lintas Bangalore ECD Rajesh Ramaswamy said, “In today’s times of crazy clutter, we wanted to take an approach where we are sharp and to the point. The challenge was to still make it entertaining. So, this treatment of back and forth, set to a soundtrack of a TT match, really stood out, and added to the humour in the end. And yes, we also got characters we have always loved but never see in ads like Amol Palekar and Rajesh Sharma. It is always inspiring to work with Abhinay Deo, and we believe we have something really clutter breaking and enjoyable.”
The treatment for the campaign is derived from a ping pong game, as the conversation follows that pattern of communication where each character ‘serves’ a response. The music too has been used in the pauses and silent moments of the film to ensure that the desired message is pronounced. It has been shot by Ramesh Deo Productions and will play on prominent offline and online mediums as part of its outreach plans.
