Forget good or bad, just plain ugly

I recently got this in my mail. This should be put up there as the epitome of ugly advertizing:



This is the latest pop-up kind of advertizing. The portal promises that the advertiser gains because this latest method of pop-up advertizing "just jumps out and grabs attention" and that the brand "just cannot be ignored". I'm sorry but when did advertizing become this annoying. can you imagine how this pop up ad would massacre the surfing experience of a person? world over people are moving towards non intrusive advertzing platforms because there is a big realization that advertizing that is annoying does not transalte into ROI. It may grab attention but also creates an ill feeling about the brand in the minds of the consumer.

The reason why Google's SEO based text advertizinng was a runaway success was because it was simple, direct and clean. It didn't take away from the surfing experience but ingact complemented it. Facebook too, while contemplating and Ad platform took pains to ensure that the advertizing didn't detract from the user experience. Companies like Facebook have to be particularly careful because user experience is what makes or breaks social interactive sites. That's why this portal's latest venture is puzzling and frankly a bit annoying. This also sends a wrong message to your most valuable asset, your website's subscriber. By pissing them off, by putting annoying pop up advertizing, you are turning them away from your website!

Another side of ugly is the latest Yahoo Search Ad in India. The Ad shows a skydiver with a stutter failing to count from 1-10 in time (due to his stutter) and then eventually crashing to death, with the tagline going "Sometimes every second counts". I don't see how this Ad is even remotely funny. Its in extremely poor taste. As a marketer the rule of thumb is you do not make fun of people disabilities. Simply because, marketing is a very powerful tool. It has an incredible power to influence huge masses of people and must be used to promote positive ideas. I truly believe this. A brand that infuses or reinforces positive ideas will also be looked upon in the same light. When a brand tries to ridicule a group no matter what their ethncity will always end up leaving a bad taste and that's a risk a top notch brand like Yahoo should not take.

Cat got the cream

I was reading today on afaqs on the success of Meow FM, which is apparently a "womens only radio station" and the first niche radio station in the country. I have, on travels to delhi, heard Meow FM and the one thing that struck me was that it was extremely chatty. More prone to talk than to music. Ofcourse the talk centred on steoreotypical topics usually associated with women - relationships, clothes shopping etc. But what works for this radio station is pure differenciation

Differentiate or die. I feel I should create a T shirt and embrace this slogan. Its especially true in market which is overcrowded and the opportunities for differentiation is small. Thats the story of the Indian radio scenario where all stations pretty much play the same music and sound the same. Yes there are myriad types of music but if you consider the Indian milieu, if you're not playing bollywood music you might as well die. Some channels do play english music as a point of differentiation but the audience for that is still very small even in urban cities. The issue for radio stations is to cater to a mass audience and still be different. World space kind of attempted this by catering to various music like southern music, classical music and more but again the critical mass of all these channels, I feel, weren't significant. Meow's differencitation of catering only to women has apparently worked. According the article, Meow enjoys "a share of 3 per cent in Delhi; in Mumbai, the share is 2 per cent. In Kolkata, however, where it was launched recently, the share is 8 per cent".

In the name of differentiation, one might end up catering to a niche and that might be a risky proposition but as the Meow FM scenario shows, it might also work to an advantage especially with advertizers. As the channel is so niche, advertizers, for whom women are a major target audience, prefer to advertize on this channel as the effectiveness of advertizing increases. So more buck for your money because your audience is being appropriately targetted. Meow attracts advertisers who are interested in women’s products and women consumers, such as the FMCG brands, retail brands and educational institutes. "You won’t see too much property, banking and financial brands on our station," Meow's Chief operating officer, Anil Srivatsa asserts.

Meow in fact has gone one step further. The article goes on to say that because their channel is so niche, "Meow has a dedicated team called Meow Research, which conducts research on women, lifestyle choices, product preferences and the various aspects of a woman's buying pattern or behavioural pattern. This data is churned out every two weeks and will soon be made available to anybody – advertisers or media agencies – who wants to use it ". Who said advertising was the only way to make money?

Another interesting feature is that Meow has started a social networking site called merimeow.com which not only enables them to connect with their audience over web 2.0 but also, as most Social Networking sites require sign ups and profile entries, these guys get valuable profile information on their target audience. They get to know which dempgraphic listens to meow the most, what's hot, what's happening, what the buzz is and more!! Jeez these guys ARE smart! Infact on checking the site out, I was reminded of another brand that used web 2.0 very very smartly - Sunsilk's Gang Of Girls website.The Meow website has a virtual bazaar that no doubt markets women's products. Soon there will be tie ups with third party companies that cater to cosmetics, soaps etc and meow will end up creating another revenue stream.

A lot of interesting best practices from a radio station that no one took seriously when it first launched and which proved that differentiation is critical for survival. Read the complete article here

Also, I really do not want to say MEOW one more time

McIdea

I'm often amazed at how McDonalds has this uncanny knack of making me buy what it wants me to buy. As a marketer, in my book, thats a bloody coup. Marketers are generally wont to begin with the matching the cutsomer's expectations. This is what you want, this is how we'll match the need - very rarely do we go on the path of telling the customer what he should have instead, because in our world, the customer is king. But MacDonalds has the gall to tell you what you should have. I'll tell you how

I generally go to MacDonalds to have a quick bite when I'm in a hurry or if I'm not too hungry. I have a set preference - Chicken Mexican Wrap. Always. Unless MacDonalds is running some special offer and then my world goes topsy turvy. The special offers on combo are generally the high priced combos and with them you get a free something that's really attractive and tempting. Right now there's a Fear Factor offer going on and one gets a penknife free with every combo. Now do the math please. Initially I was going to spend Rs 65 but because of the combo offer - Burger+Fries+Coke I pay Rs 117. Thats Rs 52 more than I intend to spend. Now consider that MacDonalds buys these penknifes (If they do that at all!) on large volume discounts from its supplier, so its fair to assume that each costs Rs 10. But since a joint promo is paid for by the company doing the promo - in this case - fear factor, we can negate the Rs 10 that Macdonalds had to shell out. Plus the extra food might be considered at Rs 25 extra. So net profit for MacDonalds from this offer - Rs 27. and thats just me. Multiply this by millions and you know why they call it the Golden Arches.

Sheesh! these buggers (or burgers?) are geniuses. Instead of looking down on cheap fast food. We should be genuflecting in front of these people. I have learnt a big lesson today.MacDonalds has learnt succesfully to tap into the culture of the mileu they operate in. They have low price entry barriers, playing very well in the Indian Psyche of low prices and then they upsell through the combos. The upselling usually takes advantage of the mood of the market. During Diwali, MacDs had a combo offer where they were giving out Daandiyas!!. And these things were literally flying off from the shelves. People were falling over themselves to get one of these. And again I'm sure the profit per person must have been something close to Rs 40. MacDs has been successful because they've adapted themselves to the Indian Psyche. No just talking the language but reflecting the culture in the menu too - Tikki, Tikkas and what not. I hear the they even have an all vegetarian outlet in Ahmedabad. Thats the one lesson MNCs need to learn from MacDs. Adapting the brand to the local culture but yet maintaining the brand identity. Who knows once we perfect this we may we even develop the gall to do what MacDonalds does - Change the customer's mind. I'm sure then we'll be lovin it too!

Top 8 Tips For Marketing Your Blog

Its finally happened!! Google has started indexing my blog!! yaaay! *passes out imaginary glasses of champagne* Well jokes aside, as I had chronicled before, I was finding it increasingly difficult to get my blog indexed - it was not showing up in any searches of my name and this continued for upto 5 months. I checked out Google's Site Analyzer and found that I needed to apply basic optimization tecniques like adding more links. So I made it a policy to add links in any post I write. I guess the links need to be relevant. Other than that I didn't do anything much except update the website on a regular basis. I guess both the above techniques are key to getting the blog indexed, because after I implemented these two things in a month or so my blog got indexed.

Now that my blog has been indexed, the question arises on how one should market the blog. I've tried out some of the methods and they have worked fairly decently in increasing traffic. Then there are others that I've not yet tried but are sounds techniques nonetheless that surely would garner more traffic, so here they are, in no particular order:

1. Publicize Publicize Publicize - If we are really desperate for traffic then the Blog URL must be ubiquitous and visible in all our communication - Things like email signatures, Status messages in Gtalk, MSN & Yahoo, on facebook, linked in & orkut profile or even custom T shirts! (I kid about the T shirts thing, but you can implement if one is really desperate ). Email signature at work is a bit risky but its a sure fire way to ensure that your colleagues visit your blog

2. Blog Directories - Registering with numerous Blog directories really work. Some of the blog directories are free and simply request for a link back in return for a listing

3. Search Phrase Analysis - Analyzing Search Phrases & focusing on the kind of people coming to the blog will definitely help in ensuring that they come back again. I mean if you find that one particular post is attracting a lot of traffic, it makes sense to write more on that particular topic

4. Regular Updates - Regular updating of the blog always always sees an increase in traffic. It gives people a chance to check out the blog on a regular basis. This also means that there is more of your content out there for google to index and more content means more search traffic

5. Social Bookmarking - This one especially worked for me. Social bookmarking blog posts means that traffic from social bookmarking sites such as Digg. Del.ici.ous, stumbleupon etc will come to your site. This also helps in raising the page rank due to the link back from these sites

6. Make the blog interactive: Write stuff in a way that solicits comments, views & opinions and make sure that those comments are responded to. People who write comments always come to the post to see if their comment has been answered *I wouldn't know about this particular point because nobody comments :( *

7. Visit other such blogs & comment: This is the easiest way to attract traffic to ones blog. Pick 4-5 high traffic blogs about your area of interest or on what your blog is based on. Comment, comment, comment regularly on it so that you start attracting some of that high traffic on to your own blog. Oh you can also email the blog owners discreetly and beg and plead that they include you on their Blogroll

8. Email Subscription or Plain Prostituting - Inform & email everyone you know that you updated your blog and ask everyone to go check it out. Doing it 2-3 times in the initial stages should be fine. This will atleast register in everyone's mind that you have a blog atleast. Doing it regularly makes one look need. Setting up an email subscription app on the blog once traffic has reached certain critical mass will also help in getting those regular readers back. Setting up RSS feeds is also a good idea

I'll definitely update this list as my own blog grows *hopefully* till then read this absolutely awesome article for more great tips on blog marketing. I suggest this link be added to your favourites list and also my blog hehehe

Marketing During Political Times

Politics and Marketing make a heady mix and the recent primaries in the US have taken political marketing to a whole new level

We in India are well aware of the political debacle that was the India shinning campaign, but what no one noticed was the succcess of the congress party campaign - congress ka saath, aam aadmi ka saath (Loosely translated: Congress Party's Hand is holding that of the common man) It was successful in striking a chord with the people on issues like riots, price rise etc. Indian Politics is ofcourse still taking baby steps towards being marketing savvy. Leaving print or TV ads, our parties haven't embraced the net like their countreparts in the US. Ofcourse this strategy does make sense when you consider that the bulk of the population lives in rural areas and hardly has access to electricity let alone the internet, but...but... a sizeable urban population has access to the net and they get their information at their finger tips. I feel it makes tonnes of sense in investing in online marketing campaigns for our parties too.

The Obama campaign in particular has re-defined campaign funding and marketing in the US. This Washington Post Article explores the obama online campaign and the findings are mind boggling. Obama through internet ads has succeeded in building a network of $1 million donors!! this in stark contrast to the traditional route of having a small but wealthy pocket of donors. Obama through such tactics managed to raise $91 million in just 2 months thanks largely to this humongous group of small donors. Obama camapign also spent their money wisely - they out spent the clinton campaign by ten times on their online marketing budget.

The online campaign is also interesting in itself, according to the article. The Obama ads didn't take one directly to the donate page but focused on building an online relationship instead. People who signed up with their email Ids first got a welcome message, information about policies, information on the various ways one could volunteer and after building a rapport, only then was one asked to donate. I find this extremely fascinating. This is new age marketing. We'd call this lead nurturing only this is being applied to a political campaign

There have been other instances of the obama campaign being net savvy. A social networking group called ObamaCycle started by an enthisiastic obama supporter, actually ensured that Obama Campaign supplies were reused not wasted. This supplemented a situation where people who ran short of campaign supplies in states which were going to vote in the primaries could communicate whith people in states that had already voted and hence could re-use their campaign supplies!!

The obama campaign has been Web2.0 savvy with widgets and buttons on facebook and myspace etc.

I guess this tactic fits the american mileu but I strongly feel that our parties could easily take a leaf from obama's campaign book and make our political system more interactive, more participatory and more fun

Do you really want my business agency?

I sat through another boring agency presentation today. It's boring because they're all the same. slide, after slide of showing off all their "best" work and for no avail because I have already tuned off. Why? because they don't even know what I need from an agency!!

Case in point today, this agency that came in for a pitch, showed me slide after slide of all the best AD creatives they did. YAWN.After slide 7, I told them that I don't even do Ads and that I do a lot of brochures and that I'm really in need of an agency that understands layouts. They looked blankly at each other and scrambled to find something on brochures. They didn't and that's when something snapped inside.

I told them that if they were really wanted my business, they would have first asked me about what my needs were, understood my business and my communication plans beforehand and then would have come with a customized presentation aimed at addressing that very need. I always have a lot of respect for agencies that atleast take the pains to customize their presentations. One agency, knowing that ours was a technology company, put in examples of technology companies. I respect that. I want to do business with companies that respect me as a client too.

I definitely don't want to work with agencies that treat clients, or rather prospective clients with such disdain that they are already painting you with broad, hackneyed strokes. Imagine how they'll treat you once you do become their client!

What's da Number?

Oh well, more dope on the new vodafone customer care AD. Well we all were surprised that the trademark pug came back. I was sure that after transitioning to Vodafone, the brand managers would use the pug sparingly inorder to reinforce the new brand into everybody's consciousness. But they've resorted to using it after just 7 months of the transition it seems

According to this article on agencyfaqs, The pug was used in a specific service based ad instead of a thematic brand AD, because according to Mr.Harit Nagpal, chief marketing officer, Vodafone India, "Customer care is the face of our brand, so in a sense, this aspect of Vodafone encompasses the entire brand.” Therefore, the pug

Ahhh, they were trying to remind everybody of what lousy service they offered when they were Hutch. Also did anyone notice that there was no number given? As in which number to call when somebody wants to avail their excellent service? I think thats a major flaw in execution because although everyone is now aware of their supposed service offerings, I'm sure Vodafone customers would have also like to know the service call numbers. And also this campaign would have inspired more trust had they given their numbers out.

I mean Airtel's 121 is pretty famous for customer care and this is one of the major features of why most people I know chose Airtel - their customer service. Service branding methinks is a word of mouth thing. You can make people aware that it exists but the consumer confidence only comes in after it is experienced and spoken about. This works only if more people experience customer service, and if its good, then recommend it to their friends. Its hard to sell a service, more so, customer care. I guess people will be skeptical till they actually try it. So vodafone lost a major opportunity, methinks, in converting a few people into believers and ergo into evangelists.
I can think of why they didn't advertize the number - inorder not to put more strain on the infrastructure I guess. But really it still puzzles me as to why they didn't put the number out there..