Its been a long time since the last post... more than 6 months. Ignored opportunities like putting ad on this blog because i knew there was going to be a long gap...... Reason for the gap- i am not sure. But i really learned a lot and got another taste of what some call the 'corporate blood'. It was tasty and here i am!
Here I shall share a small part of the interesting things i have been learning. Well, i am sure no one is interested in what i am learning; so read the rest of it as something what i always represent- a naive point of view towards the world of marketing.
Online Marketing
No, not another lecture on how important online marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization 'and' etc. are. Because we all know now that for every small, medium or large enterprise, the reach which this media can provide goes beyond measure. And the lecture is also not on how to use this media in the most effective manner.. one search on google and there are thousands of blog posts and articles on the issue, hundreds of examples on how intelligent internet marketing boosted company's profits. I don't want to add to the list another example, though this one could have stood out amongst the hundreds.
Lesson no 1: Nothing is what you see. Everything is what you analyze.
Twitter seems like a micro-blogging platform where businesses can post regular updates and attract customers to their website. But its not just that. An analysis of Twitter, and we find that may be the above statement is currently valid for customers outside India but not very effective for Indian SMEs. But why can't we create and model T like a Youtube Channel, not a place of regular updates, but a platform of depiction of abilities of the company. A platform where all new inventions, press releases, photographs, videos and other links can be seen. Well. this worked for me, you know why, because people look up to Twitter for business purposes, and not to Facebook or Youtube for the same. So even Twitter can provide more than what they(we) think they are providing.
Similar parallels can be drawn for LinkedIn, which promises much more than eyes perceive..
Lesson on 2: Google is even more intelligent than what they make themselves out to be (and as every online marketer would know they make themselves look extremely intelligent).
Google keeps all its methodologies secret, how it decides organic search listing, how it manages its Adwords. But since Google guys know they are intelligent, they believe in the concept of awarding and rewarding any other intelligent person it knows. Hence they leave a number of hints at various locations, only for the smart ones, to track their methods.. and at the end of the day, its not really tough to manipulate Google towards you (unlike the common opinion) but only if you are smart enough (like me) to be rewarded by this marketing giant.
Lesson no 3: Wikipedia MUST be trusted (I am a Patroller in wiki, so believe me; we don't allow any wrong information to be present on wikipedia for long). And Wikipedia is Not a Marketing Platform, though again, like Google it appreciates and rewards only the intelligent.
Lesson no 4: The rate at which new things are being integrated with Web 2.0, it shouldn't be long before it will need a new name.
It is already in the need of new marketing ideas. Real time Brand Marketing getting integrated with the digital media, has ensured this: there is only one medium needed to do marketing.. only 1 (call it Web 3.0 if you wish)
Competition and Target
Lesson no 5: Getting the best from all your competitors, improvising on the same, and presenting it with adorning words is not only Fair, but also Successful.
Successful because the product actually becomes the best of the best, if the best qualities from all competitors are brought into 1 and the word 'innovation' thrown in.
Fair because I did it; called a number of competitors across the globe posing as customer, gathered the best they were offering and put these ideas in a new product with some more novelty thrown in. And I am still friends with these guys, despite 1 or 2 of them knowing what I did.
Lesson no 6: Sector Based Marketing
Not so commonly used by SMEs yet, this is a must for every company aspiring to reach out to a larger range of target group. Plan campaigns specific to sectors of target groups, and launch them with focus looking local while effects are global.
Other life Lessons
Lesson no 7: Jealousy and Competition is much more in the Corporate world than even in IIT (now this was a shocking learning)
Lesson no 8: Every second of your life can help you learn something new... there is so much knowledge everywhere
And before i start getting philosophical and hence even more boring..
Lesson no 9: Every lesson can't be shared, some experiences go beyond the limit of words.
Footnote: Many things life taught, and many things it will be teaching in moments to come. Hope to see some great achievements in near future... Now, I'm doing.. not (just) dreaming!!
8 comments:
our corporate friend!
@Prashant... MY (not our) Innovator Friend!
Liked it.
Nice!
Guys.. i noticed one very interesting thing.
Putting the link of this website in my gmail id and sending the mail to an id not in contact list.. is detected as spam by various mail services like Yahoo!
I created a few fake ids and then sent mails containing the link to some other blog (hosted by blogspot).. even those were detected as Spam by the Yahoo! filter.
But links to LinkedIn etc are not regarded as spam...
@Asu
What's your take on Rin Tide controversy.
@Kishan
The Rin-Tide controversy is extremely interesting and provides enough matter for novel blog posts to be written on it :)
My views, if compressed into few words, would be this: Rin (Unilever) has played a card which can define new sort of ad marketing in India (may be uglier), but they are going to benefit immensely for the same.They knew these 2 things for sure- firstly, it'll be next to impossible to prove that what they have shown cannot happen (come on, you can't disprove the possibility of a Rin shirt being whiter than tide shirt.. though they may have to change the tagline- tide se kahi behtar safedi de); and secondly, they played this card at Holi weekend... so that by the time controversies take their step forward to other mediums(press, courts etc.), the ad is played many times and damage done in Indian middle class minds..
But there's another angle- the visibility Tide gets without paying at all... But I think at the end of the day, Rin wins here.. after all Tide started the war by unethically claiming natural products in their brand..
Good or bad, my view:
Business wise: Good as long as you know what you're doing and don't use the name of the other brand too many times giving it unnecessary brand presence (TV media works differently from other media, here negative brand presence may also mean positive if over done)...
Ethics wise: Not really bad, considering they aimed to target the wrong call started by Tide itself (the Tide Naturals court case) and i am a supporter of comparative marketing.. Ethics is also comparable.. after Tide goes away from ethics once, rin is allowed to do so at least once, in the minds of the consumer and even marketers.. so this ethics part won't harm the business and as long as business is not harmed everything's fine.
My final take: If I'd have made the ad, I'd not have put the Tagline as 'Rin's better than Tide'.. I'd have shown Tide and shown rin and clearly shown the difference in the whiteness of the two.. but not mentioned the word 'tide' in the audio more than once but definitely shown the 'tide' in the video as many times..
It was needed for Rin.. Tide is hell bent on capturing the market it has ruled for long... Not a bad step, could have been better.
Lets see how Tide response.. and i am not talking about the legal angles.
Post a Comment