Finding symmetries in an unsymmetrical world ..

Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

Why should you STILL spend money on advertising in turbulent times ?

Posted by: on: March 2, 2009

..And why being Creative will solve most of your problems if not all.

 

1. Outsmart your competition

The most obvious reason is that by still tuning in, you can knock off the weaker competition, and by a big margin .

But the point?

Where do I get the money from , simple , be creative, use low budget adds that Stick on, and that do not have to be telecasted endlessly to remind the customer of the sulking product on the shelf when he is out for his monthly groceries.


2. By being persistent and “hanging in” you send out a subtle message that you care more for the long term market positioning and “are there to stay”, unlike the companies who are spendthrift in bullish times and disappear in thin air in the  turbulent ones.

 

3. You send a selective message to the customer, because he wants to know what makes you STILL optimistic

Who doesn’t adore persistent people ?

Towards this the most lovable example I like to quote of is that of Obama, for he stood for Hope, belief and Trust that together they CAN. This Hope stood against the back drop of the most turbulent recessions in the contemporary times, but heyy..by the definition of  Recession  which is “six consecutive months  of downturn in GDP“ there have been recessions every 4 or five years in US since 1854, and 112 recessions in 21 OECD countries since 1960 ( Source : Ogilvy And Mather)


So, if in the bad times you stand along with the customer and make him BELIEVE that the bad times will pass, you WIN.


4. The principle of Reinforcement

According to the principle of reinforcement, “Things stick on and tend to become a habit when persistently done “

The book ‘The Secret’ details more about it. Read my previous post here for more on this .

It is more likely the consumers purchasing habits stay on after the bad times,and you have acquired a larger customer base in transit.


5. Tell a story

Everyone loves stories.

Create a story of survival, and narrate it ! Simple .

People like genuine stories, stories of change, off beat, one that speaks the context. It doesn’t do much good to have beautiful model sliding on the sofa set , that symbolizes consumerism to 300 million middle class of India . Tell a story (may be )about a carpenter who is passionate about the joy he gets from building.

Air the narrative, and place them well in terms of channels that you broadcast this at.

A housewife who is sulking at “saas bahu..” isn’t interested in what joy it is to OWN an apple Ipod and go for a morning walk , may be if you told her that she could plug in her ipod shuffle when the saas gets nasty, that would do the magic.

If your product doesn’t have it, create it, but ultimately the product competes on its utility , especially for re-use items like food products, cosmetics and other utility items.


6. Throw your model of selling to a band of customers get a new one instead

Stop advertising believing that of the 100 customers you target, at least 20 will end up buying your product. This no longer works in the age of internet, when the consumer has your rival’s product specification and price quotes , past performance and every possible data at the tip of his finger.It is basic “Demand and Supply” and the only way to outwit is by being smart!

The new is that of Social Marketing. May be you are late , but late enough ?

Get the stats, spend money on getting authentic numbers, know who buys YOU and why ? know his pain points, alleviate it, create a happy consumer and he in turn will sneeze to get you al least 5 ! The good news is that the consumer trusts another consumer, and so is the bad news. Get out there, talk to HIM, and let him know that you are working on your Achilles”s heel  and that his voice does matter.


~

ek

Those who survive are not just tough, they are smart, and adapt quickly

 


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Story telling: How close can you get?

Posted by: on: February 28, 2009

They say if “to sell you don’t have to tell, but to sell well , you have to tell well..”  That prompts me into thinking, after all everything we do is about telling a story .

 

In his post ” Is marketing evil” Seth lays a fundamental proposition on Marketing .

“Marketing is beautiful when it persuades people to get a polio vaccine or wash their hands before doing surgery. Marketing is powerful when it sells a product to someone who discovers more joy or more productivity because he bought it. Marketing is magic when it elects someone who changes the community for the better.”

 

Think of it, if you can tell a story that persuade people to “DO” (Lead India Campaign) or ask “India” to learn to teach the disadvantaged children in the rural and under funded schools (Teach India)

Or, bring that sense of Unity through they Free hugs or “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara” . I think its all about how we tell the story, how compelling can it get .

 

 

 Telling stories that change, inspire, and persuade people into believing and seeing that creative common vision is where our future is, for it is only when we take  collective stand ,that the hopes and dreams  morph into reality , for when we start to work, no destination however distant seems unachievable.

 

The future for something to believe in , and persist is infinite. Stick on !

 

~

ek


There are six balls in an over, and you cant hit everyone one for a six. So, don’t throw your wicket away. So, don’t throw your wicket away. As long as you score more sixers than others, you’re alright.’   Piyush Pandey

      

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All for this one moment

Posted by: on: January 19, 2009

Time no doubt is by far your most precious commodity, and there are people everywhere who want you to listen, but why should you listen?

Seth writes that “Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them”.

The key here setting a channel for a one to one connection where the consumer participates and is involved in what he wants to receive and how he wants to receive it.

In essence it means narrowing down your resources and energy to set up an interaction with someone who is actually listening.Think of it this way, do you keep barging your way at your manager if he is not listening? You don’t, so does the new age marketing say.

 

To GET someone get interested in you, you have to FIGURE OUT what he wants, and then tailor the message you send out to him, telling why and how these needs are met. And if they aren’t the consumer will anyway not buy your services, you might just not waste your energy here.

 

Now the point is how to get someone interested in what you have to offer in a world which is full of clutter and noise, well simple as it turns out, it is by being  remarkable!

You are probably not in a business, but you still have to market yourself, why ? because sooner or later someone will REPLACE you.And to be where you are, you need to keep running !


And how do you become remarkable ? 

By concentrating your energy into things that you can be best at.

There is this law of attraction which says “that feelings and thoughts can attract events, from the workings of the cosmos to interactions among individuals in their physical, emotional, and professional affairs “

 

 The Secret lists three required steps — “ask, believe, receive” — as the essence of the Law of Attraction:

 

Step

Commentary by Gazette

Commentary by Nibbana

Ask

Know what you want and ask the universe for it.

This is where you need to get clear on what it is you want to create and visualise what you want as being as ‘real’ as possible.

Believe

Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way.

Focus your thoughts and your language on what it is you want to attract. You want to feel the feeling of really ‘knowing’ that what you desire is on its way to you, even if you have to trick yourself into believing it – do it.

Receive

Be open to receiving it.

Pay attention to your intuitive messages, synchronicities, signs from the Universe to help you along the way as assurance you are on the ‘right’ path. As you align yourself with the Universe and open yourself up to receiving, the very thing you are wanting to manifest will show up.

 

Life is waiting for you to be your best, and it is conjuring everything to help you so it. The obstacles are the things that you just see when you take your eyes off the goal, keep staring.

 

 

  

~

ek 

The best shortcut is that there is no shortcut at all.

 

 

 

 

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What marketing is not !

Posted by: on: January 6, 2009

I really get annoyed when people mistake marketing to be synonymous with Selling. Selling, like branding is just one aspect of Marketing. 

Marketing in true terms is about defining the product/services that you wish to sell in the open market, so where is the emphasis?

It is on defining the product, this is the subject; selling is just a by-product(predicate) of marketing. The difference between the two being that “Defining a Remarkable product” is not measurable, but selling is. You can count the number of products sold, or estimate how people like the service you provide by the number of contracts you/your business receives day in and out. You can estimate that by repeat business, by surveys (not the ones where no one bothers if their feedback is valuable, and the customer just grades the service provider in a random manner) Overall, Marketing has a multi dimensional realm.

 

Marketing like anything else, is about telling a story   that people can relate to. It is to draw the attention of people to something worth discussing. Marketing is influenced by many of the social sciences, particularly psychology, sociology, economics and Anthropology. So it only comes naturally that what appeals to you, might not move me, for individuals in the same space are different .

Obama story talks of change , a change which is BIG, risky because it requires changing the mindset of people , making them believe and being able to relate to the hope that encompasses his campaign .

While traditional advertising is interrupting, the new forms such as using social media and networking are the ones that create ardent followers, or raving fans. You like it or you don’t , and if you do not you do not listen to it, but you SELECT and DECIDE  whether or not you will pay your ears to it. No one will shoot it at you, just because THEY have spent loads of money to get you couchpotatos listen to the same old commercials.

Marketing is changing, and so we should change our perception of it too.  

 

~

ek

 

The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people! 

 

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