Whom are we speaking to?

Scene- My desk, on Phone

Me: Hello, I am Vikas Sachdeva, I am in Marketing Team, Can you please help me with the sub categories of awards for the entry - Advertising, Events, Print ads, TV ads,Communication collaterals, any research insights, concept innovation etc?  I have sent all the entries for the awards.

Other side: Yes, I will mail you all the details.

Scene 2, A glass cabin mixed with few walls 

Me: Sir, I will be getting the details of sub categories of awards

Other side: whom did you speak to?

Me: Some representative from awards, but i don't know the name.

Other side: Its always good to know who is the person we are speaking to, at least the name.

Though this conversation has become the pretext of the thought , I have been thinking for last 6-7 months about

Whom brands/marketers speak to promoting their products/services/brands/companies/offerings.


I read somewhere "Marketing for prospective customers needs to be different than Marketing for already acquired customers"

So whom are we speaking to?

Only communication perspective

Prospect 

Brands speak very nicely to him/her, he/she is the most pampered person on this earth, he is approached/influenced on everything, Which car he should buy, which phone is best for his/her needs etc , Brands make him believe that they are the only best choice available to him if he wants to redeem himself.

If we are speaking to prospect, In our communication, We should be

• Giving him knowledge about the product/service than pushing it 
• Giving him experience of our brand/product service first than telling him its advantages over others
• Lucrative incentives to try  

As a prospect, i may not know what to buy, it is the trials with the different brands which will help me choose. Better is the experience , better are the chances of getting picked.

Through deal sites like Snap-deal/group on, what they do is, they discount the full time service/product to trial mode, customer pays say Rs 599 for a spa treatment where he/she experiences services and then choose full time packages.

 If a toothpaste or a cream continuously speak about how it is better than others, beyond a point people start mistrusting the same.

Customer

It is the most misunderstood word, There is a distinct difference between customer and a user. I may be a customer of a hypermarket when i buy detergent but i am not the end user. The requirements of end user may be different than a customer. While I may choose X brand based on availability/location of the hypermarket/convenience while end user may think of price/quality of the product.

If we are speaking to a end user

• Focusing on targeting/communication based on quality of the product/durability/tangible aspects. He/she always looks for functional aspects first
• Comparisons with other brands/services, challenging his rational mind to think, giving him reasons to choose your product/service rather than you pushing it
• Offers/discounting

In the end , I should be proud of my decision in choosing the brand/product/service. If i as a end user have not got kick of purchase, if my rational mind is not happy, all in vain.

If we are speaking to a customer

• Focusing on targeting his triggers of choosing the products/service, We need to involve the customer into our journey, how this product/service is made, how it started, engaging him more through story telling.
• Giving him more reasons to be loyal, family outings in the plant where we manufacture the products, making him feel special, making him feel important and valued
• Involvement of his friends/family in your business
• Involvement of his in new product/service design
• Understand his/her emotional needs

Today thanks to tight budgets over variety of media options available, same communication is released for all types ( prospects/customer/end user), then we wait and wait for the results. 

We need to craft tailor made programs for each type we are targeting and administer each program effectively.  

At the end, i would like all of us to think " Communication/Marketing for Prospect/Customer/End user is distinctively different from each other, we need to think differently for each set" 

By the way, Just 20 days left , we will have new government at the center.

Keep smiling!

Vikas Sachdeva

Is Social Media making us anti social?

Is Social Media making us anti social?

No, I am not trying to answer headline of this blog, I am just attempting to give my inputs how social media has become part of our lives and how people are behaving on social media platforms.

One thing i would like to highlight is Social Media is not facebook, twitter and linkedin though these have become definition of social media. Social Media is a platform on which people express their views. Tomorrow anybody can come with some innovation in the way people express which will be more than likes, comments, Retweets etc.

Lets talk about nature of Facebook and twitter and LinkedIn to understand more about them. By nature i mean the way these three platforms behave. Facebook is more visual , Visual cues play important role when people express their views.You know research says blue color is soothing to eyes, it is calm in nature, hence Facebook color scheme is blue. Due to its nature it engages people in pictorial way which means people tend to post pictures on this platform. I loved one line somebody mentioned "The urge in the people to speak/express themselves is the reason of success of this social media". People want to tell about themselves, what they are doing at any given moment and want others to acknowledge it. Thats why more no of likes, comments gives people a high.

Twitter is a different phenomenon. In 140 characters, it forces people to write/express relevant. Text/word is a hero, people think high about usage of right words to express themselves. Hence it is more of text. If you are hyper active on twitter, people don't mind much as one tweets in less space and can tweet more in number however if a person is hyper active on Facebook , pressure of likes/comments makes him feel that people will not respond beyond one point.

Linkedin is a different animal altogether, it supposedly captures professional aspect of a person, his career, his connections. It is basically used by professionals and a kind of no- nonsense platform.

here is a catch, 3 major platforms, different nature! and a most of the people behave differently in all these platforms!

I am a different person in all the three platforms. By nature , i am a content creator not a passive reader. On facebook, i tend to write humor/witty lines as i like entertaining people, on twitter, i play a role of a observer where i tweet about my observations in any topic , be it advertising, brand, politics, bollywood, cricket, management etc. On linkedin, I like to read articles, participate in discussions apart from interacting with right people who have similar interests.

CAN A SINGLE PERSON BE DIFFERENT ON DIFFERENT PLATFORMS?  

In my perspective it is possible , provided you are reasonably active on all these platforms.

I have few other observations:

1. I am beginning to have perception that passive readers on these platforms are increasing.They would scroll down the page and like to read the content of others than posting their own.

2. Since the updates are real time, that gives other people a kick to read more  about other peoples' post.

3. Social media platforms are acting a vent for the people to express their emotions & feelings.

4. These platforms are good for brand awareness not selling of product/service.  

5. With the adding of people in their friend list, people believe they are in touch with each other, but that is not true, through these platforms people have become more accessible. People who spend more time on these platforms are increasingly becoming disconnected since they are not putting efforts on meeting people but interact on these platforms.

Facebook asks " What is on your mind"

Twitter asks " what is happening"

Whatsapp and BBM are too playing their role.

One of the professor in my college mentioned it to me once " Always make efforts to meet people, you will learn and unlearn"

And I thought I am in touch with people though this internet based platforms!!


Vikas Sachdeva 

My latest blog- my dwarka visit

My Dwarka Experience

All the people mentioned in this blog are real and hold resemblance to situations. No feelings are hurt in writing this blog, only various incidents which happened during my visit to dwarka have been described.

I must say God is kind to me, my visits to these religious places have been spontaneously planned and have been executed with ease. They say " More you plan, it never happens" so just spur of the moment and i executed darshan of dwarkadheesh and nageshwar.

There are 12 jyotilings of shiva in india and after covering 10 of them there was a strong urge in me to cover rest 2. While Shiva has devastated kedarnath , only one jyotiling which i could cover in next  1 year was "Nageshwar" in dwarka.

I reached Rajkot from Mumbai at 8 pm and as suggested by my respected seniors, i went to railway station for retiring room, since my train from Rajkot to dwarka was at 3 am in the morning next day, i started roaming around in rajkot city at 9 pm. With silence all over, less crowd and small shops, i was away from madness of mumbai, people seemed to have lot of time for each other and seemed in love with each other talking. I just spotted a panipoori thela who was staring at me from a distance asking me to consume him entirely. being a golgappa lover ( its called golgappa in Punjab and delhi, Puchka in east, Gupchup in raipur, Pani ke Patase in UP) , i was defeated and soon found myself standing next to thela eating so good panipooris ( 8 pcs in Rs 10, worth mentioning). Then i returned to my room and started waiting for the train.

Being a keen observer, my mind was thinking about gujrati people ( i love them for what they are, culture, food is awesome). I was thinking in a city like rajkot if you are not building relationships with local community and get word of mouth about your brand,  no matter how much money you spend in advertising, a brand will face hard time.

I reached dwarka station at 7.30 am and then i witnessed few interesting people and stories:

Auto driver- The networker

After seeing my face, this guy noticed skillfully that i am looking for a hotel and help in planning my day's itenery. after he agreed for rs 40 for a drop to dwarka temple and help in hotel, he started talking ( gujratis love that) , in 15 minutes, he told me all mythology behind dwarka city and his rates if i wanted to take his auto for the day. After being impressed ( shocked!) by the autowala's knowledge, he stopped in front of a hotel. based on appearnce i denied, he insisted if i could see the rooms first and then decide. I bowed down , he was taking his commsion from hotel guy after i agreed for the room. he left the hotel with a winning smile ( money from me and hotel guy).

Hotel owner

He was in hotel business for last 10 years. The valuation of his place had increased 100 times from the price he had bought this hotel long back. Wondering how did i know? he just told me as i was getting room keys. I was surprised as with just a hello, he told me his story of life. he then narrated the way he does business focusing on small revenues then increasing the prices in the season ( navratri and janamashtmi)

Dwarka Darshan

I was mesmerized to see the temple, such a huge old strucure ( 5000 years old reportedly), my speed was slow in the temple, i wanted to see each and every brick, wanted to hear every story, then somebody told me this temple was a court for lord Krishna, this was his office from where he used to operate. Krishna was such a politician, he used every technique to win mahabharata, create his own aura, anyway thats a seprate story altogether. I was told by my wife that dwarka is one of the 4 dham. I did darshan of dwarkadheesh, thanked him for everything and like every indian had my list of wishes ready to ask from him.

Then i was taken for a tour of 5 hours covering 4 locations which had their own story. the good thing about travelling is you get to know many things , many people, many stories.

Nageshwar

as i mentioned earlier, i was the fortunate to cover 11th jyotilinga of shiva out of 12, i was simply in love with the temple, they had constructed a big shiva statue outside the temple. There was no major rush and my purpose of visiting dwarka was complete as i met shiva.

Gopi talab

story goes like this, Post mahabharata, Arjuna was in lot of awe of himself thinking he is the best with his Dhanush, Krishna being the best judge thought of correcting arjun. he sent 1,00,108 Gopis with arjun to be travllelled from dwarka to Mathura. krishna with his power created few people who had a battle with arjun and arjun lost and 1,00,108 gopis immersed themselves in a pond which is now called Gopi talab.i saw that talab and was ready for next spot.

Bhent Dwarka

They said it was home of krishna, he used to live with his family, this dwarka was mae of gold and was immersed in sea by krishna fearing people will fight for gold when he will not be around. sudama came there with some rice and gave it to krishna, hence name ,'Bhent dwarka" , we covered almost 25 minutes in the sea to reach to this place.

Then there was a Rukmani temple which had its own story.

Back to hotel tired but satisfied with the day, i slept and woke up next day , covered 6 hours in bus travelling inside gujrat and then flight back to mumbai from rajkot.

 This experience of 1 day was eventful, heard many stories, many people.


"Pappa, main aavi gayu" , i heard this voice at mumbai airport, somebody calling home.


"Traveling is like a book, the one who has not traveled , is on one page only throughout"


Vikas sachdeva

I am a customer

I AM A CUSTOMER

I am a customer, lot many companies approach me daily, I get flooded by calls from credit card companies, everybody is trying to give me money, every product is claiming to change my life, every brand takes care of my comfort, whether my room is cool or not, whether there are mosquitoes in my room, whether my telephone bill is more, whenever I walk on the road, every hoarding is telling me I am the best, when I sit down and read newspaper, then also every brand is shouting I am the best! Everybody is decreasing prices for me, giving me plenty of discounts.

They have made me the king.

What they want in return is loyalty , I should stick to them forever but the problem is how I can be loyal to all the brands, so I asked all of them a question.

Are you loyal to me?

No brand spoke, silence!

I asked few more questions!

Have you understood me well enough?

Do you know what problems I face daily? Have you tried to understand what makes me happy? Do you  know which color I like? Do you know what my family loves the most? No, you are just throwing some freebies for me, some discounts for me, ok, I will be happy for that moment when I have to pay less price for buying your product, but in the long run, when I will have choice, I will move to the product which understands me better! I will move to brand who genuinely thinks about me, plays with me, display love for me when required, feels happy for me and you thought that you can play with greed forever! NO!

What Special you are doing for me?

Tell me, why I should buy you? What special you have done for me? Just spend some time will with my family and you will realize that what it means when somebody sends a birthday cake on my son’s birthday? When pizza guy comes, takes the money and says “ apni family ke saath khana, acha lagega!

When I am sitting in a flight and attendant plays with my daughter!

When doctor says, “ Koi baat nahi paisa phir kabhi aa jaayega, aap healthy raho”!

Try to do special for me then I will feel special about you!

Have you made my life simple or complex?

I really feel bad when you don’t mention delivery charges extra explicitly whenever I order online, you try to fool me by showing lesser price and then adding huge amount of delivery charges! Mention the price directly and say ‘delivery charges are included in the price’, I will be clear what I will have to pay. You do multiple verifications when you have to sell a credit card but when due to slow internet , transaction fails, then you say that we will revert to you in 7 days

Why 7 days?

Why can’t you check things online and call me next day and update me with the status.

Why inspite of heavy luxury tax, service tax paid by me in your restaurant, your waiter returns the change in coins? So as I can leave few coins for him.

Why don’t you try to simplify my life, once you do that, we both will grow!

Don’t overpromise if you can’t deliver!

Don’t overpromise, you don’t know how many people apply your fairness cream because you promise that they will be fair someday, Instead say it improves skin texture.

Deliver the parcel in time committed to the customer; someone may be waiting for the parcel.

Don’t say yes when you know it is no.

Don’t think I am angry at you; I just want to say that if you are seeking loyalty from me, then you should also be loyal to me!

Sincerely

A customer!

Apple and 4P's of Marketing

 

Apple- not following 4Ps of Kotler?

Out of many thought provoking lines, I just started thinking about a tweet from one of my respected senior.

“Apple, a Failure of traditional 4P’s of Marketing and yet a success!

I analyzed the same, I began to run through 4P’s and yes, bang on, it seemed true! And I was convinced of greatness of apple brand who had challenged the traditional theory.

But there were some counter views when I discussed the same with one of another respected senior who was of the opinion that it was not true.

Two different people, same tweet, two opinions, I was confused! I wanted to get to depth!

View

Product- Apple has not done any innovation in products, portable music player was not launched by them, Apple may seem to be innovative company and brand but they have beautifully done innovations in product design and user experience, all perfect! If you compare features of apple phone with competitors, features are same or even less, so nothing great features wise! An Ok product!

Promotions: an apple has never promoted its products, only word of mouth has been the sole reason for its success (because of good product design and user experience), one may argue what is the need of promotion if your product is selling well on word of mouth ( highest form of marketing) but apple has never focused on promotions.

Pricing- Apple products are way to highly priced (one may argue its their pricing strategy) but why? what does the product/brand hold to deserve such high pricing? Great product, no? Great value, no? Great features, no? Why then he is charging so high pricing? 

Place- Apple has been purposefully denying its availability of products in India, a country who can give its sales a great spurt, a country with affordability? Why such demarcation?

Overall, a sidelined view of 4P’s, but apple brand /product is a success story in itself! It’s a league, it’s a community, and it’s the pride of owning apple products which is driving its sales.

Counter View

Product- it’s a brilliant product with such a great user experience, experience is driving people crazy and people are buying it, wanting it, waiting for it! What else a product can offer, experience only which is there in apple, one up for apple product!

Promotions: It’s a company strategy not to promote its products so extensively when their product is selling like hot cakes. Why promote? Word of mouth is enough.Who said a brand needs to promote?, it’s a calculated decision and in some ways of the other , it is creating required word of mouth promotions required to sell the brand., two up for apple.

Pricing: it’s the experience for which people are paying it, high or low doesn’t matter and they are ready to pay much more.

Place- it might be possible that there is enough demand outside and they are not able to match the production levels, they may be wanting to ramp up production levels to cater to that demand and then possibly make easily availability in india.

What a Magic , apple has created, I have not figured out yet, what made me spend on iphone , I don’t know, was it experience? Was it the features? Was it word of mouth created by others?

Yet lot to learn from apple, a masterpiece!

Vikas sachdeva

God as Brand

The thought of writing this blog came when I went to Shirdi in July 2012, when I reached Shirdi, I saw huge following in queues dying to meet Sai Baba, Also when I went to Mallikarjun ( one of the Jyotirlinga of Shiva near Hyderabad), I saw tons of crowd, it made me think people really follow Gods.

GODS ARE BRANDS, different gods serve different purpose/needs in people’s lives. I started looking at Gods as brands as under

Shiva

I find him a very strong brand when it comes to specific needs of a consumer, he is like Amitabh Bachchan in real world, that stature, persona, connect with people. He is a national brand, if you observe in temples, all Gods are given due pampering by flowers, shingar, aarti but when it comes to Shiva, he stands apart, he is not pampered n the same proportion yet he stands apart.  Shiva brand is exclusive too, people travel all kinds of mountains to meet him (see locations of all 12 Jyotirlinga, except Somanth and Vishwanath, he is not easily accessible, maybe that’s the reason he is respected more.

You will find a strong sub brand in Nandi who is always connected to main core.

Key attributes of Shiva brand: Exclusivity yet approachability, non interfering, commands a premium, strength in distribution, perceived assurance in fulfillment of promise made to him.

 Hanuman

As a brand promise, he is a problem solver, no matter whatever comes; he will find a solution, so for customers he is most loved. A total solution provider, his strength lies in go getter attitude, he is friendly, and if you see you will find him in all temples accompanying almost all Gods like Ganesh, Ram, Shani, Sherawali mata. He is playful. His major markets are northern and western India.

Key attributes of Hanuman brand: problem solver, friendly

Ganesh

Though he is available in all parts of country but his major sales come from Western India (Lord Shiva divided the territories between Ganesh and Kartikeya (strong brand equity in south). He is a welcome brand in all Indian houses; he serves two purposes for consumers

1.       He fulfills wishes of people,

2.       He is a problem solver

If you see trunk on side where Ganesh‘s heart is he is the one who fulfills wishes, but if you see his trunk on his right side, he is a problem solver (Siddivinayak comes under this category)

Key attributes of Ganesh brand: friendly, no intrusive, brings smiles

Krishna

A mastermind, cheerful and a politically correct brand, he is preferred in all parts of country, his claims are tall that he is everything, he is perceived to play a role of a brand which guides people, a guiding brand, he suggests only and then moves on, with huge female brand loyalists, he is not cunning, he doesn’t speak his promises loud and clear. His strong markets are UP and Gujarat. He makes his consumers think, he installs questions in their minds and making them powerful.

Key attributes: Experiential brand, politically correct, adviser, cheerful

Ram

He is the most spoken brand name in entire country, huge top of the mind recall, he is known for sacrifices thus perceived to be old brand. He is generic name, thus not exclusive. One thing that comes to my mind is inspite of huge brand recall, he is not perceived to be big, a big preferred name. He is a majorly north India brand.

Key attributes: huge recall, known for sacrifice

The intent is not to hurt anybody’s sentiments, I just see God as a brand.

Vikas Sachdeva

Brand Amul- Connecting with people efforlessly

Brand Amul- Connecting with people’s effortlessly

  

It was 12^th July 2012, I just entered the Hotel Red Fox in Hyderabad at around 11.15 pm, after a day of making arrangements for our new outlet launch in Chandanagar, freshened up, was just about to close my eyes for a good sleep, my room phone rang, wondering who it will be at this hour, It was my boss Mr Alok Kapoor on the another line.

We were called in his room at 11. 30 pm to share some data!

Just as we were discussing some points, My boss stood up and there was one book “Amul‘s India” in his hand.

“This is a gift for you, he said!

I was astonished at his gesture, i had always considered books as most valuable gifts (last week only, my wife had gifted me Steve jobs biography) and a gift from boss, wonderful, i really felt happy!

I slept well that night!

The book is about brand Amul, not how it was made in detail, but how it grew strength to strength.

Few points it taught me-

How Amul system works

Milk Producer---------Village Dairy CO-OP----------District Milk CO-OP union--------State CO-Op Milk MKTG Fed------------Consumer

1.       Cartoon form: First and foremost thing i like about brand Amul is its form, Cartoon Amul girl, it has not tried to become real, had it become real life character, it would have lost the charm, brand Amul is not intimidating, not boasting about its products, this form is most engaging. The sketches are still hand coloured.

2.       Brand Amul: After observing the communication over the period of time, brand Amul is positioned in my mind as “ Priceless products with complete consumer trust” , this brand is so approachable, it’s never far, it tells me “ i have best products whatever milk can produce”

3.       Communication messages: They always are topical, let’s remember it’s really difficult to choose one subject to communicate on as topic need to have dramatic potential, of sufficient interest, they need to appear immediately otherwise impact of that topic will be lost and at the same time, there should be a way to connect with the brand. Amul has always chosen topics which have the maximum connect (Bollywood, Politics and Sports). The messages are thought provoking, lovable and charming.

4.       4-5 words of wittiness and humour and teasing - The best part about brand Amul is that it’s messages are of just 4-5 words and in some cases even lesser than that.

 It’s really difficult in 4-5 words to

           

  Connect with the topic/issue

                Putting humour

               Connect with Amul brand and its products

5.  Amul addressing everyday problems – With its journey from attacking politicians, connecting with Bollywood stars, it started addressing grievances of customers like power shortages, bad roads. Admissions ,Legal age for drinking and more, so customers felt brand Amul as their spokesperson, somebody who is highlighting their problems not as if brand Amul will solve the problems but at least addressing to large public through its hoardings.

6.Controversial nature of messages- Why it got connected to most people was that its controversial Nature, it was put people into thinking for few seconds and then smile, customer would nod in agreement, Yes, i have understood what you meant!

Journey of brand Amul

1970-1980- In this period, Amul billboard documents the disconnected concerns of small group

1985- Mid 1990s- Amul billboards covers beginning of liberalization and change of political discourse.

Post 1991- Political scandals and controversies

After 2000- Bollywood and television

Amul, Utterly Butterly delicious, a brand!

Vikas Sachdeva