Liars make us believe

Few days back I read a book which intrigued me a lot. It was titled "All Marketers are Liars" by Seth Godin. There was an example given in the book rather a myth which even I believed. It's known that the taste of the wine is dependent on the shape or curvature of the glass in which it is held. So whether it is s $5 wine or worth $500 it will taste great only if its in the right glass. Can you believe that? Mind you every wine expert/taster believes this. But its been proven scientifically that its a myth. People fail in blind tests but not with their eyes open. So is making the customer "Believe" in your marketing proposition, a necessary and sufficient condition of a successful sales pitch? So are we liars? The author tells that key to marketing is to tell a story that people can believe and you will sell your product.

What if the prospect doesn't know what he needs? Would it be wise to tell him that he doesn't know? Worse what if your competitor is catering to the "idea" that he needs it, rather than the need itself or rightly not needing it? But isn't it, how compelling is the story or marketing folklore you tell to your client about your previous clients? Is it the differentiating factor? How your story is more compelling than your competitor's? I have even experienced myself that many times my customers are buying products they don't need at all. So what is it they are buying? Just the story or the experience of buying it?

Marketing is about letting people know about you and a percentage will buy without needing personal interaction. Some products and services need personal selling to ensure needs are well matched. Direct personal sales is an active way of meeting needs and is suitable for specific product and service evolutions. I can agree that Marketers are Liars when their team fails to deliver what is promised by good intentioned sales and marketing people - The best marketing and sales people don't let this happen.

A successful Marketing Proposition is a good start point but having a bad sales organisation can ruin it. Here is a quote that I love and illustrates the point. "If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying "Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday," that's advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that's promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor's flower bed, that's publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that's public relations. If the town's citizens go the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they'll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that's sales. - Unknown"

CHINA: NEW DIGITAL DESTINATION

Today with all the advantages of scale, China is on the verge of becoming the world's biggest digital market. Viral marketing is going to become very hit in china in coming years. In asian countries after Japan, china is a real digital destination.

According to the statistical data of AdAgeChina, China has 500 million mobile-phone subscribers and more than 122 broadband users. And even though digital spending still trails in the market, it's growing fast as multinationals try out new interactive programs.

CEO of Youku, Mr. Victor Koo said that just a year after launching Youku already has reached 80 million video views per day.

Today number of social networking websites are used for marketing company blogs or individuals (Linked.in, facebook, My space etc).

According to analysts, China will be the No. 1 internet market very quickly, and online advertising will become a significantly higher portion -- 8% to 10% -- of the market. Today digital advertising accounts for only about 5% of all media spending in China today, but experts said that figure is skewed by local brands' scant interactive spending.

In AdAge china digital marketing conference, Dan Wong, NOKIA’s VP-multimedia sales and channel management said that “for some products in the upscale Nseries, we spend about 25% or 30% [of the budget] or sometimes higher on digital". Mobile is more advanced in China than in the U.S. but still faces obstacles ranging from budgets to figuring out how to use a new medium and measure its effectiveness.

In viral marketing, the professionals or multimedia marketing division should be very keen, energetic and have deep interest in innovating new ways to promote himself (company).

Like us, Chinese marketers were very much inspired by “American idol” and its Chinese reality-show imitators. With minor changes sponsors like Pepsi invited Chinese consumers to submit a 200-word script for a spot that would be shot with a pop star.

In such promotion sponsors got unbelievable response around 28,000 scripts poured in and 5 million people voted for their favorites. A 28-year-old schoolteacher won, and his spot was filmed and aired. The program become a huge success and turned the face of multimedia marketing in china.

Lenovo Group turned its sponsorship of the Olympic Games' longest torch relay -- stretching across 31 provinces and 113 cities in China over three months -- into a more earnest version of "American Idol." The marketer partnered with Google to invite people to send in nominations explaining why they should get to carry the torch.

More than 6,000 people entered, said Deepak Advani, Lenovo's chief marketing officer and senior VP of e-commerce. "We picked 18 finalists who posted their videos on YouTube on why they should run the torch." One student lobbied his entire university for votes, he said.

Coca cola, international brand used web as promotion channel to penetrate deeper into the Chinese market. Have a look at the article ==>

Here at this point if we compare India with china, we are very far from it in mobile penetration, we have penetration of 21-24% nearly 250 mn subscribers half of china. In digital marketing or advertising we are also far behind due to poor infrastructure and immature mindset to understand and convey such message to the public.

source: Adage china digital marketing conference

Guerrilla tactics

Guerrilla marketing was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book "Guerrilla Marketing" in 1983. It is derived from the term guerrilla warfare. It is wrongly termed as a strategy, it is more of tactics. The word was coined in Spain to describe their warfare in resisting Napoleon Bonaparte's French regime, its meaning was broadened to mean any similar-scale armed resistance. Guerrillero is the Spanish word for guerrilla fighter. Guerrilla has a more operational angle to it. It is about how it is done rather than what is done. Though I could not find a perfect definition for guerrilla warfare, this is the closest I could get.

Guerrilla warfare (also guerilla) is the unconventional warfare and combat with which small group combatants (usually civilians) use mobile tactics (ambushes, raids, etc) to combat a larger, less mobile formal army. The guerrilla army uses ambush (draw enemy forces to terrain unsuited to them) and mobility (advantage and surprise) in attacking vulnerable targets in enemy territory. - Wikipedia

The features of guerilla warfare are

· In guerilla it’s the weak that attacks the stronger one.

· It’s the weaknesses of being small that is converted into a strength. It’s like a group of ants bringing down an elephant.

· Guerilla is characterized by agility, deception, surprise, ambush, camouflage and intelligence.

In India Shivaji Bhonsale, who founded the Maratha empire in 1674 in western India, employed guerrilla warfare successfully against the Muhgals in the hilly terrain of the Sahyadaris. He faced daunting challenges such as repeated invasions by huge enemy armies, notably the Mughals and the regional Sultanates, which would have defeated a lesser leader. Shivaji coped and survived and eventually emerged triumphant by using innovative tactics including hit-and-run, strategic expansion of territories and forts, by constantly keeping on the move, by being highly mobile and by always keeping one step ahead of his pursuers. Shivaji brilliantly overcame disadvantages of size and resources by adopting intelligent strategies and tactics, including taking advantage of their intimate familiarity of the mountainous and rugged Maharashtra terrain, by being highly mobile and lightning fast, and by adopting hit-and-run tactics.

Now lets see how marketing scrounged guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla marketing is an innovative way to compete against a market leader, who has more financial muscle. It involves time, energy and innovation to reach the masses rather than a big advertising budget. It is all about getting the maximum impact at minimum cost. Such promotions are sometimes designed so that the target audience is left unaware they have been marketed to and may therefore be a form of undercover marketing (also called stealth marketing). The ethics of guerrilla marketing have often been called into question due to an alleged deceptive, misleading, or subtle nature of the campaigns.

Forms of guerrilla

Viral marketing is a promotional tactics which spreads the word about your product like a virus. The marketer relies on the customers to promote the product.

Ambient marketing is using unconventional media i.e. apart from the classic generic group( TV, print, radio, posters and cinema). It is done in places where people generally wait and have idle time, like in queues or places having high traffic.

Buzz marketing -- word of mouth marketing

Undercover marketing -- subtle product placement

Astroturfing -- releasing company news to imitate grassroots popularity

Experiential marketing -- interaction with product

A Guerrilla marketer must be flexible. They must be able to change tactics very quickly; this may include abandoning a market segment, product, product line, brand, business model, or objective. Guerrillas are not ashamed to make a strategic withdrawal.

Guerrilla is suitable when:

· the target competitor has relatively strong resources and is well able to withstand a head-on attack.

· the attacker has moderately weak resources.

Related article

Alexander: the supreme strategist

Guerrilla blogs

http://www.gmarketingcoach.com/blog/

http://blog.guerrillacomm.com/

Lack of Switch Effect in Advertising

Switch Effect is not new phenomena in advertising but with competition between products intensifying and more brands fighting for the same target market share, it has became more important than ever.

David Ogilvy saw it coming long ago and called it ‘Changing Brand Preference’. It is an element which is necessary if the product advertised has established substitutes. Switch Effect is called for when purpose is to make consumer switch from buying a product over other, specially buying a new product over established one.

According to Advertising legend Alyque Padamsee“‘switch factor is the name of the advertising game today. We are in a highly competitive market, not a virgin one”.

The 'switch factor' is absolutely lacking in today's ads. When agencies have prepared the pitch for a television commercial, they must sit with their client and find out do our ads have the essential element to make people switch from some other brand to his. If it does not, then we must waste no time in tearing the commercial up and preparing a new one.

In advertising, we are like an athlete, always running against our competitors.

Most of the ad agencies I visited do not believe in the theory of Switch effect to drive sales. One V.P of a leading Multinational agency argued-“to drive sales, the product should have the switch effect and the purpose of advertising is only to let the product talk to consumer”. He might be right to an extent but at the end of day if the sales figure is not shooting up for a year or two the agency will be sacked.

Lowe Lintas was the agency which created the Liril Girl campaign and the campaign ran for a full 25 yrs but in spite of being extremely creative, the agency lost the contract as Hindustan Lever, dissatisfied with the soap's sales figures moved the product out of the agency.

A lot of Ad agencies brand themselves as creative hot shop but in my definition, advertising is only about creativity for selling purposes. We are not competing with M F Husain or other top painters or poets. The job is to sell the clients' products. However creative we may be, if we fail to sell our clients' products, then it is not a good ad. Some agencies have blended creativity and saleability nicely.

To me, a great ad is an ad that generates great sales. A lot of advertising today is certainly noticeable as ad agencies try to break through the 'clutter' but unfortunately often at the end of the commercial, you don't know what on earth they are selling, though you remember the ad which was great fun. The ad has no Switch Effect at all. Sometimes, even if you remember the brand, you don't find any reason, apart from humor, to choose that brand. It's good to have funny ads but we must remember that we are no R K Laxman. We create comic, serious or dramatic ads only to sell some products.

One of the best examples for understanding Switch Effect is ‘Fair and Handsome Cream’. The ad certainly has created a need for men to switch the earlier cosmetics they were using to the new brand which was specially formulated for their skin. Today it is one of the fastest growing FMCG products in recent history -- it has achieved sales of Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) in 9 to 10 months, but its an old story ...I need a fresh example.....

Rituraj Srivastva

Creating Gods

The theory below tries to explain the following:

1. How do we create a Brand?

2. Is the brand around us?

3. Can we see a brand?

If the literature below can’t explain any of these even vaguely may Brands..oops God send the writer to hell…read Retail.

Brand Manifestation:

They are among us, they are mighty, and they rule our world. Ladies and Gentleman lets vow for them for they are no ordinary human they are Gods ….they are BRANDS. A Mercedes elevates you and a Rado makes time so much more important for us (didn't our parents told us its Precious). Even if some of us shun writing, Mont Blanc is a sure pleasure to have, use and..... Show off.

Lets think it over. What make makes people pay a whooping $137,000.00-$137,000.00 for a Mercedes Benz CL- Class. Is it only the luxury or is it the feeling of success and luxury associated with it. The more intangible you will make your brand the more differentiated it will be from commodity and the more premium you would be able to charge. If Marketer can associate the felling of success and luxury with Maruti 800, consumer will pay a premium for that……may be I am stretching it a bit too far.

The more tangible your brand is the lesser will be its equity. Remember Brands are God. We can’t see them, we can’t touch them. We can only feel, imagine and at the best experience them. The catch words in the sentence is feel, imagine and experience. The brand has to catch the imagination of Consumers and make them fantasize.

Let me explain the whole concept with the metaphoric example of Culture:

1. Is Culture around us?

2. Can we see it?

3. Can you touch it?

The answer to first is yes and the answer to other two are Invariable NO. Because Culture is so intangible that we can never see it, all we see is manifestation of Culture in the cloth people wear, the food people eat, the way they dress etc. Even in organization the organizational culture has its manifestation in its employees’ attitude and behaviour (But wouldn’t that be a separate debate). The point which I want to drive is the Stronger the manifestation stronger will be the culture. Likewise for Brands – The Product, Logo, Colour. Ads are all manifestation of Brand. The Stronger the Brand Manifestation the stronger the brand will be. My point is brand is not only about product, in fact its not about the product…it’s about the aura surrounding the product. And the Photons of this aura include organizational behaviour, suppliers, management (culture by the way drips down from the top management). Believe me to achieve God needs great devotion but to create one needs lot of courage, conviction and devotion indeed.

This article with all my heart is in honour of my friend Manvendra Pratap Singh, who encouraged me to join this band wagon (herd of Band Wagon Effect in Consumer Psychology).

Rituraj Srivastva

EXPERIENCE MARKETING

The topic is elusive but its significance cannot be undermined. Nowadays companies are trying to implement third generation strategies through second generation organizations with first generation management. But have we forgotten about the key element of it all- called the customers?

Now the customer over the period of time has evolved to be more demand frenzy, irrational, conscious and educated. Companies can’t fool them by saying “customer is king” or “customer is our partner”. Companies have dubbed words like customer care, customer satisfaction etc to please them (Though I find marketing in tune with sexual terminologies like market penetration, brand intimacy etc, though it’s a topic for some other day). Still at the end of the day we have to ask two questions to us.

• Is the customer happy with us?

• How can we match customer’s perception of satisfaction with our existing process?

I will try to exemplify with an example. A customer enters a retail shop, fully drenched with some bags in her hand. Now the immediate service would be to take her bags from her hand and make her comfortable in a seat. But at that point of time, the A.C. is not working or some foul smell is around the shop. So what is the end of the story - dissatisfied customer. Isn’t it? (I hope we can have as many examples as possible on this regard).

So the crux of the topic is “companies should try to extract the intangible aspect called EXPERIENCE part into customer buying”. Since more & more companies are attaching service aspect to their tangible product, hence the companies should try and make a good experience for the customers while buying.

Check this link for more from the author -

http://managementchords.blogspot.com