Arrogance unlimited

Is it the fact that a large chunk of employees of government organizations hate serving people, or is it that they really hate working? Is it that they have a bad rapport with their boss, or is that they are paid very less? Is it hatred towards consumers, or is it plain arrogance?... There could be numerous questions that could be added on to get more inquisitive about a government or nationalised employee’s reason to be serving consumers the way he/she does. 

Ironically it is the consumer at a government office who needs to be polite, needs to wait, needs to pay more (bribe) for a particular service and even worse gets told off for questioning about a particular product. I only wonder the fate of the same set of employees if they served in private organizations. Employees who constantly act as an interface to consumers are considered one of the most important touch points for an organization, and any wrong doing on their part would affect its (company’s) reputation. Disciplining such employees is a major step that needs to be taken by the government, for if the same scenario continues, there would be hell to pay as consumers would start finding simpler and better ways to gratify their needs.

Muslim Rage and Christian Arrogance: A Time for Reason, Repentance and Dialogue.

Children - Floating Signifiers of advertising

It is essential for us marketers to understand the phrase or concept termed ‘Signifier’ with respect to marketing communication. ‘When an object or image is shown in a particular context in order to refer to some underlying meaning, it is a signifier of that meaning’. For instance, the use of Yuvraj Singh in marketing communiqués may signify the meaning of style, performance, etc. Marketers need to be vigilant while strategically placing these signifiers within the framework of a particular advertisement, through which they would be able to transfer meaning from the signifier to the product being communicated.

The focus of this post is on children being portrayed as floating signifiers. Commercials featuring children attempt to convey different sets of emotions and meaning which the kid being showcased in the Ad is intended to represent. These kids are expected to prompt a certain feeling or concept which has been tapped pretty well by most marketers. The most relevant feeling or emotion of the audience (target market) that a child can often tap is the cute, heart-warming attraction towards himself/herself and in turn towards the product being advertised. Children are also used in advertisements as referents to the future, purity and innocence, responsibility, chaos and fun. Check ads of Airtel and Vodafone that have been victorious in winning consumers’ attention. Having said this, it is an uphill task or an impossible one for marketers to appeal to audiences’ other emotions which could be - sense of identity with the endorser, confidence in the endorser, etc considered very vital in creating an unforgettable brand

However, it needs to be made clear that a child to become a regular brand endorser is difficult as the audiences tend to negate repetition, hence lowering brand recall and awareness. Children are better of being used as brand faces than being employed as brand ambassadors.

And remember everything depends on the context (product being advertised, target audience, brand positioning, etc.)!!

The Power of Will

The power of will helps a constant smoker quit gradually; the power of will enables a boyfriend who is heart-broken get over his cheating girlfriend; the power of will generates oodles of energy to a sick person who recovers speedily than expected. Yes, it is the power of will that reduces the procrastinating nature of individuals and overcome their lethargic nature so as to desire and drive oneself towards prosperity and achieve the unimaginable.

Marketers with the same will power could gain success for their firms through persistent planning and follow up of the same. I know, however, that it is the Plan that matters more than the will power; but the fact is both go hand in hand and what big can a plan achieve with absolutely zero endurance and the will to stick to it even after certain failed attempts. There are many such firms that have gained popularity not just because of their ability to strike good with their marketing strategies but also because of their will power that ensures persistence, determination and belief.

The real constitution of the living being

‘When Sanatana Gosvami asked Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu about svarupa (the real constitution of the living being), the Lord replied that the real constitution of the entity is to render service to the Lord. Extending this, we see that one being serves another living being in some capacity and thus enjoys its life. There is no exception to service in this society of living beings. The politician convinces the voter of his capacity for service and thus gets his job. The artisan serves the merchant; the store owner serves his customer. In fact no living being is exempted from rendering service to others. Service, then, is a constant companion of the living being, and so we may conclude that rendering service is the eternal religion of the eternal living entity.’

An excerpt from the ‘Bhagvad-gita – As It Is’ delves into the constitution of the living beings and the manifestation given by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. If every marketer adapts this theory and personifies it as a practise to be followed by every employee in the organisation, the corporate world would be a better place, at least from the consumers’ perspective. This is exactly what is lacking in corporates and hence leading consumers into frustration. Out of one such frustration that I experienced, I had pointed out on how rendering service has to be the main motto of every firm in one of my previous posts. Firms must read this line everyday that’d help them achieve consumer gratification - 'Service, then, is a constant companion of the living being, and so we may conclude that rendering service is the eternal religion of the eternal living entity'. Doing this would give real meaning to the existence of the company, the employees, and the products and services they generate.

‘Enjoy serving! As every service you’d render would make the Supreme Lord happy and satisfied.’

Too Simple but makes sense

A BDE does more than just selling

I took up a test today called ‘the self analysis test’ that digs deep into student’s strengths majorly on his/her domain and behavioural skills. Also, there could be certain other questions incorporated in it too. There was one particular question that grabbed my attention the most which sounded something like this – what role does a Business Development Professional play that enables overall growth for a company? The most obvious answer is that a BDE (Business Development Executive) generates revenues through increased sales and this has to be a BDE’s major and foremost objective.

Well, is that it? Nope, a BDE does more than this. He is considered as one of the major touch points for consumers who would be judged based on his appearance and his proficiency in handling clients. This judgement goes a long way in the clients’ re-visiting the firm for a repeat purchase or not. He also acts as an internal brand ambassador who indirectly is involved in brand building activities where he represents one of the crucial promotional tools (personal selling). A BDE also acts as a co-ordinating link among various departments of a firm as he is required to interact with every business function.

A Business Development Executive does not only generate sales, he also is indirectly responsible for innumerable deeds that bring about unparalleled growth for a firm.

Unconventional yet acknowledged

Who’d you pick - A Brand Ambassador or A Brand Face?

This question is quite clearly posed to marketers of whom would they choose to feature in their Ad campaigns. There is a need to define and also distinguish these two terms that could support a marketer’s choice. A brand ambassador is one who serves as the spokesperson for a particular brand, enhancing the brand image by appearing as a testimonial for the brand’s benefits. He or she becomes an integral part of the brand persona and helps build an emotional bond with the consumers. And this goes beyond just appearing in TV commercials to running promotional campaigns, to attending press conferences, to even using the product (brand being endorsed) so as to make it visible to the public. The brand ambassador transforms into a brand champion where he is associated with every aspect related to the brand that could also enhance his/her laurels.

Now, a Brand Face is just like a tool used to increase brand recall and would only appear in advertisements and nothing beyond that. Brand faces would have limited or temporary contract periods under their kitty for an instance Sona Chandi Chawanpryash using Sourav Ganguly for a while in its commercials. They are simply forgotten once the campaign ends. Now the question could arise – why choose or incorporate brand faces in the first place? Wouldn’t they create a temporary brand image that people can easily forget after the campaign ends? Yes, this is true, but it is important to know that everything is contextual and fits well with situations. This is also true with brand faces, that it is going to be appropriate to use them not for a long term brand building objective (which will rather be done by brand ambassadors), but for short term goals of promoting awareness of a newly launched product, or to communicate a discount in prices, and many such goals.

The choice therefore is based on the context or situation that a marketer or a brand manager faces.

Understand consumers better than they do

How easy life could get for marketers, if they could really understand consumers better than consumers themselves do. In many cases, it has been evident that consumers don’t know what they want or even what is possible. For example, even 20 years ago, how many consumers would have asked for now-commonplace products like cell phones, i-pods, digital cameras, 24 hours online buying facility?

Such situations call for customer-driven marketing – understanding customer needs even better than customers themselves do and bring out products that meet most existing needs and more importantly the latent needs. This has been proven repeatedly by the world renowned organization, known for its persistent innovative abilities – 3M.

Officially known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, has gotten people to believe that failures indeed do not indicate 'ceasefire'. The mention of the phrase ‘3M has indeed, stumbled into some products’ by CEO Richard O. Carlton again exemplifies their flair in creativity that has fetched them consumers from almost every country accepting their products which were even considered to be gratifying the latent needs of consumers world over.

“Marketing is a (SOCIAL) and managerial process”?

Flipping through what many marketers baptize as bible – Principles of marketing, inscribed by the infamous Philip Kotler and co-authored by Gary Armstrong, I came across the following definition of marketing – Broadly defined, marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and organizations obtain, what they need and want through creating and exchanging value with others.

The term that grabbed my attention was SOCIAL. Would marketers want to socialize with every customer that he/she comes across? Consider an instance where your consumers mostly entail those who belong to the premium segment (higher end), and wonder if they'd really like it if you socialized with them, talk to them about their work, their raiment habits and hover most of the conversation around their personal life? They would quite clearly get snappy and turn down your market offering even before you start your sales presentation.

There needs to be a proper interpretation of the term social here, and comprehend it in accordance with the kind of consumers that you deal with. With such High Net worth Individuals (premium segment) it would be best to just go about doing business as usual with very little or absolutely zero attempt at socializing. ‘If this is the case then how would we achieve repeat business’, could be an argument. Simply put, after the actual sale happens these consumers can be given a ring at a time that is convenient to them and be the first to offer a discount on the next repeat purchase. Again, there is absolutely no requirement for socializing, with the exception of adding a pinch of politeness to the conversation.

Long time coming... Kaminey!!

Thank god and God bless my friend Gautam for having compelled me, in fact coerced me, into accompany him in watching a movie. Which one did he want to watch? – the critically acclaimed and extolled Bollywood cinema Kaminey. It is after a long time that I enjoyed a Bollywood movie which is quite diverse in its own sense. The last one I loved was Dev D.

I am glad I watched this movie, simply because of the fact that I can now believe that there is someone who is capable of producing a gangster movie which is unlike the mundane and persistently boring string of Indian gangster films majorly given birth to by Ram Gopal Verma. And that someone is Vishal Bharadwaj. Indian gangster cinemas needed innovation in storytelling, much like the way Guy Ritchie writes and directs his movies. The manner in which the movie is presented subtly in the first half and the second half taking off with an alarmingly brilliant screenplay making the audiences sit at the edge of their seats, reminds you of Guy Ritchie’s presentation style followed in the movie especially Snatch.

Albeit, this film would not impress the masses which is quite alright since it is not intended for the masses, instead it would and has been appreciated by particular TGs for whom it was made. In fact, there were a couple of people who left the movie hall and I could hear them grumbling that they couldn’t comprehend the movie at all. This has not disheartened the makers because these movie goers who prefer typical gangster films do not fall into their TG and that is great marketing for you!!

It needs to be understood that defining a suitable target market would take proper research and more importantly precise judgement on who would fall into the TG. It takes an even greater deal of courage not to be worried about leaving the masses out. Marketers needn’t be too ambitious in considering the entire mass market as their TG, which is where most film makers fail. So, kudos! to Vishal for his courageous effort and his excellent storytelling to both the movie buffs and to marketers respectively.

Can’t wait for Vishal’s next named Ishqiyaa!!

The Futuristic Level

Last but not the least - the futuristic level; and one that shouldn't be negated by marketers. The futuristic level of the product gives an idea about the trends which are taking place in the market in a specific product category. In the two-wheeler category; there may be some on-going research related to solar-powered two-wheelers.

New concept products require marketers to be cautious. There is a need to create awareness of the concept rather than just of the brand when new concept products are introduced. The introduction of washing machine in India is a very good example. Videocon created awareness of the concept of washing machines during the earlier phase of introduction of washing machines. Hence, a futurisitc view must be embedded in marketers' brains, in order to predict future trends which exactly what happened in the case of Videocon.

I hope the posts on 'The Product Level Concept' serves a reminder that even though the concept is quite basic, there needs be an understanding of it, that enables marketers to create wholly - a product that offers value to consumers eventually gaining a brand image and entering into the consideration set of the entire target group.

The Augmented Level

Considered majorly to be the most essential of all levels – Augmented Level values those attributes, which could be either functional or emotional, that successfully differentiates a product offering or a service offering from closely fought substitutes. This is the level which helps marketers to effectively visualize and develop a brand positioning and thump the same in consumers’ minds in a way which earns the brand a successful image. It is quite apparent that the augmented features would be added to a product only after it meets the first three levels; Core, generic, and the expected levels.

A consumer buys a ‘Brand’ only when he scans across all these levels. Click here to know the process of brand selection. This brand selection is influenced majorly by the augmented level which not only entails the functional and emotional attributes but also delivers certain symbolic benefits.

To quote an example let us deviate from the mobile phone illustration explained in previous posts, and look at the car industry. Owning a sedan would give immense emotional + functional benefits. However, owning an Audi would bestow the same along with a symbolic benefit – being the symbol of wealth and also synonym with quality and style in the world of automotives. This is what premium brands have successfully been able to pull off – creating symbolic values and benefits that appeal to the niches. That does not mean, other not-so-premium products do not entail any symbolic features; consider Tata’s Nano, which covers both emotional + functional features along with the symbol of being ‘The people’s car’.

Augmentation is possible with every product category and is considered the most important of all other levels of ‘The Product Concept Level’

The Expected Level

At the third stage is what we call the expected level, which usually signifies what consumers generally expect from the product. Now, now, do not be fooled or confused by this level and conceive it to be similar to the core level that simply symbolizes and satisfies the basic purpose for which the product is manufactured. Also, the expected level should not be confound to mean the augmented level which represents those features that are not usually anticipated by the consumers (will be better explained in the next post). This level comprises of all the features or attributes and benefits that a particular product or service is supposed to render to its target group.

However, it must be noted that these features are at the basic level and are offered by most competitors. It therefore becomes important for marketers to abide by this level through effective scanning of competition in order to see if they have overlooked any feature or benefit offered by a similar or substitute product.

Continuing with the example quoted in my previous post, the expected level in the Mobile Phone category would comprise of the General features and benefits like Radio, MP3 player, SMS (text messages), Camera, video and audio recording, etc. These are the most sought after features that need to be incorporated in mobile phones. I know, I know, you’d be thinking – Hey! Aren’t these the extra benefits that mobile phones have got to offer? Well, think again. Cause, most if not all mobile manufacturers consider these as their most basic product features without which they might lose a huge share in the market.

Keep reading to know the next two levels that help in formulating a differentiation strategy for marketers.

The Core Level and the Generic Level

Today, we shall look in detail at the first two levels of the Product Concept being – The Core level and The Generic stage or level. Though it may seem quite basic for many marketing students and professionals, there are certain instances wherein the same set of people fumble in explaining as to what the Product Levels are and what they exactly represent. Thereby, it would be appropriate to bring out the meaning of this basic concept with examples that could help its understanding.

Simply put the core level represents the product category, in that it would give a clear description of what the purpose of the product is and what product category would fulfil this purpose. This is the key aspect that every Product or Service offering must entail to be even called as a product or service. Consider the example of communication to be the core need, and this need would be satisfied by a devise that helps people connect and communicate to each other which defines the product category – Mobile phones. Hence, the core product here is the mobile phone which accomplishes the core need of communication.

Now, the Generic Stage of the Product level concept comprises of the sub-categories that represent main product category. These sub-categories denote the variants that are available in that particular product category. In our quoted example, where the mobile phone epitomizes the main product category, the various sub-categories would include different kinds of phones like GSM cell phones, CDMA phones or it could even represent the various mobile phone manufacturing firms like Nokia, Samsung, Sony, etc.

These two simple concepts if understood well in relation to the current market and consumer needs would help start-up companies to go a long way in mastering the art of innovation that would lead to the elaboration of the Product Conept onto the next three levels.

The Product Level Concept

We as marketers always tend to classify the product levels into three major heads – the Core level, the Actual Product, and the Augmented Product. It would be best, though to understand the concept of Product by categorizing it into Five Levels and broaden our understanding of the product concept.

A list of the five levels could be viewed in the figure given above, and to make our understanding have more clarity I would be quoting certain examples. To avoid a very lengthy and monotonous reading I would segment this explanation level wise, by elucidating one or two levels in the coming days. Keep reading to get enlightened with a realistic view on the concept of Product Levels.

The Best Entertainer on this Planet

MIHY - May I Help you

It was party time for me and two of my close under-grad college mates and it was Ashwin’s idea of going to his beautiful farmhouse located in a remote village kind of an area and the moment we reached there, it took very little time for us to realize that we were actually in a place that easily personifies the phrase ‘heaven on earth’. We obviously had a good time walking through the farm on a Tuesday evening, enjoying the greenery around and also discussing certain supply chain concepts (the irresistible characteristic that the fascinating subject of marketing entails of not being negated even on a holiday). All this we did by not realising how wise it would have been on our part if we had done something about the glowing break lights of Ashwin’s car. We tried switching it off, but in vain; and at one time we could hear Pavan (our other buddy) who in his mumbling voice said something about dismantling the battery wire, which I bluntly ignored and which Ashwin did not even hear. We let it be in a very lethargic manner.

It did turn out to be quite a silly thing to have ignored that problem as the car did not start the next morning. The reason I have written all this is to explain not the horrendous aftermath of this mistake we had in getting the car started again but ironically the pleasant time in doing so. How on earth it that possible? Well, as soon as we tried pushing the car to get it started without the battery’s role we had a bunch of people belonging to that village helping us and in no time we weren’t even pushing the car and it was them who did it. The car however, did not oblige and before we could curse ourselves again there was a person, who without our request used his own cell to call a nearby mechanic (who was on a holiday by the way) came by to diagnose the problem and suggested something to the other guy. That too did not work. Now, there was another person who was driving his Qualis offered to help and did so by charging the car battery with his. And then, successfully we had our car started.

In the meanwhile, during the time that all these stranger people offered to help us by saying – May I help you, the three of us tried to use our intellectual brains to call the car company service centre for help who in his professional politeness said he is quite far from the actual breakdown place and did not show an inclination to help us. His tone on the phone got even depressed when we said we are four kilometres away from the City highway. He said he would call back and never did.

The point I am trying to make here is how several companies boast enormously about their after sales services and fail to deliver even at the basic level. If promised a service delivery at door step, make sure you deliver it. Contrast this with the most down to earth - ‘May I help you’ attitude of the people at this village for absolutely no monetary desire at all, is truly fascinating and this increased our respect for them and their hospitality.

If only this nature was incorporated in the corporate world.

A Sales Job – Not frowned upon anymore.

A job in sales was not something that an individual looking to make it big in the corporate world would even consider at the time of starting off his career. Well, that dreadful picture has kind of taken a curve into being, though not the biggest break one could have, but something that individuals consider as one that promises good returns, growth opportunities, learning, rewards and even recognition not only internally within the organisation but also externally – amongst social peers, family associates, etc. These kinds of amenities were alien about ten years ago.

One who gets into sales was treated as any layman worker who works for a normal living and is perceived as not looking for growth, one who knows only regional languages and cannot ever become a leader. Overtime, this notion of a job in sales has truly changed in that there has been constant revision incertain Human Resource Policies (in the form of provision of better work amenities as mentioned above). Previously people working in the sales department had Job designations and descriptions that sounded meagre; for instance the designations were mostly salesman, sales officer, sales manager that not only sounded pitiable but also had poor job descriptions with minimum exposure to growth and learning. With this change, sales jobs have become attractive with better packages, profiles requiring domestic and foreign trips, challenging tasks, etc.

With times changing we hear better designations in sales – Sales Executive, Manager-Sales Operations, Regional Manager in Sales, etc. most importantly I remember my Professor in Alliance Business School telling me that “if you aspire to grow in an organisation and earn a post that handles all domains like that of a General Manager then Sales is the job that will do it for you”. He also used a metaphor and exclaimed that “if Marketing is the entire arm, then Sales is your hand, without the hand your arm would be of no use”.

Well, all those who feel sales jobs are looked down upon. Think Again!

Perception – Its power and supremacy.

Marketers must be sane enough to agree to the fact that perception is one of the most imperative (if not the most essential) subject matter of consumer behaviour. I constantly seek to be inquisitive with my fellow beings in order to comprehend their behaviour, realizing what would dictate their behaviour is necessarily their perception that has already taken shape in their minds and that is what amazes me. Perception necessarily is an individual’s selection, organisation and his interpretation of a particular stimulus he is exposed to, which eventually dictates his attitude and ultimately his actions (behaviour). Evidently, perception is the cause of a consumer behaving in a particular way and gauging such perceptions is vital that inherently enables marketers to generate stimuli that would make buyers behave in a manner which marketers predicted will happen through effective understanding of their perceptions. As mentioned earlier, I relentlessly dwell on this topic called perception and think about the probable perceptions that my folks in my family and close associates could hold of a range of stuff.

My inevitable mother: My mum has to be the easiest consumer to predict and this prediction does not require in depth analytical interviews with her or questionnaires being filled out by her. It just needs a person to have a half hour chat with her for a couple of times about her buying habits. That is enough for anyone to state that my mum is a very ‘Price sensitive’ consumer and she is so to such an extent that she makes sure she travels 10 kilometres to purchase something as simple and basic as a toothpaste to the City Market place for a price which is slightly lesser than the one available in the neighbourhood store. However, to make use of this lesser price she goes ahead and buys them in bulk, hence making our home look like a wholesale outlet with maximum bulk purchases. Tell her about a new retail store that has opened up nearby and she frowns saying ‘what have they got to offer, I can get you the same at a far lesser price than what they have to offer’ and giggles away.

My quality conscious cousin: I was chatting with two of my cousins (let’s call them cousin 1 and cousin 2) in a wedding that we attended couple of weeks ago, where cousin 1 was talking about his newly bought-used car. Cousin 2 got a little irritated and said ‘what are you boasting off for, all you buy is used stuff’ (which is apparently the truth) and told him off. Then on me being inquisitive of his purchases, he said he would never buy used stuff and always purchase a brand new product delivered from the showroom.

My Brand conscious friend: This guy, you can never get him to enter even the factory outlet of a major brand. He always prefers to consume “branded stuff”. And by branded he means; Levis, Skoda, Tommy Hilfiger, Sony, Puma, etc. Try taking him to Lal-building (an apparel bazaar in Bangalore’s city market) and he will start laughing at you.

What I intend to exemplify with the above instances is that every person has his own perception towards different earthly possessions and would never change these until there is a drastic transformation in his thinking (perception process). Every person sticks to his pre-conceived notions (perceptions) and is reluctant to change them be it - my mother who will never shop in highly-expensive stores, or my cousin who will always buy brand new products, and my friend who will even buy a branded nail-cutter if there ever was one. Marketers need to dig deep into understanding consumers’ perceptions that enrols into an attitude formation that sooner or later results in a purchase.

The philosophy of De-marketing

Well, most marketers would consider this concept of De-marketing to be a devil task and a drastic step to take, especially to those who treat consumers as not just kings but as gods who eventually make the marketers' wallets feel heavier. Is that a fact that all consumers actually swell profits, well the answer in this present era is apparently no – In one of my previous posts I had elucidated on demon consumers and their predominant nature of bargaining, returning of products for a lesser price and selling the same at a profit would not only increase costs for the marketers but also reduce the angel consumer base - who do the exact opposite of what demons do and this (consumers eating away profits) evidently is due to marketers finding it difficult to satisfy both categories of consumers.

The evolution of de-marketing is a solution to this problem along with many other problems that it is intended to decipher. Demarketing strategy is able to be implemented in various forms such as - keeping close attention on time requirements of different customers or clients. Demarketing can be expressed as a rationing supplies by differentiating customers on an equitable basis. The third strategy of demarketing is explained as recommending to customers to utilize a substitute product temporarily in terms of demarketing. The final demarketing strategy is to divert a customer with a spontaneous need or requirement for the item to another customer in which the company or firm has already supplied or provided the item recently and who the customer is unlikely to use the item until a certain period of time in the future.

De-marketing can as well be used as a device to decrease or reduce total demand, or types of demand and uses in relation to a particular stage of supply. Once a firm acknowledges that demarketing is a must, then all the marketing approaches can be applied. Marketing has been suggested as important to the dilemma of decreasing demand as well as to the dilemma of increasing demand. Demarketing should not be classified as mere marketing in the opposite side where the 4P's of the marketing are used to reduce demand. If demarketing is implemented appropriately, then firm will be able to enjoy a viable future and a more secure, predictable short run.

There would exist a thin line between retaining a loyal consumer and loosing one, de-marketing must be given an appropriate shape by marketers not to cross this line and end up loosing the profitable consumers in the struggle of driving away the unprofitable cribbing consumers

Consumer Technographics

An approach that helps firms to clearly understand consumer psychology with regard to internet usage and their inclination towards using such technology, based on which marketers choose to use internet as yet another marketing device intended to communicate, initiate sale, provide customer service, etc. Majorly, the internet way of marketing is based on the fact whether consumers find this medium to be convenient or otherwise, hence classifying two sets of consumer groups namely technology pessimists and technology optimists. You, as a marketer need to go the internet way to market your products only if your target group or at least the majority of your target group falls into the technology optimists group.

Using techno-graphics to target internet consumers

The quick test with 5 questions that centres around your current consumer segment (target), would further classify buyers into:

1. Early adopters: First to go online and conform to technology as an instrument of consumption.

2. Mainstream: These are two years slower than early adopters in moving to online shopping.

3. Laggards: known as sidelined citizens these are the last to consider online transactions.

Some Pleasant Quotes

"I don't know what the key to success is, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone"

Bill Cosby

"For a business not to advertise is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but no one else does"

Stuart H. Britt, US advertising consultant

"You're headed in the right direction when you realize the customer viewpoint is more important than the company viewpoint. It's more productive to learn from your customers instead of about them."

Going International - Not a walk in the park

Well, I am kinda putting my best efforts in studying for my exams and the course for which I am preparing today is International Marketing. In my lethargic attempt to read, I came across the basic reasons for a firm to consider Internationalization of its operations which quite simply were; Saturation of current product portfolio, increased global competition, need for co-operation among competing firm (an interesting rationale) and internet revolution. Boy! Is that it? If my firm is facing these problems or cites one of these reasons should I jump to the conclusion that my operations need to be globalized, let me rush towards international marketing then. This would be quite the amateurish approach anyone can ascertain, instead conduct proper research as to why, in the first place did your corporation cite these reasons which could be lack of competitive strategies undertaken, improper research activities adapted and really basic flaws that you might have negated.

Even if all these are well addressed, and still one or more of the problems still persist then you need to consider the option of internationalization. Now, why did I say consider is because although global marketing paints a rosy picture in the future for your corporation, there are various issues that need proper direction which if aren’t well heeded, would result in serious repercussions from which firms might find it arduous to recover from. A corporation like star bucks made hasty decisions in globalizing its efforts, and was so keen on entering new markets that it did not realize it needed a slowdown in its pace of such an extension, hence failing to understand the cultural authenticity of country markets like Japan. The company after conducting research on its failure in Japan realised it needed to adapt to Japan’s cultural needs and hence introduce flexible pricing, a product line that was in correlation with Japanese consumer needs and many such alterations.

So do not rush to any decision, wait, adhere to patience, conduct research and then take careful steps and not drastic ones. Watch your step.

Wondeful Tonight

A Dent on Brand ‘Australia’

Australia is considered to be one of the most sought after nations by many Asian students who aspire to pursue their higher education; or has this been a statement of the past in view of the horrific incidents that have taken place in a period of less than a month. Two separate barbarous attacks in less than a month on four innocent souls, where one is proving to be fatal and to top it off both attacks were on Indians. Boy! This definitely leaves a scar on Australia not only as a destination for further studies but also as a tourist location.

Let us look at this situation from the point of view of a marketer, and you would definitely emphasize on the attitudinal change of people particularly students towards Brand Australia and hence their resultant behavioural alterations that takes route from the change in attitude. The country down under had, quite a few years ago, grabbed my attention when I was in pursuit of a good university to do my M.B.A. and it had appealed so well to me that I had considered going there which did not happen due to financial constraints. The attributes that drew me closer to choosing Australia included reasonable cost of living, fewer people meaning less competition, flexible class sessions and many more; all this led into an attitude formation of Australia (which is considered as the attitude object - product) which promised to paint a rosy picture for my future endeavours. Many of my friends, who had formed the same attitudes and had the money to fly there, did end up in the land down under and are studying hence are the successful buyers. This attitude towards Australia remained intact until the recent attacks which has done nothing but dented the Brand equity (the sum total of all the attributes) of Australia; at least in India whether or not it has the same influence elsewhere.

Marketers hope to change the attitude of a consumer who favours a competitor’s brand and thereby form a favourable attitude towards their products, through various change strategies that are available to them. The attitudinal change, if has not been achieved right, then there is a chance of a negative impact on one’s brand. What the Australian goons (racists) have done is that they have forced many of us to change our brand beliefs about Australia thus forcing us into behaving in a different manner choosing from other nations (competitors) to be a better destination for either studies or vacations. Albeit, efforts from the country to try and re-establish the same attitudes in people that it had earlier so successfully achieved have started; with a policeman flying to India to brief prospective students on "safety strategy tips" which was never done prior to the attacks.

I sure as hell want to listen to Andrew Symmonds’ comments on his countrymen’s Racial Vilification. Hope Shravan Kumar undergoes a miraculous recovery and hope there still exists something called as harmony in this world which seems to have vanished.

The Impact of Viral marketing

A very simple and sweet way of elucidating the kind of benefit a marketer can enjoy, in using a marketing devise called Viral Marketing to sell a product which is as basic as a Soap.

A Witty Quote

“I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.”

- David Ogilvy

Virgin Mobile featuring Dimple Aunty

“The all new vJazz Phone from Virgin Mobile. Get unlimited music download for 1 year, absolutely free!”

This is exactly what ‘Virgin Mobile’ wants to sell through its humorous and catchy advertisement that has gotten many of us youngsters enjoying watching these kinds of commercials. Virgin mobile has aired a series of advertisements to promote its products and this commercial is one of those that is broadcasted to endorse one of the value added services that Virgin offers – the VAS of downloading music from phone instantly. The commercial however portrays a positioning of both the product at sale as well as the VAS on offer with the tagline “Think Hatke” which is wacky and very unique easily differentiating their communication from competitors.

The use of the girl Shalu’s mother – Dimple Aunty as a strict mother who is concerned of her daughter’s exams warning the guy Vicky about the same, instantly gives consent to both the kids to go watch a movie to avoid an apprehensive encounter with Vicky and is hilarious to the fact that today’s younger generation will go all out to get their way. In all this, the subtle use of music by Vicky to impress Dimple aunty enables Virgin to communicate what it intends to, through this Ad and that is the fact, that consumers can get free unlimited music downloads with Virgin Mobile. Whether or not this Ad has had an impact on the sales of VM (Virgin Mobile) would be a million dollar question considering stiff communication competition from Vodafone's Zoozoo.

DHL - Customer Delight Personified

A guy dressed in a yellow sweat shirt, starts to climb a cliff that seems to look similar to the Everest whilst battling the snowfall, slips and still doesn’t give up, continues to climb the Herculean Mountain keeps us wondering as to why he is doing so. We see him finally reach the top with the guy reaching for a package that is yellow in colour and hands it over to a small boy of Tibet origin that has the label of – DHL Express on it, allowing us to realize that he is an employee of DHL who would go anywhere the buyer of DHL’s service wants him to deliver the ‘courier’.

DHL has positioned itself as a courier service firm that covers any and every geographic region that is present on planet earth and through this Ad they are trying to communicate this message that DHL would – Go the extra mile to deliver its service. This is again shown in the Ad where the employee continues his journey elsewhere to deliver another package in a completely different region.

Coming up next is one of my most favourite Ads in recent times and its inference - Virgin Mobile's latest commercial featuring Dimple Aunty.

Shaadi.com

A matrimonial service company, in India? This was a startling question asked by many traditionally bound-orthodox Indians, but Indians today are opening up to newer changes and better options and one among these revolutionary changes that India saw was Shaadi.com, one of the leading Matrimony service companies in India. People believe it to be a tedious task and a risky affair to find good brides or grooms, and this is what Shaadi.com looks to simplify by rendering a networking service between the bride to be and the groom to be.

The commercial here is very relevant to what the service company is intending to position itself as, and that is, it communicates to the youngsters who want a perfect life partner that Shaadi.com would enable them to find their better halves as per their wants and likings. This can be seen in the Ad, where the groom decides to get married and falls in a dilemma of choosing from three options – the first one who is very traditional, homely and listens to whatever her parents say, second is a girl who is too modern and gets drunk which turns the guy off, and the last one is too rich and spoilt by her dad. The guy seems to dislike all of them, however in the end there is a girl who is portrayed to know exactly what the guy wants and seems to be understanding and a perfect match for him. This concept of finding a best life partner for you based on your likings and desires is defined well in the tagline – Find happiness at Shaadi.com.

As promised earlier the next two posts would also cover similar analysis on commercials featuring service offerings. 

Dissecting some Ads

As part of one of our courseworks at class, I had to perform a qualitative analysis on how certain service companies have communicated through T.V. Ads of their service offering, positioning and also the content of the Ad. The Ads that I opted for entailed - Virgin Mobile (Telecommunication Service Firm), Shaadi.com (Matrimonial Web portal Service Firm) and DHL (Courier Service Company). The next few posts would encompass the details of the study.

India Decides – And the winner is...

Rahul Gandhi!!! Yes, yes, it might be surprising for you to see me naming him the winner, when it was clearly Dr. Man Mohan Singh who was the one who emerged victorious in winning back the crown as the Prime Minister for the second consecutive time which only happened some decades ago when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was repeatedly named Prime Minister for two terms consecutively. Most of the credit for UPA’s (United Progressive Alliance) win, in my opinion must be bestowed to Mr. Rahul Gandhi simply because of his excellent promotional campaigns that he so ardently conducted with utmost enthusiasm which any young voter would be impressed by and this is the same reason why I have named him this year’s true winner of the general elections.

In his campaign his statement to his younger admirers was – `There is a work that my father had started, a dream he had dreamt. I come to you today saying... allow me to turn that dream into reality’. This itself had the adrenaline of the youth rushing towards incorporating the same and spreading the message which eventually resulted in the Congress sweeping the seats of the state of Uttar Pradesh. This immaculate politician needs to be present in the cabinet of ministers thereby leading our nation to prosperity, much in vain of Mr. Singh’s efforts to persuade Rahul to join in.

It is quite a disheartening end to the elections for the BJP with Mr. L.K Advani’s efforts drained and his long awaited dream of leading India is given a full stop. With Advani’s resignation on the horizon, the party must recoup and counterfeit a strategy adopted by the UPA which is to inculcate in their party a young promoter like Rahul. Agreed, Varun has won with 192,000 votes but the party’s promotional campaigns have been hurt with a minor part of the Muslim voters casting their vote for BJP.

Neuromarketing – A Scientifically Driven Marketing Technique

If you look up for the meaning of this new science called neuromarketing on the net, Wikipedia would give you a definition which would sound like this - Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing that studies consumers' sensor motor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli. This definition though is significant does not offer the essence of its applicability. Neuromarketing is a brand new break-through that attempts to understand, analyze and interpret not only the consumption behaviour portrayed by end consumers but also informs marketers about the reasoning for such behaviour.

Linking this concept to my previous post on Planogram would enable us in understanding how consumers give preference to neatly designed and arranged products on the shelves of retail outlets, why buyers sight initially products that are placed on their left and then scan through the right side of the displays and many such neurologically driven questions. The Anatomy of the NEW creative mind and its four components as depicted in the image are the main highlights around which the concept of Neuromarketing works.

There is the analytical brain which quite obviously analyses the brands, numbers (prices), promo-offers, etc. and then there is the curious mind that looks for closure on anything that is interestingly put across by the marketer, say for instance a teaser ad, or trying out a new brand, etc. Then we have the expressive brain doing the bargaining, information seeking through inquisitive questions, hence marketers need to be able to speak anything and everything that hovers around the product offered for sale. The sensual brain component seeks to satisfy all sensory organs (senses), hence marketers (retailers) stress on persuading buyers to visit their outlets where they can touch, feel, smell and even taste the products. All these components of a buyer’s brain start working as soon as he walks into the retail store, hence marketers must start employing people who are well-versed in neuro science and also understand the concept of buyer behaviour.