We’ve kind of been off the radar for about 3-4 years: Giridhar Seetharam

Club Mahindra, the flagship brand of Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India has been instrumental in creating magical memories for families across the country with a lifetime of unique holiday experiences at its resorts across India for the past 20 years, endeavouring to bring families closer together.

This is especially relevant in today’s day and age, when the Indian family unit is slowly but surely losing its cohesiveness. Long working hours, daily stress and increasing connectivity are all coalescing to ensure that the family is slowly becoming an archipelago of independent islands. As expectations rise and work increasingly encroaches into family life, the home becomes just a space for cohabitation rather than bonding and togetherness. As per a recent U&A study undertaken by Club Mahindra amongst its members, the respondents saw vacations as an opportunity for the entire family to relax and strengthen family bonds through shared moments of fun, laughter and happiness.

These findings formed the insight for Club Mahindra’s new brand campaign which centres around the family and reinforces the importance of regular vacations to encourage closeness. With this campaign, Club Mahindra is making an attempt to transform the Indian holidaying behaviour – to prioritise taking holidays; from being just another postpone-able leisure activity to a regimen, a commitment to one’s family. The campaign is based on the central idea of the family breadwinner who is torn between working hard to provide for his family and spending quality time with them. It also probes the relationship between parents and children and highlights the fact that parents can rediscover the child in themselves when they become friends with their children, thereby also bringing them closer to each other as a family.

Watch the ad campaign here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHCSqeVdQoM

The campaign seeks to convey this message through various scenarios showcasing the fact that value is not always counted in terms of money but also in terms of memories with loved ones.Unlike others in the category, this campaign is not about luxury or food or services.

In conversation with Adgully, Giridhar Seetharam, CMO, Mahindra Holidays, speaks about the campaign insight, marketing strategy, holidaying behaviour of Indians, focus areas for growth and more. Excerpts:

What is the insight behind the latest campaign by Mahindra Holidays? 

We kind of have been off the radar for about 3-4 years. The last campaign we did was in 2012. So I think it is a very much back to basics so to say. We did a lot of engagements with both prospects and members to try and understand where they are coming from, what is happening, what are some of the barriers, what will drive them to adopt us better. So we went and interviewed our members within our resorts to know what it is that they like, what excites them, etc. Then we went and met a large number of prospects who we sell to, in the sense we accompanied sales people to understand where does the penny drop, what do they look for when they plan for vacation ownership business and then we did an indepth generational interview through our usage to understand the family dynamics. So putting all this together I think really helped us define our core consumers in a very cogent manner and we said that we will really focus on is families with children in the age band of 0-12 because theya re the ones who are kind of risk-averse and look at comfort or aided exploration. They are not the ones who want to take big risks when they are travelling, adventure or adrenaline pumping tracks as a need but they are more focussed on exactly what we kind of offer. So we said that this is what we will zero in on. So when we tried and understood, there were few dynamics that came out. One is the fact that, pretty much in all families, especially in larger cities, the members are virtually like three islands in the house – father island, mother island and the child island. These three groups actually come together during a holiday and when they clash, a lot of magic happens. Therefore, holidays are becoming a way or means in which people use it to come together and bond with their families. But I think the tension to that is people have forgotten how to bond with families. Even if we send people on holidays, there will be many people who will be sitting there, the mother will be doing something, father in his own world and the child will be running around. They don’t know how to sit together and have fun.

Therefore, we felt that we have to be that unique opportunity to be that platform to bring this people together. And in a way if you look at parenting philosophies which help this thing together, there were three or four which we explored. But what we really hit upon was to say that the best way you can bond with your children is when you become children yourselves. Ii think the best example which I can give to you is imagine that you are a child and you have a father or a mother who is looking down upon you and talking to you like this, it’s a very scary proposition, like you are three feet tall and somebody from there is trying to tell you something versus if you kneel down and talk to your child through eye contact and eye level, then you find that natural rapport and bonding which comes together very strongly. So we said that if you get down to the level of a child and if you become child-like then you can bond with your child better and this is what we provide in our resorts as platform. We encourage and provide you opportunities where you become children and bond with your children better. And therefore this kind of opportunity happens only at Club Mahindra. So that’s what we have tried to bring through in the ad campaign and in a way the campaign encapsulates the journey of the parents through this thing. So parents start off by being in their own world and then as they go along and become children, they kind of abandon their inhibitions or mobiles, books and start becoming closers and closer to their kids. The other big difference which everybody keeps asking is whats the difference between FMCG and this kind of sector. I think the beauty in FMCG is when I worked on films, my struggle had always been to stay where is the product window? I have to put a product window, how will the product come in, how will you integrate, etcIn this, my full film is my product window because we shot the film in our resorts. So its 45 seconds of the product being displayed and the story being told through the eyes of product. I think tats the fabulous advantage which we have in this category.

There are two things which are going on. One is the fact that the whole transformation of the parents, from their own worlds they come together because of what the child does and they start bonding. And the second is the fact that these kind of experiences are unique to what we offer. We are trying to showcase that these kind of bonding experiences can only happen and Club Mahindra and nowhere else.

How much of a toll has increasing work pressure and career ambitions taken on holidaying among Indians? A study by Expedia states that about 40% Indians do not go on vacations due to their work schedule. 

Absolutely right. What it says is that Indians are the fourth worst deprived holidayers in the world. I think its the combination of two things- one is the fact that we are very saving-conscious culture as opposed to a spending-conscious culture. I will curtail my fun today to save my future is one mindset which people have in a big manner. And two I think our work environment- personally I am saying being having worked abroad- I can tell you that from a work environment is possibly the worst in India. We think that if I take a holiday, people will think that I an idiot. I am so scared to or ask for a holiday because people will think that this guy is not interested to work. Abroad its completely different. I used to work with Australia, Europe etc if you take December 15 to January 10, nobody is there in office. They don’t care. If you tell them I have a project, they will say do it after January 10.  So they have this thing to say what I want and what my personal needs or requirements are possibly at the same level or higher than what my work demands. Here it’s the other way around. I will do everything to ignore my family and spend time doing the work that I am supposed to work. So as a category leader that our biggest challenge- to get people to start holidaying better and then again if the vacation ownership business is possibly a fantastic opportunity to do that.It does two things. One is that it forces you take a regimented holiday. You have seven days a year which you have to consume- which means you have to take two holidays. And there is something in the house, I am a member, my wife is already sitting on my head when are we planning. So it gets you into a frame of saying – I will take two holidays a year, I will plan I advance. And two I think you are no longer worried about what is the cost, once you have paid it initially, all you need to do is book in advance for your tickets. It gives you these two advantages. Globally if you have to create a habit of holidaying then this a best platform to do that from a category sense. I think as leaders, the onus is on us to drive this thing. Number two, as I said is the whole relevance of what do people get out of the holiday. If I have to use my own example, I  would love my daughter to go an experience rural, play in fields, go and interact with animals. Because for her, interacting with a cow is something that she hasn’t done before. Climbing a tress is something they are not used to. In a way if I can use these experiences in edutainment- education in the form of entertainment. So if we can get these things together, one is creating the need for a holiday and two providing these unique experiences or unforgettable memories- then I think we can create magic.

How much of a focus is there on the smaller markets or its completely a metro phenomenon?

I don’t think it’s a metro phenomenon anymore. In fact, our big growths are coming from tier I and tier II towns. Metro I am referring to Delhi, Mumbai , Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore. If you live these out, the second level towns are where we are seeing excitement and anticipation. There are two things that we are doing- one is that we are trying to engage with our own members in these places to try and drive word of mouth because I think that is the best way to sell our product. Therefore we do what is called as heart to heart engagements programs where we go to all these towns, we call all our members, we make them experience what they would traditionally see in our resorts and then we start driving word of mouth. I think from our sales footprint is expanded significantly in these places. So if you see two years back our direct sales presence was in 25 cities, today it is in 60 cities. Next year we plan to take it to another 30 cities. So the more we expand our presence, the more we can reach out. One last point on this thing is that, in this kind of a thing the best way to sell is to take somebody to a resort. So if I am not able to take somebody to a resort, we are using technology to try and get them to experience our resorts. We have virtual reality augmented, we have created 3D visuals of our resorts where using drones, etc so you can actually you will feel that you are in our resort.

What about the pricing?

We have four levels of pricing depending on which season you can holiday in. So the highest level is called Purple where the price range is say between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 17 lakh. The lowest range is Blue which is in the range of about Rs 2.5 lakh-Rs 5 lakh. But what we are seeing is people come on to the Blue and go on upgrade later on as their economic progresses.

Performance & growth of Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India in 2016 so far. How much of an impact will demonetisation have on the company in Q3 FY2017? 

Luckily for us, demonetisation has had very minimal impact. We had a very good November and we are still having a very good December. I think except for really small places where some portions of the transactions are on cash, because for us the value is high – everything is anyway either credit card or cheque.

While I am not at liberty to talk about Q3, Q4 we had a good first half, we had grown it roughly 10%, that is on a high base of last year. Last year was possibly the best of the 20 years that we existed. Last year we grew almost at 20-22% vs the CAGR of 20%. This year is also been good.

While foreign tourism has been impacted by the demonetisation, what about domestic tourism? 

Anywhere which involves cash transactions or last minute bookings, they have been impacted. I think the longer planned holidays, even if we say a hotel which is not a vacation ownership like our where people had already planned they are going ahead, I think people have cut down on bookings now. Considering doing a holiday in December, I may have postponed it to later.

Some key trends to watch out for in travel and tourism in 2017?

Two things are happening. One is that increasingly people are moving away from just dinner, breakfast places to wanting experiences. They want value-adds within the resorts and they would want value-adds while go into the resorts. What is the kind of opportunity that I have to immerse in local culture. People just don’t want to go somewhere, eat and come back. They are looking at authentic local experiences.  Second is that to a very large extent a large number of people are moving both their exploration d booking to the digital world. They are using both the web and mobile to figure out what kind of a place it is, read reviews, etc and to transact on the net.

Media Mix

Televsion will ofcourse be there but we also have a huge thrust on digital. We will be doing lot of innovative stuff on the digital like Youtube Mastheads, we are exploring  Hotstar as a channel. WE will also use this opportunity to also generate user generated content. For eg, we are going to run contest which say that if this is the only AtClubMahindramoment that we are showing, what is your Only At Club Mahindra Moment. And if the interesting things come out that could be our next ad. WE do Print tactically once in three months that we would continue to do.

Mahindra's focus areas for growth in the coming year? 

Our push is on two fronts. I think one is clearly around acquisition or recruitment – as we call it- and the digital drive will help us in significant manner to do that. The advantage that we have which typically brands would love that I have captive base of 200 odd thousand people whom I cam leverage. So there’s an lot of activity  I am doing around those 200 k people Try and make them spokespersons and ambassadors for my brand.

The disadvantage that we have had in the past is that we have been inconsistent in our communication. The biggest effect in 2017 would be to remain consistently visible to the consumers.

 

Robby Mathew, Chief Creative Officer, FCB Interface

What is the creative thought process behind the campaign?

Essentially today, the way largely how families look at holidays- the whole chemistry, where do we go, what is the destination, then we look at the reason for holidaying. These are all practical things. It is more of such things like you know you are getting a cheaper or discounted air ticket. That’s the way generally people look at holidays. Like if we are not getting these offers in Goa, let us consider Kerala this time, so such decisions are made on those calls. So how do we separate our property from this kind of communication? One of things that we thought is that we focussed on the real reason why people take holidays. And the real reason why families take holidays is to actually bond with each other. To spend quality time with each other, once in a year while in a busy schedule. Many times we think that we are drifting apart from each other. Suddenly you realize that you want to just tighten that bond and do all those things, and that is the real reason why you go on holidays with the family. So we thought to focus on the real reason why you go on a holiday. This was the broad area.

Then the next point was that, which is also the truth that all of feel guilty. We are not giving enough time to our children or to our wives, husbands and many times to your parents. Nowadays, we rarely give time to our parents. That is the guilt which anywhich way is operating on one’s mind and you also start feeling that our family is drifting away. We were much closer before but now we are moving far away from each other. So that core insight is what we worked on.

When the mother and the son play with each other, and the father also leaves his phone behind and joins them, you see that connection which was not there before. Earlier they were all in their own world, now they are all together and they connect and come closer. This is something which we have highlighted in the ad film. The other insight is about the way children are. If they get any reactions or any joke or funny actions, they will repeat the same stupid trick again and then we need to join them even if we don’t want to, and that is when the connection happens. So that point of connecting with family is what we really wanted to bring alive in this video. Such moments happen in Club Mahindra.

Club Mahindra is only the setting of the story. But at the same time you are npt telling that see their rooms, how they are, spacious bedrooms and deals and all, you don’t get into any of those things. All you are really selling is Cub Mahindra is about family and bonding. Ofcourse you will have holidays in exotic locations and beautiful place and other things. The focus on the real reason why you go on a holiday.My times that’s what we do. Everyone is so frustrated, irritated, stressed out. So you go on a holiday on a weekend to repair and heal yourselves. So technically your Club Mahindra holiday is that- Fixing relationships. And that’s why people find out something ike Club Mahindra which has a membership. Its now here for 25 years- like a commitment for life. Similarly family is the commitment for life. So its actually holidaying with your family for a lifetime.

For how long has FCB Interface been executing campaigns for Club Mahindra?

We have been associated with Club Mahindra for quite some time. In between there was some other agency for a very short time. This is the campaign which we have done after the last three campaigns, done after four years. So this is a whole new positioning for the brand. And what are we saying, in a very subtle way is that if you want to get connected with the family in this way, you can only get it in Club Mahindra. Another big hing about Club Mahindra is that it focusses on family. This is not about a honeymoon place or anything like that. It has got a different vibe and look altogether.

Vinil Mathew has directed this ad and even in the casting, we wanted it to be unconventional. We didn’t want a known face, but wanted to be more real.

 

Campaign Credits:

 

 Campaign Elements:

 

TVC, Print, OOH, Digital

 

Client: Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd.

 

Creative Agency: FCB Interface

 

Creative Team: Robby Mathew

 

Account Management: Mitushi Verma, Ravi Sangtani, Shuchi Kothari, Yakshit Shetty

 

Director (of the TVC): Vinil Mathew

 

Exécutive Producer: Swadha Kulkarni

 

Production House: Breathless Films

 

Post production studio: Prime Focus

 

 

 

 

 

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