Trendspotting

One of most important aspect for the success of any Google Adwords campaign is choosing the right keywords apart from across bidding the right price. That's why my favourite google app is Google Trends

Google trends is an app that tells you what the world is searching for. Literally! You get to know how popular your search term is and which part of the world is searching for it. I'll tell you how I used this app in my Adwords campaign.

In my previous company, us marketing folks got to play around with Google Adwords as corporate dearest was funding the whole project. It was quite fun and they loved it when we wanted to experiment with some of the search words, especially to settle the debate between them "long tail" type keywords versus the popular more expensive keywords. So my company was hosting this huge seminar for customers and I wanted use the power of the net to drive traffic to the site. I was playing with Google trends and happned to type in the word "Seminar" and saw that a lot of people in India were searching for the term. I bought the keywords and created an AD for the Event. Within 15 days it was my highest performing keyword. Ofcourse we also tested to see if there were any clicks on the landing page and it was fairly decent. That's why I *heart* the net so much. It gives you so much data to make the right choice.

Google trends also in a way lets you check out the "buzz" about your product versus your competition. Take for example, the comparison between people searching for Myspace, Facebook and orkut in india

Orkut is clearly the hands down winner and if you were a marketer wouldn't this information be priceless? Trends also throw up other curve balls. It also lets you pick a region to find what the buzz is in every part of the region. For the same comparison as above, I selected India region to see which part of the country was searching the most on these keywords. The results were as follows:What's surprising is that non metro cities are searching for orkut. Not so surprising as its already popular in the metros I suppose. Still very good data to work with when say launching a product

I also recently stumbled upon the Orkut Trends Blog, where the google team shares some interesting stats on Orkut usage and user perceptions. This might come in very handy if you're considering doing some social networking marketing in your campaign

Shopping fundaes

Well apparently there's a science to it. One of the aspects that intrigued me while reading Kishore Biyani's Book It happened in India was his obsession with the Indian shopper. At various instances he mentions how he meticulously studies his shopper, noting dislikes, preferences, reaction to various stimuli etc. Infact the future group has taken retail to the next level, through their inhouse design agency - Idiom that researches consumer reaction to signages and other communication outlets within the store

Shopping is one of my favourite activities and I was surprised that it can actually be categorized! According an article by Anand Narasimha of Bates David Enterprise, there are infact four types of shopping- Recreational, List, Item and Impulse shopping. According to him,

"This classification is based on two factors: the planned versus spontaneous
nature of the shopping trip and the focused versus open-ended nature of the
purchases made"

Recreational Shopping is pre-planned but open ended and might not even result in a purchase. Here shopping is a means of relaxation. Window shopping also belongs to this category. Apparently as recreational shopping serves as a sort of "retail therapy" more often than not, it does lead to a purchase

List Shopping is pre-planned that leads to a purchase. Like shopping for grocery basically. This is a must do sort of shopping as opposed to recreational shopping

Item shopping is shopping that is triggered by a need for a specific item. Like buying woolens for a trip abroad, or a special dress for ones birthday. That's why one sees retail stores in what I call a "Ever-Party" mood. Its no wonder they are celebrating women's day, mother's day etc. A year long party makes the consumer come back for more

Impulse Shopping basically shopping that occurs on a whim. Like buying chocolates for example. Its unpredictable and according to the article two of the largest impulse categories in a store are women’s footwear and cosmetics!!

Read the complete article here

In the beginning....

Yes, the obligatory introductory post about this blog and me. (Please don't yawn, we'll try for it not be boring)

I'm a marketer and I love marketing. Its my raison d'tre and my passion. I also like to write, so this blog brings both my joys together. Very convenient right?

The title of this blog is inspired from Seth Godin's Book "All Marketers Are Liars". No need to mention the book resonated with me, but I truly believe what Seth Godin says - Marketing is a very powerful tool and can change the world.

Oh, one more thing, Venture capitalists are most welcome