Manufacture the brand as you like it!!!

What is inspiration? What is creativity? And what are all talks and suggestions about getting connected to people rather than only communicating?

And also those marketing jargons of integrating your business with long term business strategies.

All these and then it is followed up by marketing them wrapped up with branding strategies that comprises all the channels of reaching out to people, and nowadays for sure those channels will include the digital media and online space into it.

Is it just about necessity to be present at a place where your competitor is there or rather reaching to a place before competitor reached there?? Or is it more important to get inspired and be innovative enough to come up brand new product sub-categories which will automatically lead you to get place in the dynamic competitive market.

  

An organization which is coming up in my mind is  +Audi Deutschland , more than just a car it’s a lifestyle brand. And like so many other successful lifestyle brand Audi markets its usability rather than the product itself.

I mean how many organizations are there who can claim that they get inspired from an eye of an insect!!! And inspires enough to go ahead with it and invest substantial R&D to make it happen. Then communicate the message in a limited period of time of Digital age and space how they are converting the biological evolution of an insect aye and into usable mechanics through superior German engineering….and providing an experience for consumer never before.

(Refer to this link to see the awesomeness of Audi http://www.rethinkeverythingblog.com/marketing-smack-down-by-audi-for-2013-sb-storytelling-awesomeness/)

It’s all the tricks lies in the simplicity you can bring to consumers life and make it simple. Why not?

Just think of how related the thought process of a leading premium car manufacture and a Hardware Device company , known popularly as  +Appleinc  can be..

“That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

 Steve Jobs

Marketing as you like it ....

I just went through one of those week where you have to work insanely and some problems pop up and you just go ahead and try to solve it even if does not come under your "so-called" job description. I witnessed the first customer visit and it's exhausting and exhilarating and definitely a learning experience.

I mean "customer is king" and if possible make preparation to welcome "royals".

And whenever I was facing some difficult task and there is no one to consult because your boss in some meeting there are moments I had to make calls. I don't want to brag (but a little bragging is okay right!!) but I did it well. And when I look back to assess I could do it because I applied "Marketing Strategic Thinking" even though I didn't consciously planned for it, but it happened anyway.

And it happened because I was thinking about the long term relationship my company's customers have with our organization and also the similarities between their core and basic values of both them (though both are originated from 2 different continents and posses a huge cultural diversities).

Strategic planning always make your job easier and mix it with your drive, desire and competencies -- you have winning combo.

Marketing or let me be precise by saying branding mainly deals with 2 things among your customer -- "Brand Stature"--esteem & knowledge-- & "Brand Equity"

And if it's correctly done, its not that difficult to retain relationship with customers.

Well the "trick: is to do it correctly but how??

There comes the game of 4P (7P for service Marketing) and STP .

 

Connected or Elusiveness of Connectivity !!

It's so easy to stay connected and internet has provided us with the blessing of staying connected. But as a side effect our attention span is lacking than ever.

For sure majority of us have hundreds and thousands (few people)  of friends in our Facebook account or  that matter various social media, but do all of them are our friends in real sense. No!!

Similarly, just visibility is not an option anymore and its true both for individual brand building of a person in online media and for organizations.

You are just another entity in the vast ocean of data and information.

The question comes to play---why will anyone look at you? And what's new in you?

And to stand out in crowd you have to get platform to prove yourself but what if that platform never comes to you??

Answer might come be Creative, Innovative, or so good it becomes hard to ignore.....

Wish there are magic wands and spells to fulfillt  such wishes!

I am trying to apply 4P's and STP into various aspect of life because hey I do believe whatever may be the medium or reason you can apply marketing to solve problems in your life  and business. 

I am in my way trying to make myself better in it with each day and hope all the people out there can also achieve it and make it perfect.

And at the mean have a look at the video of  Philip Kotler.....

Need analytic's to wear it !!!

Analytics , a powerful word in today's time and age or maybe going to be the most powerful word in near future.

And with the advent of +bigdata it has become all the more relevant in today's day and scenario. And or age is experiencing the rise of data savvy companies.

I mean you can imagine roughly 90 % of world's existing data in 2012 were created in past 2 years!!!

And with advent of more and more smart devices and digital media's continuous evolution data is not merely generated from conventional sources of accounting, finance and official government records, it had gone beyond that.And it will keep on growing.

And if you see around the way technology is evolving with ever changing lifestyle or we can rather say to change the lifestyle.

Just following through the recent events we can understand ...like +Under Armour has signed a deal worth $150 million with +MapMyFitness so that 20 millions of their registered user can track their fitness.

By referring to this link we can see the boom of wearable technologies in the market http://bit.ly/HVt3Ay

And all these developments is going to generate huge amount of data.

Also check out this  +YouTube  video  which talks about how tech giants like +Google and social media organizations like +Facebook Login  able to manage their data and how +Hadoop  worked as a game changer.......

Innovation:Keep it fresh!!

We humans sometimes can be so greedy and materialistic -- we want more from life and every aspect of it.

It makes me think does that inbuilt program of "wanting more" is the driving force behind innovation and evolution. I think great philosophers and psychologists must have answer it already if not it's a request to the great and genius mind please do so...

Every time I heard of the marketing jargon "blockbuster product" or "product category smasher" I can see something common in them --- fun, simple and useful.

But what happens when that fun, simplicity and usefulness is not so new and fresh anymore. It's started to stale or we have some nagging feeling in our mind, can't it get better, can't we have something more to make our life easier.

  

Corporations, small businesses and start ups around the world are trying to keep up with the ever changing dynamic business scenario. And these businesses do have their own challenges. +Sony  almost came up with +iPod  like products but could not leverage on it due to their own internal issues and   +Apple Inc.  came up with its iPod.

Innovation is not only the key but the presence of culture in an organization to commercialize it which brings revolution and change and thus "Innovation".

Watch this Carl Brass +TEDx  video ....

Mind and it's Maverick ways !!!

Sometimes I just wish I can mind reading capabilities like our +Twilight Saga hero Edward Cullen. I mean such abilities you are sure to bring revolution in market research . It will be any corporations dream to find a guy like that----save time and money and give consumers exactly what they want!!!

A marketing genius would have been our hunky hero from Twilight saga Edward Cullen--- A wishful thinking from my part I guess.

On a global level Enterprise Market and Consumer market exists and the decisions regarding Consumer Market is more prone to market research as the market contains huge number of prospective customers and obviously it important to know their view points and mindset about products you are about to launch.And for innovative product, well you can have feedback to make it more user friendly once it is launched since in those cases your customers first come across a new product and you can get their feedback .

Consumer Marketing requires more of "Creative" and "Commercial" acumen, understanding of customer so that you are able to create simple and compelling communications.

Enterprise product on the other hand deals with specific sets of audience, more of a B2B scenario where you mainly deal with "Target Audience Definition", "Value Propositions", "Market Requirements", "Product Messaging Documents", "Sales Tools", "Sales Training", "Marketing Programs","Budget","Marketing Plan". etc.....

But when you just look around you and see the the kind of new research techniques like neuro marketing and staff you just feel amazed and in awe  to know the amount of level an organization can go to know their consumers.

To give people what they want and more specifically making  the usage easier for them is the key

This link to this +HubSpot  blog tell you about the psychological concepts behind marketing  http://bit.ly/1h4Xilc

Then there is http://www.salesbrain.com/ which is world's first neuromarketing agency

The above video of +Patrick Renvoise explains you the scientific explanation behind marketer's success and consumers brain process behind buying

What is Business: Clever Marketing Strategy or simple Passion for a Journey of Good to Great!!!

We humans some time really work in a very funny way.We all at some point or other always struggle to find our place in this world . But the same humans come up with theories based on figures and diligent research to for correct "Product Placement" for numerous thousands of products which keep coming up through out the world.And it works!! But does it always require the theories we find out or discover need to be correct.

Take the story of  +Micromax Mobile  an Indian brand which is currently had become the buzz of market.

Its journey from a "perceived" Chinese Cheap phone to a brand which can sign up +Hugh Jackman  as their rand ambassador.

Lots of industry analyst say it's not going to work out as it going beyond the conventional marketing strategies

I agree strategies exists because it has lead to lots of success stories but at the same time we know every success stories and it's path is unique.And once it is successful we tend to relate those stories with existing theories to justify it.

It's yet time to see weather +Micromax Mobile  will acive its coveted success with Canvas product line while still catering to its mass market . But hats off to  CMO Subhodip Pal and Rahul Sharma for daring to dream and dream big for an Indian brand to fly high in Global market.

(For more details of Micromax strategies refer :http://www.firstpost.com/tech/from-cheap-brand-to-hugh-jackman-the-unlikely-micromax-story-1200329.html)

Hugh Jackman: Juggling  a dynamic and diversified life........

Data and Design:Revolution of present and future !!

I made a presentation today in front of my team and all went well and two of my C level executives complemented my presentation by saying you have made look numbers interesting.I actually used +Infographics  for the presentation.

It make me think that I used significant data but also infographics to make it look interesting.So the question which came to my mind is, which impressed my peers the data or the way I presented the data??

Data and design are both complementary according to  me if you ask but sometimes each of them individually also make significant impact.

Take the best example in hand +Google  and  +Apple Inc. .Two tech giants of our time and both of them have revolutionized the tech-scenario of our time and age.

On surface both of them may look similar type of organizations but essentially they are polar opposite. With Apple relying on design and Google worshiping data as their individual building blocks respectively.

Any +Apple iFans  will vouch for its superior design .... Apple products are  synonymous to great design. Whereas Google's every products based on meticulous research of data and that is the differentiating factor for them to it's competitor.Data is truly king of them!

But its hard to tell which is more useful, you just have to come up with the correct mix.Or may be in future +Steve Wozniak (Refer source : http://mashable.com/2013/11/03/steve-wozniak-apple-should-work-with-google-samsung/)wishful thinking of Apple and Google coming together may create a big bang impact.I guess time will tell!!!

+Steve Jobs  and Apple employees expressing their viewpoints on design...

 +Larry Page's inspiring speech on how dare to take risk and data/information resulted in Google's success...

Change is vision or your vision should change !!!

What lies in future none of us know.What will change or how it will change............... but when you look back and think how much had changed and how you are different from before--It's amazing!!

Before +Bill Gates no one in "The silicon Valley" really thought about software, he was the first to really make us understand the meaning of a software company.

And the +Steve Jobs showed computers can be personal and it can be used in a way you like it, rather than being used only by people of Technical company.

And the core to every great innovation lies how you can just envision it..may be crazy it may sound today , but tomorrow it can  be possible.

I know I sound completely old , philosophical and boring but I feel nostalgic that how much technology had advanced in the last decade and more and more all the exclusive technology for multi billion companies and Government experiment becomes available to common people more it will impact and shape our life styles.

For example , Mobile networks had made real time connection or we can say communication real time.And internet with Social Media had taken that real time communication to another level.And +Augmented Reality  technology was used for advanced fighter jets and now with +Google Glass  it can eventually become public. More innovations and making it more available to common mass have become objective of tech giants.

And for that one can refer to the following +YouTube videos :

Future of search and Google's vision

Future is exciting only we need correct vision and judgement to know what correct for us and use it.