What Makes A Brand Great Today?

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Authenticity is the standout consumer value in 2017. What does 2017 have in store for us as marketers? According to the research reports released by Euromonitor International the one factor that is going to create the maximum impact is ‘authenticity’. If marketers really want to connect with the millennial consumers then they need to work on their authenticity.

What is also important to note is that the Edelman’s Annual Trust Barometer showed a global decline in trust with less than 50% people trusting brands? The bigger the brand the lesser the trust. One of the main reasons for this has been the Internet .It has made consumers very informed and brands need to work hard to establish their authenticity. They need to take specific steps to show consumers that they truly care for them.

The search for authenticity has seen a rise since 2010. According to psychologists some of the key factors why consumers are getting drawn to products that claim ‘authenticity’ were trends like globalization, economic crisis, and technology.

Globalization is making the world uniform with everybody drinking Coca- Cola, eating McDonald’s and wearing Nike. This is making lots of people crave for home made, traditional, authentic stuff. The economic crisis has made people trust less the big and fancy brands and reach out for simple, small-scale things. Technology has now changed the face of everything including our vegetables and fruits. We have genetically modified fruits and veggies today. All this has made people want the same simple stuff once more, which they can trust.

So all marketing campaigns have latched on to the new buzzword and started touting their brand as the most ‘authentic’. Go to a supermarket and you will be flooded with products each one claiming to be the real thing, the most authentic, the genuine one, the number 1, the best, the oldest etc. So much have these words been used and abused that they have lost their appeal and their meaning.

THE RISE OF THE NORMCORE The new generation does not care how loud you as a brand shout out from the rooftop how authentic you are. For them authenticity stands for something totally different. It does not anymore stand for heritage, the originals, and the first ones. Instead they define authentic as brands, which have a mission, brands, which are changing lives, brands that are ethical and honest. It stands for brands, which are innovative.

This has given rise to a new trend labeled by many as ‘normcore marketing’. It is a mash up of ‘normal’ and ‘hardcore’. Gone are the days of glitzy ads showing the glamorous lifestyle. Now what works is a down-to-earth, normal, brand positioning showcasing the ‘normal lifestyle’. It could be considered as retaliation to mass production, technology, airbrushed images, and a craving for handcrafted, homemade, authentic stuff. GAP was one of the first to adapt this trend and came out with its ‘Dress Normal’ campaign. In fashion terminology that would mean embracing ‘sameness’. The attitude of the new consumers is to strive to merge rather than standout, to be similar instead of different. For brands it means ‘mundane’ is what is attracting the new kids on the block. Anti-trends is the new trend. Big brands, glitzy expensive fashion is not appealing anymore, rather it’s all about small, authentic, real, normal stuff. As marketers we need to remodel our goods and market them differently.

THE RISE OF TRANSPARENCY
 Consumers normally rank a brand on the basis of three attributes Reliable, Respectful, and Real. A brand is considered reliable if it delivers on the promise and is of high quality. It is considered respectful if it treats its consumers with respect and protects their privacy and data. If the brand communicates honestly, and acts with integrity it is considered Real.

So in the recent battle of the FBI vs. Apple, the brand did not budge from its stand and refused to share personal information of the customer with the FBI. Today not just the technology companies but so many others too own so much personal data of the consumers and if they want to be considered as authentic they should not share the data or misuse it.

According to the rankings of Cohn & Wolfe the world’s most authentic brand is Disney, followed by BMW, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple. The other 5 brands that made it to the top 10 were Intel, Audi, Samsung, Adidas, and Lego. In spite of the exploding Galaxy Note 7 the brand seems to have retained its authenticity tag. This is because it has been honest about its mistakes, recalled faulty products and fought hard to win back the trust of the audience.

McDonald’s may not yet have made it to the top 10 most authentic brands but it is working hard towards it. McDonald’s Canada’s ‘Our Food your questions’ campaign has been the most talked about transparency campaigns. It tells the customers to openly ask anything about its products and gives McDonald’s a chance to dispel rumors and stand by its products. The campaign has received more than 40,000 questions and more than 3 million visitors since its launch in 2014. The brand went ahead and even uploaded a video of its beef processing plant to prove that the patties were made from real cows! McDonald’s has been targeted the most with lots of unflattering rumors surrounding it and the company is putting all efforts to build back the trust.

Southwest Airlines in the US has built its brand on the premise of being a low-fare airline. That is the heart of its business model. In order to make the consumers believe that there are no hidden costs or fees the company started a campaign called “Trans-fare-ncy”, where it showed its dedication towards low fares. The people loved it and the campaign garnered not just 5 million likes on its Facebook page but a whole lot of trust from the people.

Food is the least trusted of categories so Panera Bread promised its customers that it would stop using artificial ingredients. It launched a campaign “Food as it should be” where it displayed its menu that listed all the details of the ingredients used, the nutritional information and also an animal welfare report. All this just to show that its food was healthy and safe.

The clothing company Patagonia started a campaign called “How is your clothing made” The aim was to make customers aware of free trade certified factories where workers were paid higher wages. The consumers loved it and liked it not just on Facebook but also with their hearts.

That is how important authenticity has become in today’s world of very aware and informed consumers.

The re-birth of the CMO  The Chief Marketing Officer of the future is no more one whose sole job is to look into the branding and marketing aspects of the brand. Today he is expected to know about all the tools and techniques needed to measure the customer’s voice and understand his buying behavior. If the brand has to do well it is critical that every member in the organization learns to think from the point of view of the customer. It is the CMO’s job to drive that customer –centric mindset within the organization.

The CMO today has to look beyond the traditional methods of marketing and brand building. Today a brand’s reputation and its ability to differentiate itself from competition is the key to survival. In todays dynamic and volatile market points of differentiation get blurred very quickly and if one is not swift and quick to spot the trends one could be wiped out of business in no time. The market is highly disruptive and CMO’s needed to ensure that the brand is always innovating and delighting the customers.

Unilevers has merged the CMO and CSR (corporate social responsibility) roles into one. In many organisations the CMO is spending more on IT than the CIO. Marketing today has become a lot about data and the chief of marketing has to transform accordingly.

In conclusion, if we as marketers want to make our brands great we need to come across as authentic. We need to be transparent in our communications with the consumers. We need to listen closely to them and respond, reform, transform accordingly.

Consumer Maange More!

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The times are changing and so is the customer. The culprits are technology and the Internet. Thanks to them, things are changing at breakneck speed for marketers as the Internet and the technological revolution has made the consumer want more and more and there seems to be no stopping. In the early days, it was all about identifying the needs and wants of the consumer and trying to satisfy those needs with the right product. That product was then wrapped around an alluring message highlighting the benefits of the product and how it would change the life of the buyer. That’s all changed now. Today, it’s no more just about the product, its benefits and the branding message; it’s about the ability of the brand to connect with the consumer, to build a lasting relationship with the consumer. And that has become a difficult task for the consumer of today is insatiable and ‘maange more’ before he trusts you with his loyalty. Consumer maange more value Marketing was all about building a brand and giving people value for money. That’s not enough today. The consumer of today wants more than just ‘value for money’. He also wants to know what values you as a brand stand for. More than 80% of consumers believe that a good brand is one which places equal emphasis on both business profits and societal issues. Your brand should stand for a purpose beyond profits. It should have a purpose driven brand story. Responsible consumption is the buzz word today. With our world being plagued with problems like global warming, water scarcity, obesity etc., the consumers are becoming aware of the role companies and brands can play to make the world a better place. By supporting brands with a strong purpose, they feel they are doing their bit too to make the world happier, healthier, greener and cleaner.

Take the case of Kissan. It decided to source sustainably produced tomatoes, which not just differentiated the brand but soon made it the number one ketchup brand in India. The Lifebuoy brand of soap ran a campaign called “Help a Child Reach Five”, which focused on teaching children how to wash their hands correctly as India has the highest number of child deaths due to diarrhea and pneumonia. The brand developed a hand wash which could change its color from white to green in 10 seconds – just the time required to kill most of the germs. Children wait to see the color change, which is not just fun but life saving too! The brand showed its commitment to a purpose, a cause, and was loved for it. Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” campaign went beyond celebrity athletes and urged people to find greatness in everyday people. It struck a chord with the viewers and inspired them. Brands are moving on beyond just showing the benefits of their product. Rin is a good old brand which for decades has promised ‘Chamakti Safedi’. That’s not enough to stay above competition. Rin has gone a step ahead. While clean clothes give you confidence, Rin has gone on and started a Rin Career Academy, training people in key skills which give them confidence. Skills like speaking good English, dressing appropriately for a job, handling an interview. Rin has shown that it is totally committed to building confidence. That’s a purpose which goes beyond profits. Patagonia is a brand that makes money by selling clothes, yet when it launched its ad campaign, it was all about encouraging people to repair their old outdoor garments. The ad provided a lot of tips and tools to help the users fix their own gear. It even offered to buy back gently used garments. Marketers at Patagonia are very clear that it’s the era of unconventional marketing. A brand that can market itself as one supporting a cause, supporting sustainable development would be noticed and liked much more than a brand that made fabulous, yet ‘harmful to the planet and its people’ products. To show how committed it is to its purpose, Patagonia established a $20 million venture fund to invest in socially and environmentally responsible startups. Whole Foods is another brand that has shown that it stands for sustainable development and sensible consumption. It has a concept called “Community Giving Days” where 5% of that day’s net sales are given to local non-profits. All through, consumers have been let down by their governments, their leaders, their NGOs who have failed to bring about a positive change in their lives. These consumers are now looking up at brands who have the power, the money, the creativity to help change this world for the good. These are the B Corps – ‘Benefit Corporations’ – who are going to rule in the future and its their marketing campaigns that the consumers will like, and share and believe in. A purpose-driven brand also has the most positive and motivated employees who are proud to say that they work for a brand that believes in something beyond profits. LRXD is a full service agency but it calls itself the ‘health and happiness advertising agency’ for it took a policy decision to primarily work for brands that helped make life better. Made Movement, an agency founded in 2012, decided it would work for brands that provided jobs to people in the US. Their purpose made them reject work from a lot of big brands, but they say life has never been better for they have a reason to wake up every morning and come to work. According to a 10-year-long study conducted by Millward Brown and Jim Stengel, brands which focused on a higher purpose did not just build the deepest relationships with customers, but also achieved the greatest financial growth in the 10 year period of the study. It’s no more about what you sell; rather, it’s more about what you as a brand and an organization stand for. So give the customer not just a great product but a great product that also does great things and he will be your greatest fan and friend! Customer maange more speed The consumer wants everything now and if you want his loyalty, you need to cope up with his demands. Take for example the purchase behavior of customers. Gone are the days when he would wait for the shop to open and buy. Today, he wants to buy whenever he pleases (thanks to e-commerce) and add to that the fact that he wants his shopping delivered at the soonest. While shopping online, a delivery period of two to three days was acceptable some time back. Now, he wants same-day-delivery. Soon, he would want everything delivered at his doorstep as fast as a pizza. The consumer of today not just shops any time of the day, but is texting and messaging his friends at all hours. Soon, he would want to text and receive texts from companies. A recent survey by Corvisa (a cloud communications provider) found that 77% of consumers were okay with getting text 

messages from companies and in fact liked it if the companies texted them about things like fraud alerts, payment reminders, sales, discounts, promos etc. If you as a marketer can use this tool to engage with your customer, there is no better way to build a long lasting relationship. He texts you like he would a friend and you text him back – that is the speed of communication you should be prepared for. Gone is the concept of ‘contact during office hours only’. If you want to retain your market share, you need to behave just like your customer wants you to or else some other young brand will replace you. Speedy deliveries, speedy text responses will see your profits speeding up! Customer maange more connection Marketing is no more a ‘one-to-many’ style of communication; rather, it’s now all about one-to-one. From being a monologue – where the marketers spoke and the consumers listened – now, it’s a dialogue. The consumer speaks and the marketer is expected to listen and respond if he wants to build a long lasting relationship. Not just that, the customer also likes to be spoken to about things he enjoys. Hence the rise of ‘programmatic advertising’. One ad, however brilliant, will not work any more. Soon, marketers would be expected to customize and make multiple advertisements to suit the tastes of different types of customers, and technology is making it possible to do this. Programmatic buying identifies users and groups them according to the sites they browse and then offers them advertisements and promotional materials of products and services that match their habits and tastes. There is growing evidence that consumers are getting bored and irritated with advertisements that don’t interest them. With the help of technology, now marketers can identify the choices of the target consumers and place their ads in front of only those who are interested in that particular product or service. Brands like Nike, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Kia Automobiles are using programmatic buying to micro-target their audience and send them ads customized to suit their tastes and build better connections with them. The Future As a consequence, the whole environment is changing. A marketer needs to look beyond his marketing campaigns and promotions and focus more on the very tech-savvy consumer and his overall experience vis-à-vis the brand. Be it the online visit experience, the in-store shopping experience, the purchase experience and even the post-purchase experience, he needs to understand the big data, its analysis, interpret the results wisely and make the required changes to help improve these experiences. As marketers, you need to find out who are the social influencers, and try to make them your ‘digital brand ambassadors’. As a vigilant marketer, you also have to keep track of conversations happening on the social media. Thanks to the developments in technology, today’s marketers have a huge amount of data detailing the digital lives of their customers, giving them extraordinary power. They can now run sharply focused campaigns, reach their target audience much more accurately, respond to disgruntled customers with greater speed, get deep and accurate insights into the purchase patterns of their customers. Everybody wants to do good, but then, not everybody can. If you combine your business profits with purpose, you don’t just win a lot of goodwill from your customers, but you also help them satisfy that latent need within them of giving back something to the society, which is very fulfilling and satisfying. Soon, no one would care about the S&P 500 list or the Fortune 500 list; but they would demand a Helping the Unfortunate 500 list, for the latter would be a list of companies who would be making a difference to the planet and not just their balance sheets. So go ahead, use technology to understand your market better, add a purpose to your marketing campaign, unleash your creativity and delight your audience like never before, and give him more than the conventional dose of marketing. Give him a dream and a hope of a better world!

Brands & Billionaires Of Tomorrow Will Be Built On The Internet

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Of the nouveau billionaires on the block, the ones causing maximum disruption are those running technology firms; by RAJITA CHAUDHURI

Anybody can be a Billionaire
The annual list of the world’s billionaires is out. There are 1,810 billionaires in the world today (down from 1,826 last year). However, what’s interesting is that approximately 65% of these are self-made billionaires. Billionaires of today are not necessarily those born with a silver spoon; rather, today, like never before, the world is seeing the birth of billionaires who have started from ground zero and made it to the top. Out of the whole list of billionaires, 198 are new to the list; and of these newcomers, a large portion has come from the fields of manufacturing, real estate and technology. Out of these three fields, the one that’s causing the largest disruption is the field of technology. Take a look at the newcomers on this list and you will see that most of them are heading companies that are rich in technology and not physical assets. The newcomers are Pinterest cofounders Evan Sharp and Ben Silberman, Flipkart cofounders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, WeWork cofounders Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey etc. In fact, look at the guys at the top: Bill Gates has been at the top for 17 years out of 22 years, Jeff Bezos has moved up from the 15th to the 5th spot, Mark Zuckerberg has moved up to the 6th spot. This just goes on to prove that technology will be the game-changer of the future. Technology has a lot to contribute towards making the world really flat. While America used to be the hub of a large number of billionaires with New York boasting of the largest number of billionaires in the world, things are changing. While at 79, New York still has the largest number of billionaires, Hong Kong is fast closing in with 68 billionaires. Interestingly, out of the top 10 cities with the largest number of billionaires, 6 cities were from Asia this year and New York was the only American city in the top 10. Most of the billionaires of the world are today from the Asia-Pacific region and not from the United States. Add to this the fact that out of the newcomers to this list, the maximum were from China. So while earlier it was oil, minerals, real estate, which were responsible for creating billionaires, today technology is making billionaires faster than ever before. Huge developments in technology are also key reasons that more and more of the young guys are challenging the biggies in the business and disrupting things like never before. The Internet has opened the doors and given access to knowledge, finance, people etc to an extent like never before. Look at the new and hippest brands of today – Airbnb, Snapchat, Uber, Flipkart, Dropbox, Snapdeal, Ola Cabs, InMobi, Zomato – they all have young guys at the helm of affairs taking on the world armed with just a powerful idea. All these companies mentioned above are “unicorns”. This means that though they are private companies, yet they are valued at $1 billion or more. For example, Uber is valued at $62 billion, Airbnb $25 billion, Ola $5 billion etc. This is something that was considered unthinkable before the Internet revolution. That a company like that could really exist, was considered a myth –hence Unicorn!

The billionaire mindset: Don’t be afraid! Don’t be afraid to dream big. Don’t be afraid to fail big either. Don’t be afraid of criticism. The whole world will tell you how it cannot be done, so relax. All you need to be sure of is that you want it to happen and you have to want it real bad. In fact, the easiest way to know that you have a great idea is when everybody says it won’t work. Be sure you have hit the jackpot. All great ideas were called stupid at the start, but the people behind the idea never lost faith in themselves or their ideas and made it happen. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t know how to make your idea happen. If you need to learn a particular skill – it’s right there on Google. If you need to know how Harvard and MIT are handling a particular course – it’s right there on edX for free. If you have acquired all knowledge and now need to make an app, a website etc, again you can access numerous resources on the Internet for free and make one at almost zero cost. Your prototype is ready, but now you need the funding. No worries. Just as the social media has changed the way we connect with friends, it has also changed the way we raise money for a business idea. The concept of ‘crowd-funding’ is growing in popularity and more and more entrepreneurs are reaching out to people on the social media platform to fund their ideas. Sites like Kickstarter, IndieGoGO, ProFounder, Buzzbnk, 33needs, AppBackr, CauseVox and numerous more have helped so many ideas come to life. You don’t have to be a technology giant to compete with Apple watches. The company Pebble proved that twice. Once in 2012, when they had an idea for a watch and went to the site Kickstarter with their idea. 85,000 people loved the idea and pledged money to help Pebble realize its dream. The company raised more than $10 million (10,000 percent of the goal). Then again in 2015, when they wanted to improve the features of the watch, they went to Kickstarter again looking for a funding of $50,000. In less than an hour, they could raise $1 million, and by the end of the campaign, they had got more than $20 million funding from numerous people across the net. Hiral Sanghavi, a frequent flier, had the habit of forgetting his neck pillow on flights. So one day he and his wife Yoganshi Shah decided to develop a travel jacket that would have a neck pillow, an eye mask, gloves, blanket… everything. They went to Kickstarter looking for $20,000. They landed up with more than $9 million. From smart watches, to wireless headphones, to 3D printers… all kinds of ideas have found people who were interested in them and supported them. As I said earlier, you don’t need to be born with a silver spoon to make your big dreams come alive.

What you don’t need today You don’t need piles of cash, you don’t need a rich uncle either. You don’t have to go to Harvard or get a degree from a famous place. You don’t need any infrastructure to house your company. You don’t need staff as you can find numerous virtual assistants at a fraction of the cost and without any hassle.

What you definitely need You need to believe in you and your idea. You need to be able to articulate your idea well. As the saying goes: “You only get one chance to make a first impression”. Be it a meeting with an angel investor, or a venture capitalist, or a presentation on Kickstarter, you have to be very sure that your idea sounds interesting and investment worthy. If you are not articulate enough, you can lose out even though your idea had a huge potential. You need to have a great network. You need to know how to significantly make your presence felt online. You need to know the way to get the attention of your niche audience in this very crowded space. Once you have mastered these things, it’s just a matter of time before your name appears on the next Forbes list of global billionaires. Great passion, a clear vision, a concrete plan, a mind blowing pitch and you are ready to count your millions!… Or billions, if you may!!!

New kids on the block

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The new set of consumers is going to be very different from the old set that we as marketers have been used to; and hence reaching out to them is going to be different too. Look around you and you will see a generation that’s growing up in households with no landlines as everybody in the family and outside (even the vegetable vendor) has a mobile. This generation is growing up in schools where most projects and assignments are typed, so they don’t write much with pen and paper. This generation is growing up in a world where ‘instant’ is the buzzword – from food, to movies, to shopping –they want it instantly and they are actually getting it instantly too. This generation values its Internet connections more than anything else. It’s a whole new world, a whole new culture that is emerging.

This generation is going to impact the world in a way no other generation has impacted; and it’s going to influence other people of other generations too.

So it’s imperative that we as marketers understand them well and keep a close eye on them as our survival depends a lot on them.

GEN Z WANTS TO LIVE A LIFE WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED

It wants to do a lot and does not like to be tied down with useless commitments and useless baggage – like EMIs, like annual maintenance contracts etc. Basically, they want to live with no strings attached.

This is a generation that has grown up in an era of huge economic turmoil; they have seen their parents struggle with jobs, money, recession… they are thus very cost-sensitive. Add to this the fact that they are very aware of what is happening around them, as they are constantly connected with each other. They are also huge consumers of media, so they are a very smart generation to deal with. Gen Z is not just very aware, it’s socially conscious too; it’s environmentally conscious too; and it’s going to change the way the world works!

Let’s take a look at how things will change in the future.

 

THE FOURTH ‘R’

We all know the three ‘R’s’ – reuse, recycle, and reduce (if you are from the old school, the 3Rs used to be reading, writing, arithmetic).Well, this is so last generation. The new ‘R’ is Rent! Gen Z takes less pride in ownership, especially when there are better options. Ownership is not just expensive, but can slow you down. So, while the Millennials (generation Y) loved the concept of renting designer-wear, which made startups like ‘Rent the Runway’, ‘Bag, Borrow, Steal’ etc gain huge popularity, the new Gen Z has taken renting to a different level. They want to rent and rent-out everything and anything you can think of.

Why buy a music album when you can stream it instantly? So they prefer to spend on a pro-membership of the site Spotify than buy music!

Why buy a car when you can hire the latest one from Uber?

Why buy a house and spend all your savings when at $200, you can log on to Airbnb and hire a castle somewhere in France!

SnapGoods shows you how to make money by giving your stuff on rent. It allows you to rent high-end items like cameras, musical instruments and the likes. If you have some expensive items, then you can put them on hire too.

Why hire a kennel when you can hire a home to take care of your dog when you are out on a vacation? DogVacay is a site that lets you do just that – it connects you to a home that’s ready to take care of your pet.

Sitting free and want to rent out your free time? TaskRabbit lets you do just that. You could bid to do tasks, ranging from delivery to office-help, and people looking for such services can send you a request and hire you.

Saw a swanky car in your neighbourhood and want to take it for a spin?

Getaround helps you do just that. If you have a great car and will not be using it for some time – maybe you are going on a holiday, or are unwell, or whatever – you could put it up for hire on Getaround and earn some cool bucks. Considering that Getaround had an insurance cover of $1 million from Berkshire Hathaway could help you in putting those gorgeous wheels on hire with a little more peace of mind.

Got spare cash? Put it to good use with the Lending Club, a peer-to-peer network where one can borrow hard cash. It gives you better interest rates than your traditional savings accounts. So why let your money waste in a bank when it can make more money for you at the Lending Club.

Sharing is the way to go. According to The Wall Street Journal, digital music sales on iTunes have declined, and so have the sales of books on Amazon. What it means is that ownership of any form – digital or physical – is on the decline, and new business models need to be put in place quickly. So Apple’s Tunes Radio now streams music. It’s got Beats too into its fold to make streaming even better. Amazon now gives books on rent.

Warby Parker, the iconic online sunglasses and reading glasses’ retailer, has a leasing program where you could change your sunglasses every season. If renting is the new success mantra, then Warby has shown how to do it. Why buy an outlet when you can rent one, or even create one? Buying a shop or retail space is very expensive. So Warby Parker started selling glasses online and – thanks to all the saving – it could sell them at a very low cost. If there were some fussy customers who still wanted to try on their glasses before buying them, Warby Parker found an interesting way to reach them – through ‘pop-up stores’. They hired a school bus and changed the interiors and called it the Warby Parker class-trip. The bus went to the customer when he refused to come to them.

Just one day before the NY Fashion Week, Warby Parker went to the New York public library (the library had no idea what was going to happen) and at a designated time, 30 models – each one carrying bright blue books – entered the library, sat down, opened their books, and started reading – of course, wearing the latest collection of glasses from Warby Parker. Forty editors, who were supposed to cover the New York Fashion Week the next day, had been invited earlier. They went crazy when they saw this and could not stop clicking pictures. Security at the library too went crazy but could not do much as everybody was just sitting and reading.

The new generation has its own rules and you need to bend your rules to suit them, for this new generation of digital nomads will have it no other way. They love their digital gadgets and it’s through these that you can reach them, however you need to connect with them in the way they like – and not many of them like to buy, they like to rent!

They are totally prepared, totally aware, totally connected – much more than any other generation, they want to make a difference; they know that they can make a difference and they are quickly changing the world – and rewriting the rules.

What’s common between Narendra Modi, Sholay, Microsoft and The Beatles?

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Narendra Modi is the new star of the political world, whose charisma refuses to fade. He has given hope to not just his nation but the world too. His success run just doesn’t seem to end. However, if you look closely you realize he is not a one-man army. There is another person always next to him, his close confidante who is equally responsible for the thundering success of BJP and Modi. The man is Amit Shah. Together, the duo is creating magic. They are the best partners and their partnership is the secret of their success.

POWERFUL PARTNERSHIPS.

Modi and Shah are the new age Jai and Veeru of Sholay! The iconic film and its unforgettable story of two friends is the best example of what a great partnership can do.  

PARTNERS

History is full of examples of great partners. Be it Narendra Modi and Amit Shah or Sherlock Holmes and Watson. It’s the pairs that together have done wonders and achieved great results. Man is a social animal and the smallest possible social unit is a group of two. However, the dynamics of this group has rarely been studied in depth. Numerous success stories have had a pair at the center. Look at the rock band The Beatles. At the heart of this were two extremely talented people John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They were both extremely talented individuals and when they paired up, they helped ignite the hidden fire within each other. As a result, together they produced music, which was a class apart. 

LET’S GET PERSONAL

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More than forty years ago, Peter Drucker had said, "The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him or her and sells itself."

The key words here are ‘know and understand the customer’. Never in the history of marketing has this point been more important than now and never has it been easier to know and understand a customer than now! The relation is simple – the better you know them, the better you can serve them and the lesser you need to market to them. Personalization is nothing new to business. A lot of companies have been following this business strategy for a very long time.

Take the case of Dell. It’s been personalizing its computers for decades. Nike and Adidas allow customers to design their own shoes; the BMW Mini has a facility where customers can design the roof of their car online and it will be made accordingly. Even banks are giving customers the option to design their cheque books and credit cards. Ikea lets you customize your furniture.

Extreme Personalization
Personalization is not something new. Marketers have been practicing it for long. However, mere personalization will not suffice this time for now is the era of ‘extreme personalization’. Sephora is one such beauty brand that has found how personalization reflects directly on the balance sheets. It has a loyalty program named ‘Beauty Insider’ which can define your skin tone and show you a list of products that match it. Once the customer becomes a part of this program, her profile can be accessed through the mobile or desktop or even the iPad at the store. This makes the job of the salesperson much easier as she knows which products would suit the customer best. The customer goes back satisfied and sure that she has got the best match.

BUSINESS IS ALL ABOUT SHARING

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In June 2014, Google launched a new version of Android named AndroidOne that would help smartphone makers to make very cheap smartphones. This latest software platform will be launched in India first in collaboration with three smartphone manufacturers: Micromax, Spice and Karbonn. Google has partnered with these three manufacturers so that they can pool in resources and make high quality, low priced smartphones.

   

The mission?

Google and the head of its Android division Sundar Pichai want the next one billion smartphone users to be their customers.

How?

Google will do all the hard work. It is figuring out all the material costs and giving support to all the low-end smartphone manufacturers. And not just the software support, but also the hardware support. This is being done to decrease the total cost of the phone to try and keep it under $100. Add to this the fact that Google will also invest Rs.100 crores with its partners on advertising and marketing of the $100 smartphone!

Why is it doing this?

It’s putting in this hard work on the hardware and software fronts so that eventually, these smartphone users start accessing Google’s services like Google Play, Google Store etcetera, and this would in the long run increase Google’s profits. More importantly, it would help it fight competitors like Nokia (Windows platform from Microsoft). Not just this, but having more users means more data and more advertisements... and consequently more money for Google.

TALK VISUAL

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Michael Jackson returned to the stage last month in May to dance to the beats of the song “Slave to the rhythm” from the recently released ‘XSCAPE’ album. A ‘virtual’ Michael Jackson took on the stage and set it on fire. He made it to the headlines across the globe. The general public, the fans, the music lovers, the media itself could just not stop talking about it.

Back in India, in May, another superstar used the same technology to address dozens of rallies in the remote towns all over the country. From Andhra Pradesh to Bihar, from Allahabad to Nainital, he addressed more than 800 such gatherings leaving the voters awe struck and mesmerized. Yes, that was Modi, who too like Michael Jackson used the ‘hologram’ technology to reach out to the maximum number of people and convince them to vote for BJP. Going by the results, it seems to have worked out fantastically well for both Michael and Modi.

A BRANDING LESSON FROM MAHABHARATA

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The world is moving at a very fast pace and everybody is working hard to get ahead in as short a time as possible. As a result, people are cramming up their calendars with more and more. Their ‘to-do’ list just never seems to end. The ability to multitask seems to be the most essential requirement in the work environment. However, the fact is that no one has ever been able to achieve much this way.

To be successful in life – Focus on one thing!
Research has shown time and again that the human mind is not meant to multitask. Not just that, research now even proves how long-term multitasking is actually harmful for the brain. A study done in 2009 by Stanford proved that frequent multitaskers were not able to use their brain as efficiently as non-multitaskers. The scary part is that frequent multitaskers were less effective even when asked to focus on one activity. Trying to get too much done in one go is not a good idea. It will not get you quick success; rather, focusing on one thing at a time, nurturing it and developing it slowly is the key to success.

The bottom line is – multitasking is out. It’s a myth that people who can do multiple tasks simultaneously are more effective and efficient. Rather, the ones who keep their focus on one thing and give it their undivided attention are the ones who over time develop focused expertise and eventually take the lead. If one were to have a heart problem, one would prefer to go to a heart specialist rather than a general physician. Well, the same rule applies to business. Everyone likes to work with a specialist. So if you really want to achieve a lot, go one step at a time. Plan well and focus on one thing at a time. You will become a specialist in that one area. And very soon, your productivity too will skyrocket.

PAID TO QUIT : THE NEW TREND

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Jeff Bezos has done it. Zappos has been doing it for a long time now, and soon, many more companies would follow suit. The new trend catching up is of companies paying their employees to quit!

Yes, it’s no more the era of receiving incentives just for living up to the target; today, one may even get an incentive for not living up to the target or expectations!

THE PROBLEM: You need to have the right skills and the right attitude
The secret to a successful organization is the spirit of the workplace. If there is positivity and enthusiasm, then everybody is motivated and works to the best of their potential. But there are just a handful of organizations that can boast of such a work environment. According to a study done by Gallup in 2013 (State of the American Workplace report), only 30% of the employees are committed to working sincerely. There are 20% people in most places who are actually counterproductive and bring about negativity and discontent among their coworkers. The rest 50% just put in their time, and their contributions are hardly significant. The group to worry about are the 20% counterproductive employees. They cost the company a lot. These unproductive employees, apart from negatively influencing fellow workers, also have high absenteeism rates. They invariably provide poor service, which drives away a lot of potential customers. All this in the long run culminates into a huge loss for an organization.

If we go by the Gallop survey, then these unproductive employees cost the US economy around half a trillion dollars every year, which is a huge waste. The same would be true in every other business environment. So it becomes extremely important to weed out from your organization these kind of employees as soon as possible. A creative way of doing it is to follow Zappos and Amazon.

SIMPLE SECRET TO SUCCESS

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Amazon is today the one of the largest retailers of the world. Most of us have bought or at least browsed through the zillion things the site sells. Most of us have also patiently read the numerous customer reviews before proceeding to check out and finally buying the stuff. Now, here is an interesting fact. Most of the reviews are written by people whose job is to review products sent to them by Amazon. So they are not normal customers like you and me for they did not pay for the stuff they are reviewing. The important thing to note here is the fact that ‘customer review’ is an important factor today in building market share. It’s proved that products which get a feedback, that is are reviewed, are sold more than products which get no reviews. So Amazon has developed a program called ‘Vine’ where some trusted reviewers are invited to be a part of it. Through these reviewers, it populates its site with reviews which can help customers.

In the virtual world, to be successful, you need to be reviewed, to be noticed. It’s similar to the real world where ‘word of mouth’ is responsible for most sales. Today, we all depend on feedback and reviews before deciding on anything. Even before deciding which movie to watch, we check reviews. Before deciding where to dine, we look for what other customers have to say about the place. No wonder, sites like Zomato, Yelp are such big hits. The key word here is feedback. If you want to be successful, you need to get feedback from the market. In marketing terms, this used to be called ‘buzz’.

ASK FOR FEEDBACK TO SUCEED
“Feedback is the breakfast of champions”. Ken Blanchard said this years ago and it’s so true right now. A great leader is one who gives great feedback and a true achiever is one who is constantly asking for such feedback. The same rule applies for all successful companies also. They are those who have learnt the art of talking to their customers and seeking their feedback constantly. In today’s digital world, it’s become all the more easy to connect with your customers and find out what they actually need.

LOVE AFFAIRS

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It’s the month of love! Couples all over the world are celebrating Valentine’s Day and professing their undying love for each other. However, only a few relationships can stand the test of time. A close look reveals that only those based on mutual trust and understanding last long. You need to be great friends, good partners first to eventually become good lovers. Everybody can do with a good companion. After all, life can get tough and a trustworthy companion makes the journey easier. If you can choose the right companion, half the battle is won. A love affair will last long only when you choose your partner with care. A hasty decision in this respect will only end in a broken relationship.

Business too, is also all about relationships and affairs. Having an ‘affair’ is actually good business. Ask any Bollywood (even Hollywood) actor and (s)he will tell you how a rumour of an affair between the lead couple just before the release of their film is bound to get the audience more interested in the film and contribute to increase in ticket sales. It’s a time-tested trick and always grabs the maximum attention and media coverage. However the ‘affair’ we are talking about is a ‘corporate affair’. And in that regard too, it is a time-tested trick to grab the attention of the consumer.

In today’s fast moving and competitive world, one of the fastest ways to spread your presence in the market and get noticed and talked about is to find the right business partner. Look at Coca-Cola. Its success story is based on partnerships and alliances. Be it the bottler (in 1899 it started its first bottling agreement and today has 300 bottling partners around the world), the supplier, etc., all are partners of the brand and its success depends on the efficiency of these partners. However the biggest partner of Coke has been McDonald’s. Coca-Cola products are sold in over 31,000 outlets of McDonalds spread across 100 countries. Coke entered the Russian market with the help of McDonald’s. In US alone, 5% of Coke’s market share comes from McDonald’s. It’s all thanks to Ray Kroc – the man who made McDonald’s such a successful QSR chain. Back in 1950, Ray Kroc persuaded a young Coke employee to supply him Coca-Cola. Since then, the relationship has grown from strength to strength. The point to note here is that not a single McDonald’s restaurant serves Pepsi, even though there is no document that prohibits them from serving Pepsi. It’s a partnership that has benefitted both brands. If you look carefully, you will find that every dollar that Coke earns comes from some partner or the other – be it a bottling partner or a distribution partner.

BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE!

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As the new year begins, let’s resolve to truly create happiness even when none exists. Meditate upon what actually makes us happy. Surprisingly, these very factors [of joy] that we discover are closely connected to our businesses too. These are the very things that make our customers happy.

We don’t need much soul-searching to conclude that things that truly make us happy, actually come for…free! A smile from a loved one, a hug from your child, an unexpected call from an old friend…and the list goes on. In business too, ‘FREE’ is the word that can trigger a cascade of smiles and happy reactions amongst the customer community – or “maximum” sales as you call it – and is arguably the best deal that you can give to the consumer.

‘Free’ is Actually a Good Marketing Strategy

The one man who has shown the power of a tempting freebie is none other than the new CM of Delhi – Arvind Kejriwal. Free water and free electricity have made him the darling of the masses, giving him a definitive lead over strong political rivals – BJP and Congress.
Last year, Apple too used freebies to beat its competitor Microsoft. It announced a free upgrade of its software OS X. Users of OS X (versions Snow Leopard and higher) were allowed to upgrade to their latest OS X (Mavericks) at absolutely zero price. It was also announced that in future too, all OS upgrades would be free. The Cupertino giant also announced the free inclusion of an alternative to Microsoft’s Office suite in all Apple laptops in future! Anybody’s guess this – Tim Cook has found a way inside Microsoft’s head. It’s got the software giant guessing beyond just who would replace Steve Ballmer in time – what should it price Windows 9 at?

CREATIVE COPYCATS

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AAP – Aam Aadmi Party, the one name that is on everybody’s mind, has done things no one could have dreamed was possible. A spanking new party and it has already shaken up the whole political system and all the politicians too. It is an interesting case study for both politicians and corporates. When one looks at the political campaigning of AAP one finds close similarities with the Obama campaign of 2008. The scenario was similar. Back then no one gave Obama a second thought. It was Hillary Clinton who was the more popular  candidate. In India too no one gave Arvind Kejriwal a chance. Yes, he might win 2 or 3 seats was the popular opinion, but like Obama the man proved everyone wrong by not just winning more seats than Congress but defeating Sheila Dikshit, the almost invincible Chief Minister of Delhi. Kejriwal admits that he studied the Obama campaign very thoroughly and tried to use the same strategies to reach out to voters. Like Obama, who used the power of the youth to help him win, Arvind Kejriwal too used the young first-time voters to campaign for him. Like Obama he too used the power of the social media to create a large volunteer base and reach out to many people. Like Obama he too had the whole campaign planned out in the minutest of details (his were on excel sheets, while Obama spent millions on a software to track voters). Each polling booth was tracked and mapped and campaigned for with the ultimate goal being of getting 100% of the supporters of the party to the polling booth. In short, one can say Kejriwal did an Obama in India.

Obama showed the world how you could market a President like a box of breakfast cereal. Kejriwal too meticulously planned out a marketing campaign and built a new brand that the consumers would love. His USP (unique selling proposition) was not unique as Obama had used the same sentiments but was unique for Indians. No politician had ever spoken like this to its voters as him. He had a message that people loved ‘Aap (you) against the corrupt biggies’. He inspired people to vote for change – just like Obama. He positioned himself as the ‘common man’ which appealed to the electorate and his logo (jhaadoo i.e. broom), his packaging (Gandhi cap), his slogans (power to the common man) all were totally in sync with the positioning and made him stand out distinctly from other brands (read: Congress and BJP).

NEVER SAY NEVER, NEVER HEAR NEVER

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Last month Wal-mart kicked off a reality television series for the web named ‘Get on the Shelf ‘. This series featured 20 finalists of Wal-mart’s contest by the same name. It’s aim being to encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship and help some lucky ones get a break. The public was given 3 days to vote for their favorite entrepreneur .The winner of each episode , that is the one with the highest votes would then be allowed to sell his goods on Walmart.com.  Out of these winners the ‘grand winner’ would be the one who would get the maximum pre-orders on walmart.com. This grand winner would then get the opportunity to sell his product inside the  Wal-Mart stores . It’s a dream for any brand, any businessman, to see their product on Wal-Mart store shelves, and this television series (for the web) will help someone’s this dream come true!

The key point here is – the winner will be the one who can ‘sell’ the most. In entrepreurship this is the key element. It is also an element that in spite of being so important is ignored by many. The fact remains that it does not matter how good your product is, rather what matters is how well you could ‘sell’ it. 

“Being an entrepreneur means being a salesman” – this was the key mantra for success that was given by Niklas Zennsrom more popularly known as the co-founder of Skype. He says the one who can sell is the one who will succeed in the game of entrepreneurship. In fact in spite of ‘salesmanship’ being such an important aspect of business not many b-schools till recently focused on this. It was the reverse . This was one aspect that was looked down upon. Not any more. A recent survey showed that people were keener to know how to start their own business and be their own boss. Students today are keener to do a ‘Masters in Entrepreneurship’ than a regular MBA (Forbes magazine). After all the success stories of this generation are companies like Twitter, Groupon, Facebook, Yelp, Instagram, Tumblr …. And the list goes on. What they all have in common is a young guy who knew how to ‘sell’ his dreams to others. It does not matter whether you have lots of money or no money –what matters here is whether you have a great idea –and more importantly the skill to sell that idea.

BRANDING IN THE DIGITAL AGE

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The way we communicate has changed today. Branding is a different game altogether. The strategy that was considered the right way to build a brand just a few years back is all wrong today. We, as marketers, were doing a great job all these years and then came Tim Berners-Lee and changed it all. He is the man who invented the ‘World Wide Web’. With more than 2 billion users the growth in the number of people using the Internet in 2013, as compared to 2000, has been 566%. Whoa! That’s humongous. It’s this Internet which has created a unique generation of consumers called the ‘Millennial’. People in the age group of 18-34 fall in this category. Why are they so important? Let’s look at a few quick facts. 75 million is the population of the Millennials in US alone. In countries like India and Bangladesh most of the population is around this age. What it translates into is a few simple facts. By 2022 at least 30% of all retail sales will be to this generation, and by 2025 about 75% of the total car sales will be to this generation, making this age group the most important consumers. They are the consumers of the future and as brand builders it’s critical for us to make them believe in our brands. However, this generation is very different from its parents. They live differently, decide differently, and hate being marketed to, making things very difficult for marketers. Gone are the days when you picked up a Lonely Planet or any other travel guide book to know about a new destination you wanted to travel to. Today, you just ‘google it’ and can know more about the place, and even see real time videos of the place. You read books on the Internet and buy them through Amazon. If you want to change your job you don’t go to a placement agency but to LinkedIn. If you want an education many prefer to go online than to a campus. In fact, even if you want to protest for a cause you do not need to go out on the streets rather you go to the Facebook page and ‘like’ it and voila you are a protester!

Reading, writing, travelling, protesting – you name it and it’s happening on the Internet. So, logically your brand building too should happen on the Internet.

I AM A PRODUCT!

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At the risk of sounding extremely materialistic yet I always tell budding entrepreneurs and future leaders that an education in management teaches one among other things to become an expert in marketing products. It teaches one to understand the needs of the consumers and position the brand in such a manner that the consumer feels he / she needs the brand and goes and buys it. Most of the students of management are quick to learn this and by the time they graduate they are ready to impress the corporate world with their newly learnt skill of ‘marketing’. As david ogilvy once said “a great marketer can even sell snow to an eskimo”. Many management graduates pride themselves upon the fact that they can ‘market almost anything to anyone’, and most of them are actually pretty good at it too. So then all these so-called expert marketers must also be greatly successful in their careers?

Surprisingly that is not true. This is because these marketers learnt to market everything and anything but forgot to learn to market the most important thing and that is ‘marketing themselves’!

BOLLYWOOD, HOLLYWOOD AND BRANDS

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Amitabh Bachchan made his debut in Hollywood with a small but well portrayed role in the film The Great Gatsby. If you have seen the film you too would have been mesmerized by the grandeur of it, but if you have seen it from a marketer’s point of view you would notice how intelligently the film has been made to include well-known brands. It’s actually overflowing with premium products. The top international designers Miu Miu and Prada for the movie designed more than 40 different cocktail gowns. Brooks Brothers designed the lead actor Leonardo Di- Caprio’s clothes. Moët & Chandon provided the champagne used in the film. The top-notch jewellery designer Tiffany & Co. created the jewellery.

However, this time it has been done differently. There may be no obvious close up shots that the brands need to depend on to be noticed in the film. This time the brands ‘invested’ in the movie too. Which implies that they have specially created products for the film and in their advertising and branding strategies would highlight this fact. Since these are all limited edition pieces the brands have a lot to benefit. Tiffany & Co., for example, has already got a list of clients who would want to buy these pieces as a ‘keepsakes’ since the designs are from an era long gone and a lot of people are there who would love to own something from that era.

Brooks Brothers have launched their own “The Gatsby Collection” which has suits inspired by the fashion of the 1920s. The brands in question will promote these new collections in their advertisements, which will benefit not just them but the movie too.

DO YOU REALLY WANT IT!

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Michael Dell was in India recently. While addressing an audience he was asked, what is the secret of becoming a successful entrepreneur? His answer was something that surprised everyone. He said, “You need to be crazy!” If people call you crazy take it as a compliment for it means you are doing something that has never been done before! An entrepreneur is someone who dares to take risks, who dares to go off the beaten path. In fact, that is actually what success truly means. However, the irony is that it is success that prevents us from taking risks. Once we are successful we are too scared to change and do something different. Sticking to the same way of doing things seems to be the safest way to prevent failure. Take the case of a singer. Once his song becomes a hit he continues to make songs which are similar to the hit song, for fear that if he attempts something different it may not appeal to his fans. Same is the case with actors, painters, and even entrepreneurs! Once they find their ‘comfort zone’ seldom do they want to venture too far away from it?

However, a true business leader is one, who does not fear change, rather thrives on it! This is the only way to maintain your success, otherwise most often you may find yourself being left behind. Success comes not just when you do something different but when you continuously keep reinventing yourself. The ability to identify the changing needs with changing times is the key to long lasting and continuous success.

DARE TO CHANGE THE RULES OF THE GAME?

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The big players of TV are a little worried and it’s all because of a small company named Aereo, an upstart which wants to change the way we view television. No wonder all the big firms from NBC, ABC, CBS to Fox have all sued it but its CEO Chet Kanojia (who incidentally is a native of Bhopal) is not worried at all for he is absolutely sure of what he is doing. Aereo TV, simply put is an ‘online TV service’. The modus operandi of the company is simple. Kanojia has made very small antennas. Each user is assigned one antenna which grabs the broadcast-TV signals from the air and with the help of a software those signals are aired to the user. Not just this, the signal can be aired to any device which the user opts for – his mobile, his PC, or even his TV set. What this translates for the user is: a) he does not need to pay the hefty cable fees, and b) he can now watch his favourite TV programme anywhere. He could be stuck in traffic and watch it on his mobile, or in office on his PC. Kanojia saw a loophole in the copyright act and made the most of it, which is why in spite of his company being sued twice he seems undeterred and has in fact won both times. Not just that, today he is sitting on a funding of $38 million with the help of which he would spread his network, which is currently available only in New York, to 20 more cities.

Kanojia saw a gap in the system and filled it up with his service. According to him, everything will soon migrate to the Internet including TV. The youth today is more loyal to a TV programme and not a TV channel. He wanted the freedom to watch it whenever and wherever he pleased. Add to that the fact that he did not want to pay for the channels he did not watch, but under the current system he had to pay for a package. Aereo, on the other hand, gave him just what he wanted.

Whether Aereo really makes it big and becomes the next best thing is debatable and only time will tell. However, it has an important lesson for all to learn and that is ‘never fear to challenge the big players or the best ideas’. You may turn out to be a game changer.