It feels good to be regular on blog-o-sphere. These days Iam spending lotsa time on xpressostill and in course reading lot about fundas of PR, SEO, New Age Marketing, Branding...that's a lot of thing. But it's good to be busy!!;)
Last two post were about building and strengthening the business plan.In the last post i talked about Social Media.I did more research and came to know that it is a complete profession..quite interesting..isn'it?? Managing business marketing through the internet is a very effecient and cost effective option. I also came across a term called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It's about optimizing the search engines like google to get more hits on the target webpage. All of us who are quite old in blog-o-sphere will probably know about it. Most blogger, including me have used these techniques to draw traffic and to get more hits on our blogs. But the specialized term is SEO and it's a full fledged profession now.
Anyways, i will talk about SEO later but today's post is on "MARKETING"..a very common term in business spheres. To make it real simple..It's about promoting something which can be a remarkable or unremarkable thing. (Wow..that should be included in Harvard business review). I remember that my dad used to say that If the product is good than you need not worry about it. Just sit back and relax. The product will climb on it's own. However if your offerings are not that good then you need to "carpet bomb" the market with lots of "makes shirt whiter" type campaigns.
When i see around , this age old thinking is no longer there. After reading lots of items and talking to people from branding,advertisements , sales and marketing i came to know that the paradigm has changed. Marketing, in itself, has become a very dynamic,flexible and fluid thing. dynamic because it is changing rapidly... thanks to changes in delivery (from TV to Online to Mobile) and segmented targeting( Product especially for kids,men and women). Somehow i feel that this is the result of recession. The tough times demand better and new measures to promote and sell services and products. New Engagement channels have been engaged and the business owner has to be more adaptive than ever.The game is changing and its changing very fast.Customer was always the king..but customer is the only end entity now.So it's better that businesses - small, medium or large keep up with the trends or they will fade away.
* People Are Talking And Talking Continuously
This is probably the biggest and most visible change from
"Now" and "Then". This is especially important for small business like mine. Big houses are still to acknowledge the power of "People". The balance of power has completely shifted to customer or client and will continue to remain there.When your product first launches, the first people your customers will talk to about it will be probably your next customers. If your products are rotten and your service is schmuck and it ends up taking the mickey out of them, do not expect to squelch them at consumer courts. Because they will make hate groups in Facebook and Orkut, they will tweet the pains and d-sat about your product and services. They will blog about you, your company, your services till the cows come calling. And there is nothing you can do about it.I have seen people staying online to their social media 24/7. They are highly unlikely to miss any updates. Welcome to the age of "Negative real time Interaction". This is very dangerous and can tarnish the brand value and image of the brand. "Not the exact number of Photograph prints"..Bad news buddy..because the 80 million people on tweet-o-sphere are potentially going to hear about it. "Pathetic Services and overcharged"?? You are about to lose customers in Mumbai who read tweets about how you overcharged for covering a wedding in Delhi.
Social Media can bring down governments( Recent Google and Chinese Government Face off), so your business is small change.Interaction with customers and clients is the key - this is how you are going to manage and do fluid marketing. Building relationships are important and this will help in building an army of loyal clientele and customers. These customers might turn into your "Unpaid Agents" who will promote your "Good Offerings" to their circles. A la "Word Of Mouth Marketing"
* Old School Honesty Still Rocks
Just few days ago i came across a survey which asked "Buying a Reliance product against a TATA product, which one will you go for? Mostly people selected TATA. In fact there were many comments which showed that even if the TATA products are slightly expensive, the customer is still likely to go for it. People prefer the clean,honest and transparent image of TATA. What does it mean? It means TATA is more socially favorable brand than Reliance. It also means that the age of "we say so" is over.
Today the customer is in-charge and he will decide how authentic is your pitch and service. It's not easy to pull money from persons pocket. From your side the consumer will always look like bit skeptic. The brand and owner has to be clean, transparent and honest about his and product's capabilities and prices. Then only you can expect some brand loyalty and advocacy. Honesty and transparency are not a sprint race, but a marathon which you must run patiently.* Value Over Vavoom
The recession has brought another change in the buying style. India is a country where a "reason" is always there with every buy. The customer asks "Do i have any need for this product"?. That helluva a simple question but it has huge importance. As a business owner, what exactly is the "reason"?..It's the value. India is growing and sure buying power is increasing.I have seen people buying stuffs which they don't need or have never planned for. I went in the mall to have a KFC burger but ended up buying that superb lookin T-shirt. But talk about the general Indian middle class. The "Do i have any need for this product" question is still there in the mind of customer and it has become a global consumer thinking, after recession. Let's go back one generation - our parents bought only those things which are important or in times extremely important. In tough markets like india, consume will continue to give more importance to "need" than "desire". The thing is, if your are a new business owner, always remember that the client will look at how you communicate and elaborate the point "Value For Money".
In businesses like Photography it's always important to know the special needs of the consumer and tailor the services accordingly.Assessing the competitors to judge the pricing and packages are also a good idea. I did that to know and research the market rate for wedding photography packages.
Let's Check these amazing marketing campaigns...
1) If anyone wants to know how social media can help business, look no further than DELL....The company generated a revenue of almost $6.5 Million through it's twitter presence.Shocking.. isn'it???
2) Jatra is a 400 year old traditional folk theatre from west bengal. Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL)'s Clinic plus brand is a well known shampoo brand in india.Clinic plus hires local artists and integrates brand communication with the jatra play. The jatra is highly publicized through extensive van or cycle promotions in very small villages. All the posters and banners carry Clinic Plus information and image. the local artists add nuances to the brand's message and elaborate it within the play. The result???? well...a single jatra attracts somewhere around 5000-1 lakh people. That 's a mob! and we indians know the power of mob..;). a perfect example on how to tab the unexplored, traditional and tough market .
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