thoughts of a young marketer

STRATEGIC MARKETING

Marketing in modern corporate world has become more and more important. With cut throat competition the market place is no more geographically defined it has become a global village. We have overcome the geographic barriers in terms of several things including intellectual mindset of the customers, product, market place, etc. products which are being developed by the companies have to be of a larger appeal and the globe as whole has to e considered as a market. To take a look as to how strategic marketing can help the nations lets have a look as to what it is and how it works.

Strategic marketing is aimed at marketing to the people in an altogether different manner, it means coming up with marketing plans which are platform based in the sense that they do not only sell one product but benefit the organization as whole. Strategic marketing does not mean as mentioned earlier selling a product but selling a thought, it means selling an organization as a whole example; TATA NANO is a strategic product it is not selling a car it is all about creation of an all new market and generation of new ideas giving market a new confidence about the new segment. Marketing NANO did not mean market of a new product it was marketing of a thought, marketing of a person, marketing of a company and then at last marketing of a product to the masses. The biggest challenge these days is to make a product which appeals to the masses and masses of masses, the best way to market is to generate the interest of people in a particular thought not a product, once the interest is generated the product will be bought by the public on its own. This was the method used by the; i-series of Steve Jobs of Apple computers, the i-phone, i-pod were based on these lines.

What I want to communicate is that the consumer of the 21^st century wants ease of access, he wants information rather than the product. Marketers should first differentiate to the smallest level and then integrate as a whole, that’s the reason why telecom companies should focus on communication rather than connectivity, automobile companies should on transportation rather than mobility. Transportation of humans physically from one place to another is the service provided by automobile companies, and communication is the mode provided by the telecom companies, what if the basic services of these companies are integrated, this leads to tele-transportation; the vehicle of the humans for future. These are the challenges which one as a marketer needs to focus on as a strategic marketer.

Working on these lines can create wonders and lead to the development of market disruptive products; marketing should be integrated with strategy for success of a company, it’s a thought which In my opinion is worth considering. Please feedback as to how it can be further improved…

 

 

  THOUGHTS OF A YOUNG MARKETER

These are a few strategies which I had developed for specific companies which if implemented by the companies will lead to some benefit to the companies for sure. This is only 1/100^th of the list I have many strategies for different companies on telecom, retail and many more and I have also developed various advertisements for different companies, have a pool of such stuff.

 

VIRAL MARKETING (a new dimension)

Cell phones have penetrated deeply in the life styles of Indian consumers, the total wireless subscribers in India as on 31^st march 2009 were 344.73 Million.  Still many companies have not taken this route of viral marketing, and the ones which have taken so are either restricted to SMS’s or random calling by IVM’s. What I’m suggesting, is an all new route which will help the companies to have better visibility among the consumers. This will help in re-enforcement and also help the consumers to act in the terms of consumer behavior. Taking an example to understand these things in a better manner lets try and study it in the realms of NESCAFE.

In Earlier days if there was coffee in India it was Nescafe, people had only one thought in their minds when it came to coffee it was Nescafe, but in recent days with coming up of various coffee brands in India Nescafe’s brand image has been diluted in the minds of Indian consumer. Though nestle has been great efforts for the brand to keep it in the top of mind category of the customers still people have various choices that they might consider.

What I propose is that the company should tie up with telecom companies lets say Airtel, which has got 80 million subscribers. Now the legendary Nescafe song “open up” is sent to these 80mn people for free in their cell phones as a ringtone, there is a possibility that they might install it has their default ringtone, as people tend to like things which are for free. Now whenever the phone rings they will hear the song open up, which will lead to brand re-enforcement and talking in the terms of consumer behavior, it might lead them towards an urge to have a cup of coffee. This method will prove to be cheaper as compared to television advertising and also help in having personalized touch with the consumer.

This method can be used by any company to promote its product, and it will prove to be the cheapest way have a personal connect with the consumer and will have a long lasting impact on the mind set of the consumers.

 

 

NEW HEIGHTS OF SELLING (giving different methods to brick and mortar)

Sales has taken a giant leap from brick and mortar to online selling, from mom and pop stores, to super markets, from mass selling to personalized sales. Talking about brick and mortar one expects the consumer to come to the product, though this has taken a giant leap and now brick and mortar shops are easily accessible and personalized, but still there are various avenues which companies have still not explored, to mention one for example lets take up a specific case of virgin mobile in India.

Virgin mobile in India has been since almost 2 years and despite of being a part of the prestigious virgin group of Sir Richard Branson, still the company has not been able to make a deep impact on the minds of Indian consumers despite of market disruptive schemes such as get paid for incoming and out the box advertising, the company still hasn’t got good penetration levels in the Indian market.

Virgin mobile in India has a virtual network it operates on the network of TATA teleservices, it also has kept the infrastructure costs least by not setting up offices in each circles instead it is a company which is running on the distributor network, and all the corporate decisions are centralized, not localized. The company has not opened up retail stores, instead it has put up kiosks in different malls and multiplexes and the high streets of the cities. Now the target market of the company is specifically the youth; one can make that out by giving a look to its advertising. If one is targeting youth specifically then why not move deeper into places where youth throng the most, malls and multiplexes is a good effort by the company, but one major place where youths throng has been missed out by the company.     

It is the college canteen. College canteens in India are places where Indian youth can be seen, in abundance and with spare time, more than any other place in the country. College canteen means graduate colleges, engineering & medical colleges, schools, coaching classes and what not. These college canteens are managed by individuals on yearly tenders. The idea is making the visibility of the product much better among the youth. The college canteen owner can be made the retailer and the phone (dummy handset) can be placed in the display shelf of the canteen where all consumable stuff is displayed. The attention can be grabbed such as imagine in a display shelf one has say ‘a samosa for 5 rs, patties for rs 7, pastery for rs 10 and a cell phone tagged as free’, this will definitely generate more attention and enquiry from the youth for the company as compared to the enquiries generated at present.

It can also be written in the menu board in the middle among the entire things available list, in fact this has opened up a new method to advertise that’s on the menu of the hotels and such places where people take a careful look at the entire list this can give the products better visibility and attention. Again when we refer to the cost element it will be much cheaper as compared to electronic advertising and other means of giving out information to the public, and the best part is that it will be more personalized and have a better appeal.

    

Please give your valuable feedback it will be highly appreciated.