MARKETING THE DEAD

Long Live the King of Pop. So say the fans and so do the marketers.

Michael Jackson died at the age of 50 under suspect conditions which caused a lot of stir in the global media. Last week, his glove sold for USD 350,000 at an auction where many more of his memorabilia found new buyers. This frenzy of cashing in on dead celebrities is not new however the magnitude of their fan following after their demise has grown and so has the marketing of their death. The Grim Reaper has now become the Marketer of the Decade.

Recently Mont Blanc released a Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Pen, to pay tribute to one of the most prominent personalities of our time. However, they priced this pen at a staggering price of USD 25,000. This is in stark contrast of the simplistic brand image of Gandhi who would drape himself in self woven cloth and would lead a modest lifestyle. Interestingly Gandhi also died under abnormal circumstances where he was assassinated in public.

Heath Ledger died at an early age of 28 due to a toxic combination of prescription drugs. The fan frenzy for his movie ‘The Dark Knight’ elevated the movie to more than USD 500 Million in the U.S. alone and won Heath an Oscar for his performance. Time will tell how marketers will look to exploit this young stars death.

Brand Equity of these celebrities has increased over time due to their untimely and unconventional deaths. What is really sad is the fact that some marketers are using these great personalities as mere marketing mediums and are looking at cashing in on their demise. That is why we see brand image mismatch as seen in the Gandhi – Mont Blanc case.

As new age marketers, it is our responsibility to draw the line where human tragedy and marketing are kept in their respective silos. Like one of the great quotes from a Spiderman movie goes, “With great power comes great responsibility”.

CONTENT MARKETING

Content marketing is the new sensation that will excel particularly in this time of recession for any brand. It is defined as the art of understanding what your target wants to know and delivering the same in a relevant yet compelling way to grow your business.

Any brand that helps the buyer to make a decision in their favour earns more credits than the one that stands aloof, waiting for a call that may actually never come. As it appears to be, each new buzzword always attracts the attention of both the qualified and the quacks. This necessitated the birth of content marketing as a way to educate potential consumers while attracting them to the brand’s services and/or products. Thus, initiating the relationship building process even before the customer eventually decides to buy from you.

The content needs to be spread across the brands target segment which requires having a good grasp of what will be beneficial to the audience and the brand. This may begin with research and then combined with active listening gives an idea of the consumer requirements which when produced/sourced need to be propagated and then promoted in the right direction towards the targeted audience. Since, content marketing is dynamic and not once in a life time activity, it requires continuous lubrication/updating.

For content marketing to achieve a faster success rate, the brand needs to engage in a multi-media approach that opens the door for the brand to meet different consumers at their preferred locations. A brand could consider social media platforms like flickr, twitter, graphics, blogs’, podcasts etc. to market its contents.

Remember, “Content may be the King, but you need an Ace to market it”.

IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO: MARKETING AND SUPPLY CHAIN

The fundamental requirement for any business to survive in this world is to create value differentiation. The difference lies between what the customer perceives to be the value of a product or service to what price he/she pays for it. The role of marketing is and has been to create a supreme customer value.  Incidentally, the ‘customer’ is the single driving factor that governs the existence of a business organization. Hence, with such a unique position, marketing has to have inter-linkages between itself and other departments in the company. These linkages have been happening for quite some time now but off-late there seem to be a special relation that has developed between supply chain management and marketing. In the new age this relation has grown so strong that it is deemed to overshadow every other relation in the organization.

Several recent studies have found that despite increased marketing spend to create differentiation among competing products and services, virtually all sectors are characterized by increasing commoditization. Globalization of markets, near instantaneous worldwide communication and substantial improvements in quality control have resulted in a plethora of ‘me too’ offerings. The best example for this is the smart phone market, pioneered by Apple and pursued by every other mobile phone maker in the world.

Generally, the problem of commoditization is looked at as a pure marketing issue and hence countered using, even though innovative, but mundane marketing tactics. Few of the examples are given below:

• Using the Brand equity to differentiate the product. (e.g. Sony)
• Focusing on service innovations. (e.g. IBM)
• Designing products to improve aesthetics. (e.g. Italian Designer Wear)
• Package the product differently. (e.g.: Kinder Egg)

But then wait a minute. Can we look at this issue as not just a marketing problem?

Yes, absolutely, if we understand the issue properly we will know that another important and effective way to counter commoditization is using Demand Management. Demand Chain as such is a business model that was developed by close integration of Marketing and Supply Chain Management (SCM), taking into consideration best practices from both streams.

In markets where commoditisation is inevitable, customers perceive little difference between products or services, while brand loyalty literally has no meaning. In these scenarios, timely availability and cost have become a major determinant of success which can only be achieved through effective integration of the supply chain and marketing.

Supply Chain’s latest tools and techniques such as Agile and Lean Principles can lower the total amount of resources required to provide the necessary level of customer service and at the same time serve the marketplace well where there is an increasing diversity in customer needs and wants. This is achieved through the rapid adjustment of supply to meet the ever changing demand, in short demand-driven supply management. SCM accomplishes all this by reducing the time-to-market and improving the product and service life cycle management.

I feel, companies which effectively link their marketing and supply chain operations gain competitive advantage by differentiating not only at the products and services level, but also at the underlying delivery processes level. They start possessing the capability to satisfy different customer needs with differentiated supply chain capabilities and, as a consequence, can lower prices on offerings that are of great value to the customer.

BRANDING NATIONS

Malaysia, Truly Asia. Incredible India. 100% Pure New Zealand. Happiness on Earth, Thailand. Ultimate in Diversity, Indonesia. Uniquely Singapore.

Today countries are laying a lot of emphasis on developing infrastructure, attracting investments and improving the quality of life of its citizens. Tourism is an important tool in achieving this. The above taglines promote tourism by bringing into context, what a country has to offer to its visitors. The tourism industry contributes almost 9% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Every country wants to grab a chunk of this GDP. In the past Europe was the most famous destination for world tourism, but now many countries are coming into the limelight with their focus on promoting tourism. They want to create a unique brand identity for their country and attract more tourists. If a country is widely known as a modern, secure, clean and efficient state then the chances of attracting tourists is more. Some of the successful countries which have created unique brand identities are Singapore, Dubai, India, Switzerland and France among others.

Different countries use different strategies to promote their brands. It can be through their people, products, historical events or other well known entities synonymous to that country. The tiny South East Asian island country of Singapore is well known as modern, secure and efficient state. It launched “Uniquely Singapore” for its branding campaign in 2004 and promotes itself as the bridge between the eastern and western worlds. To a large extent, it has been successful in building a positive brand image of Singapore as a nation through this campaign. Countries also use major sporting events like Olympics, Formula 1 racing, Commonwealth Games, etc to promote and build their image. For example, China used the Beijing Olympics in 2008 to show case its brand. India promotes its rich culture, diversity and varied geographies with the tagline of ‘Incredible India’. African countries promote their wildlife to attract tourists while countries like Dubai showcase themselves as shopping destinations.

Any country should be cautious in branding or rebranding its image and promoting the same. If there are no visible changes or signs of development in sync with the brand identity it promotes, that will negatively impact the brand image of a country.

Overall today most countries around the world are trying to differentiate themselves by revamping their image and building a positive brand for their nations.

SEXING UP THE AD

‘Aamasutra’. The name sounds like new age edition of the Kamasutra; but actually it’s the punch line for a mango drink called ‘Slice’ whose ad features erotic expressions of some bollywood heart throb. Imagine a Bengali lady walking seductively swaying her hips and arching her back. The lady passes a handsome hunk and gets drowns in thoughts of erotic fantasy. Sounds like some sleazy raunchy ‘X-rated’ flick ? Wrong again, it’s a new ad for a deodorant called ‘Wild Stone’ appearing across Indian television channels.

The TV ads are sexing up the Indian society or vice-versa. Earlier only the likes of the AXE deodorant ad series or the ‘Amul Macho’ ads made news. But recently a lot of brands across categories are coming up with such ads. Be it ‘Hide & Seek Milano’ cookies stressing on dark temptation and taking you through a sensuous journey of how the cookies are made or the new bold tag line ‘indulge your dark side’ for Bourbon biscuits from Britannia. Majority of these brands have nothing to do with such carnal desire and their functionality is nowhere close to a condom or sexy lingerie. It’s neither a Jockey nor a Durex, so why the marketer is turning towards sexing up the ads is the question.

Research suggests that erotic themes have never boosted brand recall. But trends show that brands are shifting away from functionality and that sexual depiction is becoming a strong way of communication going ahead. Slowly the family oriented ads like ‘Hamara Bajaj’ are becoming a relic of the past. Women rights groups will keep raising their voices about ads depicting women as sex objects but marketing communication is gradually relying heavily on sex and the free PR attached to it. Does this showcase the liberation of Indian society, changing consumer behavior & their willingness to watch steamier stuff or smart marketing targeted at the suppressed deep dark sexual desires of the Indian masses.

INNOVATIVE PRICING

In this very dynamic environment today, the customer experience plays a very critical role especially among different cuisine restaurants where there isn’t much to choose from when it comes to quality, size of the portions, pricing, menu options, service, etc. So what does a restaurant do to differentiate itself?

Here’s a classic example of a restaurant I came across. A restaurant called ‘Yo Sushi’ in Dubai differentiates itself from the crowd by providing the customers with a unique kind of dine in experience. It offers a feast of sushi food with over a 100 fish, meat and vegetarian hot classics, salads, sushi and desserts in this part of the world which caters to a niche target audience. It also uses the concept of ‘Help yourself to any dish off the conveyor belt’ which passes right by the side of your table.

Well, this is just the beginning of the experience for the customer as he/she sees different food stuff in different coloured plates. Typically a plate could define the food as vegetarian or non vegetarian but here is what this restaurant does, it prices the food items as per the colour of the plate like green plate dishes cost Dhs.10, while a blue plate dish costs Dhs.12 and so on. The number of empty plates is counted in the end to calculate the bill making it a first of its kind pricing model and providing the customer with something new and exciting to look forward to.

Even though it’s the same food, it results in a unique customer experience leading to customer delight using just an innovative pricing technique.

SMOKING KILLS. BUT SO DOES TRADITIONAL MARKETING.

If you can’t stop smoking, cancer will!!

Heard that one before? How about, ‘There are cooler ways to die.’ Anti smoking campaigns showcase the pinnacle of failed traditional marketing campaigns and represent billions of dollars wasted in advertising funds.

Understanding the various vectors that contribute to its ineffectiveness would probably bring out some valuable marketing insights. Although it may appear that an increasing number of people have actually retired or never attempted smoking, after years of sharp annual decline, per capita cigarette consumption is actually now at a plateau while teen smoking has now increased substantially since 1991.

Part of the reason why such campaigns tend to fail is possibly because most campaigns currently target the tobacco industry and often ‘preach’ to individuals towards kicking the habit. Hence, following repeated exposures to these messages, one of two things happen: The first possibility is that the message is so weak it can’t really connect to your cognitive reasoning (eg: Tar “.xgm”, Nicotine “.x gm”, Benzene “x.gm” etc) and you’d probably wonder, Ok, so what? Either ways it’s just tiny decimal numbers and obscure chemical compounds, I’m sure regular airborne pollution contains more toxins than that. The second possibility is that the consequences stated appear so unbelievable (like the super gross pictures on the pack) that it fails to connect to you emotionally as you fail to see how your picture perfect life could possibly end up like that.

Ok, all that sounds plausible, but heck, what else do we do? As Prof. S. Ramkumar at the S.P. Jain Center of Management would say it, introspecting on why campaigns don’t click and the fact that complains or faults pour in, often provide deeper insights into what must be done differently. In the same way here, rather than increase the visual appeal and impact of the core message, what needs to be done is a paradigm change in the core messaging itself.

Smokers are exposed to anti-smoking messages designed to discourage youth from starting to smoke, but they seldom encounter smoking cessation messages that offer realistic strategies on how to quit. Instead, too many messages offer overly simplistic solutions that generally fail to hold.

Just about everyone who has smoked long enough has tried to quit at some point or the other. And they have been quite successful at quitting… like a ten thousand times over! Dad had wondered a long time back as to why normally free thinking intelligent men could in a second go from point smart to point stupid by puffing away when all around them there are blaring messages of the death it brings. What most smokers fail to acknowledge is that smoking is an addiction. It is extremely challenging for the body to just abandon the chemical high and quit. Withdrawal symptoms last long after that.

Therefore the key is to switch from pure scare tactics and visuals to imparting workable techniques on kicking the habit. A paradigm shift in marketing campaigns towards education on simple yet practical steps on quitting step by step, inch by inch is what would probably work.

THE CHALLENGES OF ONLINE BRANDING

While the reach is wide and benefits are many, India is a country where internet usage is yet to penetrate deeper into our cultures. It’s an easy solution to just lift your bag and walk to the nearest store than sit on the internet to order for a product. The following are some of the challenges faced by online marketing and brand managers.

Insufficient use of internet tools: Online marketers are yet to use the many internet tools available to enhance better visits and transactions. Typical is the one to one marketing possible at all touch points on the websites. When a customer logs in, he would give his personal details. Any repeat visit should make the customer feel at home by providing information specific to the customer based on past visits. Amazon includes personalization with every product or service offered. Amazon has truly mastered this art, but there is a large population of online brand managers who treat their website like a common grocery store.

Security concerns: There are still many who are apprehensive submitting credit card details online. While the threat to online theft is always lurking round the next corner, many companies have successfully attracted a lot of customers. Another issue to the personal interaction is customers feeling their privacy violated when the site gives out personalized greetings and offers. IRCTC initially had a lot of issues when the increase in traffic had payment gateways crashing. The issue of failed transactions compelled IRCTC to deploy a process that tells the customer how each of the payment gateways have fared as recent as the last month. Issues like tracking the status of the ticket at any time using the PNR number or getting a duplicate ticket issued by emailing the ticket details as soon as a booking is registered have created a lot of confidence in the minds of the customers.

Merchandise and Supply Chain: A common complaint related to online shopping is that most products are out of stock. Another is the classic late delivery of goods or delivery of damaged or incorrect goods. The merchandise management and logistics of a online store is as important as that for an offline store, perhaps even more so as the door to the competitor is only a few clicks away. Here again Amazon wins hands down.

Lack of understanding of customer expectations: A large number of online companies fail because they fail to understand their customers. Are the target customers looking for price or quality or convenience of home shopping? Is the website easy to navigate? Too much clicking for a single product or transaction would make customers irritated. How many clicks would get them through the purchase? Such concerns are often left unanswered. The website also needs to be consistent in imagery and content. The web is too huge and it’s easy to get lost. Some of the best sites have a reliable site map and links back to home page. All of these centers around the user and this are a challenging factor to many.

Lack of clarity of the brand identity online: The final problem is a lack of appropriate branding strategies online. Most brick and mortar companies have an online presence but they do not have a clear online branding strategy and do not align the online brand to its parent offline store. Barnes & Noble had a little problem with what’s called `customer segment affinity’. Barnes & Noble didn’t bother to innovate. Its initial Web site was difficult even for its existing customers to find. Internet search programs cannot digest an ampersand, and the first Web address, barnesandnoble.com, proved unwieldy.  Eventually, Barnes & Noble created a new, separate brand: bn.com, that was separate yet complementary to the retail channel.( Hindu Business Line)

About the Author

Lata Vijaybaskar is an education and research professional pursuing doctoral studies with MPhil, MBA, MSc in Marketing, Branding and Social Media Marketing, providing educational instruction and research to individuals and corporations which enhance productivity, strengthen responsiveness, improve quality, and drive sustained business performance. This blog has been republished with her permission. You can view the same on her own blog http://brandacadame.wordpress.com

468×60s TO THE INTERSTITIALS

Gone are the days of 468×60s. Well I ‘am talking about the advertising banner of size 468×60 pixels which dominated the web about a decade back. Those days, the web giants focused on non-obtrusive ads. These ads were effective enough, as people were new to the web then. As years passed by, people have become numb to this format.

Today’s ads are often animated, a bit obtrusive and focus on catching the attention of the visitors. Some ad campaigns, in fact rely on getting the visitor to their landing page & then convincing them to buy the product rather than telling them what exactly is the product in the advertisement.  As some of you might have noticed, there are flash ads which entice a user to play a simple game & once you win the game it redirects you to the landing page. Well, what are the chances that you will be in a good mood when you land there.

Pop-unders & Pop-ups used to be the only obtrusive ad formats that could effectively catch the attention of the site visitors, until a few years back. But, now we have animated flash banners, peel-overs, interstitials, in-pic ads, in-video ads & what not. I’d classify these as obtrusive ones. On the other hand, Text ads, especially the context-sensitive ones like Adsense, Adcenter, Facebook, YPN etc. have been extremely successfully because they could target the visitors much better. In-line ads like those offered by Kontera & Infolinks have been successful, but visitors generally hate these ads. In-line ads embed the advertisements within normal web-content. So, these ads cannot go unnoticed. However, the problem is with matching the keywords & ads – relevance, something that has been missing in these ads.

Innovations have not always been successful. This theory applies to web advertising as well. Google had to retire its Video Ads. Adbrite’s In-Pic ads haven’t done well.  With several big players like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo in the league, one can always expect newer, innovative ad formats. The key is providing optimal user experience, while being effective at the same time.

MYSTERY PRODUCTS

It’s fascinating to see how companies use new and innovative techniques to woo the consumers. Companies today are not only coming up with new innovative products but also new marketing strategies to position their products in a new way all together, thus grabbing the consumer’s attention. When most of the companies are offering the expected, a few companies are going in the other direction by offering the unknown, which can be termed as the ‘Mystery Products’.

Marketers are trying to leverage on the fact that making choices is a cumbersome process for the consumers today as they are spoilt for choices. Thus by taking up the task of making the choice for consumers it is reducing their burden and offering a different shopping experience where they just chose the product and not the design nor colour or any other specifications. The choice is made by the company.

Hipstery, a German company which sells t-shirts through its web store, where customers don’t choose the design for their t-shirts but just selects the size, make the payment & answer certain question. The Hipstery team selects a t-shirt based on the questions answered by the customers. The customer does not know what is the design, pattern or colour of the t-shirt until he receives it. The company also offers customer the option of exchanging the t-shirt if they don’t like it the first time and refund the money if it happens the second time. Thus they are providing the consumers a new shopping experience with an element of mystery & surprise and reducing their burden of making a choice.

ShoeDazzel, a Los Angeles based company sells shoe on similar line but on a monthly subscription basis and Out of the box a Singapore based beverage company offers soft drinks which are labelled ‘Anything & Whatever’ the customer does not know what flavour it is until he opens the can and drinks it. There are innumerable other companies who offer products on similar lines.

Thus the concept of ‘Mystery Products’ is nothing but selling old wine in a new bottle. It is the creation of the marketers to woo the consumers in an innovative way.