Capstone Project Report- Trimester IV

Company: Grasim Industries

Project Title: Creating Brand awareness for VSF and its
products in the Textile Value Chain

Mr. Rahul .S
Prof. C.P. Joshi
Assistant Marketing Manager
Dean- MMM, MFM, MIM & MHRDM,
Professor & Area Chairperson (Strategy, International Business &
Grasim
General Management) & Program Co-ordinator PGDM & PGDM
(IB) Industries Limited
[Pulp
& Fibre Business]
K.J.Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research

Acknowledgement
Every project big or small is successful largely due to the effort of a number of wonderful
people who have always given their valuable advice or lent a helping hand. I sincerely
appreciate the inspiration; support and guidance of all those people who have
been instrumental in making this project a success.
I, Shagun Changoiwala, the student of PGDM-International Business, am extremely grateful
to Grasim Industries for the confidence bestowed in me and entrusting my project.
At this juncture I feel deeply honored in expressing my sincere thanks to Mr. Rahul for
making the resources available at right time and providing valuable insights related to the
project.
I express my gratitude to Mr. Satish Ailawadi for arranging the summer training in good
schedule. I also take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to
my program coordinator Prof. C.P. Joshi for his exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant
encouragement throughout the capstone project. The blessing, help and guidance given by
him time to time shall carry me a long way in the journey of life on which I am about to
embark.
Last but not the least I place a deep sense of gratitude to my family members and my friends
who have been constant source of inspiration during the preparation of this project work.
Shagun Changoiwala
PGDM- International Business
Roll No- 08

Declaration
I, Ms. Shagun Changoiwala hereby declare that this project report is the record of authentic
work carried out by me during the period from 25th August, 2014 to till date and has not been
submitted to any other University or Institute for the award of any degree / diploma etc.

Signature
Shagun Changoiwala
PGDM- International Business
Roll No- 08
Date: 10th September 2014

Index

Contents
Mydeals247: The Company Profile.......................................................................................................5
Internet Usage around the World...........................................................................................................8
Internet Usage in India........................................................................................................................10
Booming Ecommerce Industry............................................................................................................12
Need of Digital Marketing...................................................................................................................13
Capstone Project At Mydeals247.........................................................................................................16
Mydeals247 week wise work schedule................................................................................................16
Learnings about Digital Marketing Tools............................................................................................18
Learnings and Conclusions..................................................................................................................22
References...........................................................................................................................................23

Mydeals247: The Company Profile

Mydeals247 is an online platform offering revolutionary which offers a real-time online
marketplace. Today internet users today want personalized dashboards based on their current
needs in a real-time environment. However most ecommerce websites today fail to satisfy
these needs of the visitors and therefore they experience a transaction closure at 3-5% of the
total visitors. The ecommerce websites today fail to provide personalized and tend to become
too generic for the customer which many a time results in loss of the customer.
Mydeals247 tries to bridge this gap by providing a revolutionary technology in the ecommerce industry which identifies individual's preferences, interests, then delivers on-thefly adjustments that make each customer feel the site was built just for him or her. It's like
having your own e-commerce or online store to fulfill your own needs on daily basis.
MyDeals247 brings the lowest offers from the sellers based on buyer's request in the local
markets - all the bids from sellers happen real time and very much live. Also,
MyDeals247.com provides the current need analytics (on daily basis) to the sellers in the
local markets.
Therefore Mydeals247 is an ecommerce website which not only provides a personalized
shopping experience to the users but also helps them get the best of the deals from the large
network of sellers. Further it also helps the seller by providing them with analytics tool in
order to allow them to assess the performance of their deals provided to the buyer.
Mydeals247 offers three unique business models as described below:

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Real-Time Marketplace: The website doesnt show any inventory like other ecommerce
sites. The website is designed to be customer centric and it starts by asking the customers
interest. The customer expresses interest for a particular product/service specifying his/her
budget. The system will then notify all the sellers who can provide that particular product or
service in the specified budget. The system will then select the top 5 offers from the sellers in
real time and notify the buyer. The buyer therefore will get the desired product or service
according to his expectation.
Volume Based Discounts:The website also provides discounts on bulk purchase. The deals
are received from 5 star dealers and the general focus is on general house-hold items,
entertainment, education, local events, amusement parks, professional training and service
companies. The simple motto of company is buy more and save more.
Personalized Ads and Pay per Lead: The websitedisplays the local ads based on the
consumers interest within the local city at any given point of time. For example a customer is
interested in shoes and watches in San Francisco then the system will display the local ads of
watches and shoes available in San Francisco.
Research says that, the current online Ads are not effective for the merchants - Return-OnInvestment (ROI) is too low. Most times, the consumers are getting annoyed with the random
Ads these days. The famous "Pay Per Click" model is not very effective as the websites
charge the merchants whenever there is any random click. At the same time, merchants do not
have any idea on how to connect back with the consumers (whoever clicked on their Ad).
Apart from this, consumers are NOT paying any attention on the random Ads. The very
reason being, they are NOT in a mood to purchase anything at that time.
MyDeals247 introduces a revolutionary technology to improve ROI for the merchants while
displaying the relevant Ads to the consumers based on their interest at any given point in
time. Also, the consumers get paid for every click. Here is how?
Scenario: Whenever the consumer clicks on the Ad, there will be a video (1-2 minutes
length) and simple product description (500 characters maximum) and asks the consumer to
answer a simple questionnaire about the uniqueness of their product or service (i.e. 2-3
questions). Consumers can answer these questions very easily based on the information
provided.

If the merchant pays $1 per Ad click(i.e lead), MyDeals247 pays 60% of $1 (i.e. $0.60) to the
consumer whoever clicks on the Ad and answer all the questions (as part of the questionnaire)
right the first time. If the consumer does not answer all the questions correctly for the first
time, there will not any pay to the consumer. Its a great advantage for the merchants to create
a real awareness about their products or services using this questionnaire model - eventually,
it will lead to word-of-mouth marketing.
There is no pressure for the consumers to click on any Ad with this new approach. In other
words, when the consumer clicks and answers the basic questions, consumer gets paid a good
chunk of what merchant offers. Consumer is allowed to click on the same Ad for more than
once - just once chance whether to make it or break it.

Internet Usage around the World

The number of internet users in the world has shown a continuous increase. According to
internetlivestats.com around 40% of the world population has an internet connection. This
can be considered as a tremendous increase from mere 1% internet users in 1995. The graph
below shows the increase in internet users from 1993 onwards

The pie chart below shows the distribution of internet users in various regions around the
world. Asia (48.4%), America (21.8%) and Europe (19%) are among the leading regions in
terms of internet usage.

Source: Internet Live Stats (elaboration of data by International Telecommunication Union

(ITU) and United Nations Population Division)

The internet users in the world use internet from their devices like Desktop/Laptops and
mobile devices. The various activities performed by the internet users around the world are
accessing social network, messaging, emailing, online shopping, job search, reading news
articles, matrimony and many other activities. In the recent years, large and large number of
people are registering themselves on one or the other social networks. There is also an
increase in the number of people who purchase products or services online

Internet Usage in India

India ranks third in the world with around 2,43, 198,922 internet users. According to a report Global
Digital Statistics 2014 the following pictorial charts that represents how India uses internet using
desktop/laptops and mobile devices and their presence on the internet. The increasing usage of
internet in India as well on social networks companies are now exploring a new horizon to reach these
customers and promote their brands and products.

Booming Ecommerce Industry

In order to understand business model of Design with Benefits it is important to define the
term e-commerce. It refers to online transactions: selling goods and services on the Internet,
either in one transaction or over time with an ongoing subscription price. Online retail firms
buy products and resell them online. Physical products are delivered by using traditional
transportation methods and digital products, such as software and music, can be delivered via
the Internet.
The Indian e-commerce space is booming, with the size of the market set to leapfrog over
South Korea, Russia and Brazil to nearly double to touch $30.3 billion by 2016. This would
outpace the rest of the global industry, which would grow by 52.3 per cent in the
corresponding period. This would be far higher than the largest e-commerce market, the US,
which would see 38 per cent growth during the period, as well as other developed markets
like the UK (33.8 per cent).
But it will still remain a minnow in the global landscape, according to data from independent
market research company Emarketer, which indicates that its share of the global industry will
rise from 1.3 per cent in 2013 to 1.6 per cent in 2016.

The rising star in the e-commerce space is undoubtedly China, which is expected to see sales
rise by one-and-a-half times during the period to emerge as the second-largest global arena
for business-to-consumer sales over the internet. The growth would be far more muted in
countries such as Australia and South Korea, which have already witnessed significant ecommerce penetration and are close to saturation thanks to their small populations.
In India, on the other hand, the huge population, growing internet penetration levels and
rising incomes are set to act as an elixir for the industry. In particular, just 10 million of its
137 million internet users shop online at present and 80 per cent of sales are for travel
services; this presents a huge opportunity.

Need of Digital Marketing

The concept of marketing has changed with the growth of the Internet. It has shifted
consumers from magazines, newspapers, and even some cases television and radio to the
Internet. According to the Internet World Stats (2013), in 2012 the Internet was used by 2.4
billion people around the world, and those numbers are increasing every year. In the United
Sates, the same number was 273.8 million users and in Europe 518.5 million. The Internet is
not only accessed through computers, but also by mobile phones, tablets, game consoles, and
other portable devices. Therefore, the new era of marketing has a digital form. Digital
marketing could be defined as a sub-branch of traditional marketing that uses digital channels
to achieve the same goal as traditional marketing, which is, to attract new customers and keep

old ones by promising superior value. This is only done by engaging the customer with the
brand through social media, blogs, forums, email marketing, mobile applications, website
optimization and online display marketing. Below, figure shows how Internet users are
scattered around the world. The higher users are Asia, Europe, and North America. (Internet
World Stats 2012)
Scott states that the web has created a huge opportunity to reach niche buyers directly with
targeted information that costs a fraction of what big-budget advertising costs. As such,
smaller companies can even reach their target market via digital marketing without
necessitating huge marketing budgets. They only have to find the best and more suitable
digital marketing tools such as newsletters, social media, online banners, blogs, and pay-perclick marketing. Only problem is that digital marketing requires innovation, since it can reach
millions of people with well-planned marketing, or only few. Creative campaigns usually get
the most attention and sometimes even have to be a bit bold and annoy the public.
According to Garders survey (2013), the top priority in digital marketing investment will be
to improve commerce experiences through social marketing, content creation and
management and mobile marketing. Key findings also revealed that a companies marketing
success relies mostly on their website, social marketing, and digital advertising, which are all
parts of digital marketing. In addition, savings made by using digital marketing can be
reinvested elsewhere. Normally, companies spend 10 percent of their revenue on marketing
and 2.4 percent on digital marketing, which will increase to 9 percent in the future. (Garder
2013).
The booming ecommerce industry and the growing influence of social media has given rise to
need of adapting proper marketing techniques, content generation in order to stand out and
differentiate the company from another.
Social media influences the purchasing decision of the customers on online webportals to a
great extent. A survey conducted by AC Nielsen in 2012, shows the influence of social media
on the purchasing decisions for the following categories. The social media can play an
important role for the companies as social media can help the company to climb the ladder of
success as well as destroy its image if the company doesnt bother to keep its customers
happy.

Source: Nielsen 2012 Survey (Most discussed product and service categories on social
media)
Digital Marketing involves the use of your website and associated marketing tools to promote
ones business online. Blogs, forums, news and newsletters, are powerful ways to inform and
engage the visitors. The global search market draws over 100 billion searches per month- this
is why search engine optimisation and search engine marketing are such a vital part of any
digital marketing strategy.

Capstone Project At Mydeals247

Start Date: 4th August 2014
End Date: Till Date
Type: Virtual Internship
Role: Intern and Team Leader
Responsibilities:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Understanding the basics of digital marketing in the initial weeks of internship

Performing weekly task assigned by Mr. Prajval
Communicating the tasks to the other team members
Ensuring that the tasks are completed by the team members
Weekly reporting of the tasks to Mr. Prajval

Objectives of the Project:

To understand the basics of digital marketing strategies by assimilating knowledge through
reading the materials that is available online. In the further weeks we are required to create
contents like infographics, videos, meme, quotes, blogs etc in order to promote mydeals247
on the various social network platforms. Further we also need to come up with a digital
marketing strategy for the company to promote itself on the digital environment.
The project also involves Business Development and HR activities in the further part of the
project.

Mydeals247 week wise work schedule

Week 1:
Learn About SEO, SEM and Content Marketing.
The mail mentions certain references/links which we need to visit to learn more about each of
the above concepts.
Week 2 - Week 3:
We need to go through all the pages and check the type of content that is posted on each of
these pages. Look at the type of content each company posts on their Twitter/ Facebook
/Google + pages, the time of content, user interaction, no of likes and shares per content,
which content works well, what time works well etc.

After the above step, the next step would be Creating Content: Will be working on creating
actual content for your company (Mydeals247)
This will include creating: Info-graphics, Meme, Quotes, Blogs, Landing Page content,
Informative, Emotional content, and Videos
Week 4:
We need to create a Digital Marketing Strategy (Creating detail DMS for Mydeals247)
Week 5 - Week 9:
Business Development (This will be explained in detail)
Week 10 - Week 12:
HR Activity (This will be explained in detail)

Learnings about Digital Marketing Tools

In the first few weeks, we read about the following digital marketing tools as mentioned
below:
Search Engine Optimization:
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the art of influencing search engines in order to
improve rankings and secure top positions for keywords. When performed effectively, SEO
can improve website rankings, boost brand awareness, increase and drive high quality
website traffic and increase conversions.
There are four main stages in the Search Engine Optimisation process.
1. SEO Planning and Analysis
This stage involves both internal (website) and external (competitive) analysis.
A website analysis involves a comprehensive analysis of a websites user interface against
key success factors. This includes analysis of the websites usability, functionality and design.
A thorough website analysis should go beyond user interface to analyse how the website is
helping or hindering the organisation in reaching business goals and objectives. After the
fundamental aspects of the website have been assessed, the analyst will determine the level of
search engine optimisation, including assessment of page ranking, link building strategies,
keywords, meta tags, heading tags, website content and images, and website promotion
strategies. These results are then compared against assessment of a range of competitors. A
website/business objectives overview is then produced collaboratively, and reports and
recommendations for planning and implementation provided.
2. Website Optimisation
This stage involves optimising the many various aspects of a website for SEO efficiency. This
includes optimisation of keywords, meta tags, heading tags and website content and images,
and removal of any search engine penalties which may exist. When optimising your website,
it is important to create SEO Maintenance Files (robot.txt files and sitemap.XML files).
Robot.txt file creation ensures sensitive files (such as secured folders, administration pages or
secure login pages) on your website are protected from crawling and indexing by search
engines. Sitemap.XML file creation provides search engines with a menu structure for your

website, to assist in determining the relevance of your website to a particular search. The final
component of this process involves creation of a Google Analytics account to enable you to
monitor website traffic and visitor usage, and integration of Google Analytics tracking code
throughout all of the pages of your website and any marketing campaigns in order to track
reach and usage and learn more about website visitors.
3. Link Building
This stage is particularly important, as link building drives website credibility in search
engines, accounting for approximately 80% of ranking criteria. The link building process
includes building forward, backward and reciprocal links between and within relevant, well
regarded websites and directories. It may also involve writing and/or submitting articles,
blogs, press releases and/or videos in relevant websites, social bookmarking sites and social
networks.
4. Reporting
Benchmark reporting should be produced prior to commencement of a campaign, as well as
throughout the campaign to provide progress tracking. Examples of reports you should
receive include; page ranking reports, keyword ranking reports, search engine penalty reports,
backlinks reports, traffic reports, index status reports, server type reports, domain issue
reports, IP status reports, and website enhancement suggestions reports, which should include
suggestions for improvement regarding usability.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in
search engine result pages (SERPs) through a combination of search engine optimisation
(SEO) and paid placement, contextual advertising, or paid inclusion. Search engine marketing
offers an inexpensive alternative to traditional marketing media.
There are four main stages in the Search Engine Marketing process.
1. SEM Planning and Analysis
This stage involves in-depth research and analysis of the organisation, industry competitors
and various target audiences. Advanced keyword research is conducted in order to identify
the descriptive terms that best describe your product/service offering and maximise the

effectiveness of the campaign. This includes identifying match types (broad or exact) for
keywords.
A website/business objectives overview is then produced collaboratively, and reports and
recommendations for planning and implementation provided. At this point an account is set
up with goal funnels and visitor segmentation.
2. Ad Campaign Creation
Creative, intriguing, relevant campaigns are the key to getting your target audience to click
through to your website. The relevance and appeal of content and design can mean the
difference between success or failure. Ad campaign creation includes; keyword selection and
optimisation (including negative keyword optimisation), ad group creation, and development
of a creative appeal. Your supplier may develop your ad copy, as well as providing a range of
landing page suggestions.
3. Ad Campaign Management
To ensure the best results, it is important to test, track and evaluate campaigns on an ongoing
basis, including fraud and competition monitoring.
Content Marketing:
Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant
and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience with the objective of
driving profitable customer action. Content marketings purpose is to attract and retain
customers by consistently creating and maintaining relevant and valuable content with
the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behaviour. It is an ongoing process that is
best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses on owning media, not
renting it.
Creating Infographics:
Infographics are graphical visual representation of information, data or knowledge intended
to present complex information clearly and quickly. Infographics help in improving cognition
by utilizing graphics to enhance human visual systems ability to see patterns and trends.
Infographics thus can be used by companies to promote their brand, publish results and get
the users engaged on various social network platforms. The following infographic was
created by the group as a part of the virtual internship and promoted using Facebook and
Twitter.

Learnings and Conclusions

The learnings from the capstone project are as follows:
1. Theoretical knowledge about SEO, SEM and Content Marketing
2. Understanding the importance of digital marketing for ecommerce websites
3. Following the type of content that is being published by competitors on social
networks
4. Creating content like Infographic for mydeal247 using Pictorchart an online web
service. The infographics was shared on the facebook and twitter page by the group
member and friends were tagged in order to generate likes, shares and comments
which will to promote mydeals247 among social network users
Conclusion:
The virtual internship with Mydeals247 is still in the initial phase and we are using this phase
to understand the basics of digital marketing and trying to learn about various content that
can attract users attention towards the content on social network platforms and thus create
awareness about a unique online ecommerce platform called Mydeals247.com. In the further
stages we will enhance our learning by coming up with a digital marketing strategy for the
company and also get an exposure towards Business Development and Human Resource
activities in the coming weeks of the internship.

References
1. http://mydeals247.com/
2. Whitepaper Everything You Need to Know About Digital Marketing by Sam Saltis
3. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/investment-world/global-investor/boomingecommerce/article6277436.ece
4. http://www.jll.com/Research/eCommerce_boom_triggers_transformation_in_retail_logistics_
whitepaper_Nov2013.pdf
5. Global Digital Statistics 2014 Report by We are Social
6. http://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/social-digital-mobile-around-the-world-january2014?redirected_from=save_on_embed
7. http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/01/17/20-social-media-facts-and-statistics-you-should-knowin-2014/
8. http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/
9. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0931238.html
10. http://visual.ly/how-people-use-internet
11. http://www.businessinsider.com/10-charts-reveal-stunning-facts-about-how-people-use-theinternet-2013-6?IR=T#there-is-9-times-more-content-available-to-peruse-online-than-therewas-5-years-ago-its-all-thanks-to-user-generated-content-such-as-photo-shares-videouploads-tweets-and-articles-as-of-2011-the-content-totaled-2-zettabytes-1
12. http://www.internetlivestats.com/