developing an integrated marketing communications strategy

Implementing an integrated marketing communications strategy can provide a competitive advantage for your business. However, many companies still employ a linear direct marketing process in which products are developed, messages created and incentives are added to the mix. The products are then pushed through various media or a salesforce to consumers. This methodology relies on behaviour assumptions that all consumers follow the same decision process: Awareness – Knowledge – Evaluation – Purchase.

This strategy worked well a few years ago because targeting and smart advertising gave companies the edge over consumers with limited product knowledge. However, buying behaviour has become more sophisticated since consumers acquired access to technology such as the Internet, mobile phones, iPods, search engines and on-demand TV. This technology has made the traditional linear marketing and communications process (product/brand – channel – media – customer) redundant. Because consumers can now block out marketing messages using spam filters, pop-up blockers, remote controls, “do not mail” lists or the regular trash can.

>>Why do consumers need to learn about your product/service now when they can
just Google it?
>>What are you going to tell consumers that they don’t already know or cannot
find out for themselves via an online product comparison site?

A consumer-controlled communication landscape has emerged with a faster dynamic consumer learning process. The outcome is declining efficiency rates and increased costs from traditional direct marketing activity. Thus companies now need an integrated marketing communications approach that combines traditional media, online channels, PR, affiliate partnerships, products, people and social networks to be successful.


How can your organization develop an integrated marketing communications model?

Don Schultz, Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University suggests companies can coordinate their marketing resources and supply customers value-added information to create engagement and build long-term relationships. Start by using what I call ABCD resources -Audience, Brand (Product/Service), Content, Delivery. You then need to find the optimal mix based on your industry and competitive position.

Audience – a key ingredient is to use extensive data and analytics to understand your target segment. Creating pen-portraits of your core customers including demographic and lifestyle information will help optimize your media targeting strategy.

Brand – your product or service must have a unique selling proposition to provide a competitive advantage. It must deliver superior value for the audience and be clearly differentiated on features, service or price.

Content – with most competitors using the same linear marketing strategies targeting the same consumer segments, content can now become a point of competitive differentiation. When you supply value-added content you provide consumers a reason to engage with your brand and connect your products or services.

Delivery - You then need to connect new digital media channels with traditional channels to create a push-pull system. Consumers must become engaged with the media employed or your content delivery will be unsuccessful. To achieve this ensure the content is linked to your brand positioning to make the emotional connection with your product or services.

Traditional measurements systems do not work well with integrated marketing, but most companies have all the data and just need to align it. Problematic areas can include breaking down internal silos and defining measures of success –site traffic, new sales, revenue per customer, return on capital, NPS (Net Promoter Score) etc.

The customer experience now occurs during the interaction with your products, online channels, customer service and content. If companies can optimize the synergy between the ABCD resources and employ an integrated marketing communications strategy they can drive improved returns from their marketing investment.

Achieving strategic agility in unpredictable markets

Some companies seem to have a knack of embracing new ideas and innovations faster than others. In many industries growth and profitability is determined by speed-to-market with new product development. So what makes these companies better at seizing opportunities?

Professor Don Sull, from London Business School,proposes that organizations start off as nimble and agile, but when they grow large it’s how they transition between agility and absorption that determines success.

>>Agility - the capacity to seize opportunities faster
>>Absorption - the capacity to sustain change and deliver long-term shareholder return.

To use a boxing analogy, Mohammad Ali early on in his career had great agility to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” but later on lost some of that speed and had to absorb more punches from his competitors, eventually losing the title.

When companies become larger, growth begins to stall as markets mature. Professor Sull suggests that firms can develop absorptive capabilities allowing them to seize opportunities when the perfect storm arises. Some examples are;

>> Diversified cash-flow (General Electric)
>> A war-chest of cash (Microsoft)
>> Powerful tangible and intangible assets (Procter & Gamble)
>> Excess resources and staffing (JPMorganChase)
>> Lock-in via exclusive partnerships or integration (Oracle)
>> Compete in protected markets (Royal Bank of Canada)
>> Strong local market or low cost position (Cemex)

These absorptive capabilities mean companies can outlast others in a war of attrition or scale new innovations quickly. Diversification, strong brands or patents can provide the beachheads to reinforce and attack other customer segments. Strict government regulation and exclusive partnerships can limit new entrants. Finally, a strong local market or low cost position may allow you to absorb price volatility and downturns in international markets.

To increase agility in your business you can outsource or acquire it. Outsourcing requires you find the right partnerships that compliment your core business. Whereas acquiring agility involves you keeping the hardware and rewriting the software by changing organizational structure, key management personnel and culture.
------------- source: www.innovationreactor.com

Product diffusion and adoption

The adoption process can be described as:

Awareness-->Interest-->Evaluation-->Trial-->Adoption-->Post-adoption confirmation

• Innovators tend to be opinion leaders who are the first to purchase and these are basically the same purchasers as those who purchase at the introduction phase of the product life cycle. They are likely to be younger and better educated from reasonably affluent, high social status, family backgrounds. Their knowledge of the product tends to come more from their own feelings than from the efforts of marketing people. They represent the first 2.5% of the entire market - which is two standard deviations to the left of the mean.

• Early adopters possess similar characteristics to the innovators, but they are slightly more cautious and less gregarious. They tend to belong more to ‘local’ groups, but as opinion leaders they are influential. These comprise 13.5% of the entire market.
• Early majority purchasers tend to rate slightly above average in terms of their social class and now that the product has become more established, they rely principally upon marketing information before making their purchases. This group represents 34% of the market.
• Late majority purchasers tend to be more cautious, but are more prone to social pressures to adopt the product for the first time. This group comprises 34% of the total market.
• Laggards are the final 16% category and they make up the cautious group. They tend to be older and more conservative, generally coming from a lower socio-economic class.
Diffusion is of course closely related to the adoption process of individual customers and it has been found that five particular facets of products will lead to a more rapid and wider adoption:

• Relative advantage in terms of the greater the perceived advantage of the new product to customers the faster it will diffuse.
• Compatibility relates to the greater the extent to which the new product is compatible with existing products, the faster it will diffuse.
• Complexity is a disadvantage, because the more complex the new product is, the more difficult it will be to understand in the marketplace and the diffusion rate will thus be slower.
• Divisibility means the greater the ability of the new product to be used or tried on a limited scale before full commitment on the part of the purchaser, the faster it will diffuse.
• Communicability means an ability of the new product to be demonstrated or communicated by early purchasers to later potential purchasers, then the quicker will be the rate of diffusion.

The Whole Product Concept

1. Generic product is considered to encompass the basic requirements—such as features and form factor—that the customer associates with the tangible product.

2. Expected product tends to be the intangibles, such as expected reliability, service expectations, and feature enhancements as compared to the generic product.

3. Augmented product describes those things that differentiate the expected product from competitors' offerings. The augmented product consists of intangible things such as enhanced customer service, as well as tangible things, such as features not offered by the competition.

4. Potential product provides the consumer with a glimpse of the future by offering a view of tomorrow's augmented and even expected product.

Creating Product message

When creating your product message, put Kipling's "six faithful serving men" to good work. They will help improve and sharpen your product message:

"Who" Are You Marketing To?

While creating your product message, first clearly identify who you're marketing to. Then write your message for this audience. Don't write a message that tries to appeal to everyone - it is highly likely it will end up appealing to no one.

"What" Does Your Product Do For Them?

Tell your target audience what your product does for them in plain English. Do not use jargons or unnecessarily complex language - many B2B software companies are especially guilty of this.

"Why" Is Your Product Better Than Other Solutions?

Odds are your audience has several other means to achieve the same thing that your product does. Tell them why your product is better. Why they should consider your product instead of the other solutions.

"How" Can You Prove Your Points?

Provide concrete, tangible information that proves your points about what your product does and why your product is better. Often companies make vague statements that cannot be proven. Instead, use concrete data - such as customer testimonials, success stories, third party surveys, etc.

"Where" and "When" Is This Message Being Delivered?

When creating your product message, take into account where and when the message will be delivered to your target audience. For example - a message on your website will be delivered to any visitor to your site, whereas a message in a direct mail will only reach the intended audience during the intended timeframe. Tailor your message accordingly.

Technological product developement and failure

Regardless of the model, critical phases include: Product idea generation, idea screening, concept testing, business analysis, marketing mix development, test marketing and commercialization.

Customer Focus versus Managerial Focus while developing product:

Customer Focus

-Features
-Consequences, values
-Ease of operation
-Unique qualities
-Consumption

Managerial Focus

-Design
-Cost
-Ease of production
-Unique technologies
-Production

In addition, several authors have suggested that high tech markets, unlike low-tech markets, must focus on both demand-side marketing and supply-side marketing.

There is one or combination one or more reasons given below responsible for product to fail in the market:

--Customer expectations not met
--No innovative advantage perceived
--Information about product is scarce, unclear, or difficult
--Need for product is not seen
--Unique attributes not seen
--Poor selection of target market
--Poor communication of product benefits
--Distribution channel selection
--Pricing problems

High tech product marketing

Marketing high tech product is different from marketing simple product.

"High tech markets are characterized as complex. In addition, they exist under rapidly changing technological conditions which lead to shorter life cycles and the need for rapid decisions. The importance of speed in high tech markets is driven by increasing competition and the continually evolving expectations of customers. All of this is compounded by higher levels of risk for both the customer and the producer."

Lets understand some areas of high tech product developement etc to better fine tune marketing process.

Customer vioce:

First is the importance of customer voice while developing the product- Due to dynamic market conditions high tech companies frequently rely on a product which is driven by the innovations in technology rather than by the needs of the customer. This orientation often leads to abandonment of a customer focus; a must in today's globally competitive markets.
Bottom line: customer vioce, knowledge of customer needs are very important and marketing strategy should be to clearly communicate product features and benefits aimed towards satisfying these needs.

Product Differenciation:

Second, there are specific features of high tech markets that are believed to distinguish them from other product categories. Examination of both of these sets of issues is necessary to understand the particular importance of the diffusion of innovation in the launch of high tech products.
Bottom line: marketing strategy should aim towards creating product differentiation in the minds of the customer. Last, but not least, their goal is to fulfill unmet needs.

Technology changes:

High tech companies, however, must recognize that both technological and marketing conditions are rapidly changing. This dynamic environment necessitates stronger consideration for the marriage of marketing and technology.
Bottom line: Marketing must understand technology fully before developing marketing strategy.

Changing Target market

Research and practice indicate that high tech markets are characterized as dynamic and complex which results in a changing target market over the life cycle. The complexity of the product also impacts market acceptance in different ways in high tech markets. As high tech products are more complicated, they require greater customer education and more product information.
Bottom line: greater effort on the part of marketing to adequately convey the necessary information. Consequently, it is important to recognize the need to clearly identify and profile a target market as well as take into account that the profile of the target market will change over time.

Other basic things to be taken care of in High Tech Product marketing:
--Purchase decision taken by the group rather by an indivisual
--Relationship building is important
--Sales person capability to sell product

Understanding the relationship between the product development process and the product adoption process provides the means of incorporating the marketing concept into the development of new products.

Product marketing versus service marketing

Every business owner knows that having a good marketing plan is absolutely vital to the success of their business venture. If you don't have a good marketing plan, then you don't know how to get where you want to go. You will just be shooting in the dark and you won't be able to see how you can achieve your goals within the market that you are working within.
However, you need to have different approaches to marketing based on whether or not you are marketing products or if you are marketing services. If you are marketing both services and products, then you need to develop two different marketing plans that share some similarities-such as the type of business and the company image that you want to portray-but are also different. Different tactics work better for services versus products. You need to develop marketing plans for each and every one of them.

Product marketing versus service marketing: what you need to know:

So what are the differences between product marketing and service marketing? Many businesses know how to market products, but it is trickier to market services. Here are some things that you need to know about the differences between products and services.

Differences between service marketing and product marketing:

1. When you are marketing a service, you are really marketing relationship and value. This relationship and value needs to be marketed differently than if you are marketing actual products.
2. Another major difference between marketing services and marketing products is that when a buyer purchases a service, the buyer is purchasing something that is intangible, instead of a tangible product, like a computer or a sprinkler system or a web page.
3. Consumers' concept of a service is often times based on just the reputation of only one single person. Instead of building a reputation based on the quality of a number of different products, a service is built on how well a particular person delivers on a service, such as how well a stock advisor does with your stock portfolio.
4. It is pretty easy to compare the quality of different products. It's easy for you to see if one computer works more quickly than another computer, or if one TV has a better picture than another picture, or if your child can break a toy more easily than another toy. However, it is much more difficult to compare the quality of similar services that are provided.
5. Products are returnable. However, services are not returnable.

Marketing Measurement-Case Study

Heading into the 2006 holiday shopping season, HP’s Imaging & Printing Group (IPG) wanted to generate awareness for its consumer line of home printers, digital cameras, and ink and toner cartridges. Additionally, the company wanted to remind people how easy it is to print calendars, greeting cards, and family photos using HP’s online Activity Center and Snapfish photo services.

HP’s research showed that consumers are spending more time online and expect to connect with products and services in more interactive ways. At the same time, one of HP’s challenges – one common to most major companies – is measuring marketing effectiveness in a new, more complex communications landscape. To help address both opportunities and challenges, IPG Executive Vice President Vyomesh (VJ) Joshi encouraged his marketing team to develop and launch several digital, integrated marketing programs with Google. The goal was to respond to consumers’ needs, while developing benchmarks that better incorporate the online dimension and produce additional marketing insights for IPG.

A joint team with members from HP’s advertising and web marketing groups, Google’s account and metrics team, and HP’s agency partners created and launched a series of integrated holiday campaigns using search ads, display ads, and click-to-play video ads on sites matching the major target customer profiles. During each week of the eight-week campaign, the team met to integrate and analyze data from ad serving and management systems, HP’s website, and HP’s online store. They then adjusted the programs in real-time to maximize marketing effectiveness.1

The HP-Google team also developed a new type of dashboard to track overall program effectiveness in an integrated way. The dashboard combined activity data from search, online display advertising, video advertising, HP’s website and HP’s online store into a single view. The dashboard reflected aggregate, composite levels of awareness, engagement, consideration, and purchase intent.

To create these aggregate, composite measures, the team mapped and weighted metrics from each measurement silo to each stage of the customer lifecycle. These metrics were tracked and tabulated week over week for each major product category (see appendix). The dashboard simplified program optimization and reporting, and will act as a framework for developing integrated measurement programs for HP’s Imaging and Printing Group moving forward.


“HP is a thought leader that actively seeks more effective cross-media marketing programs and measurement strategies,” says Google’s Tim Armstrong, President of Advertising and Commerce, North America. “They recognize that consumers live in a complex world where multiple media affect their purchase consideration set and they do not shop within a single channel. To measure and optimize in this environment, new approaches have to be developed and tested. We see interesting innovations like this integrated dashboard emerging from strong partnerships among clients, agencies, and Google.”
Results and Insights

In addition to the new dashboard concept based on week-to-week data, a supplemental ad effectiveness measurement program was developed in partnership with comScore. This anonymous, panel-based methodology combines behavioral and attitudinal data to measure the effectiveness of display ad exposure.

The comScore data showed the following results of the HP-Google holiday campaign:

• A total of 12.7 million visits to HP properties.
• Aided awareness of HP photo printers rose 10 percent. In the target demographic target, aided awareness rose 17 percent.
• Among those who intend to buy a photo printer in the next 12 months, consideration of HP-branded photo printers incurred a 43 percent lift.
• In terms of behavioral impact of the campaign, those exposed to the display
ads conducted 51 percent more searches on terms such as “HP printer” and
“HP camera,” and clicked on 59 percent more search listings that took them
to HP web pages.
• Although the majority of HP’s sales typically occur in a retail environment, these programs also had a positive effect on online purchase activity.


A few examples of trends identified in this program include:

• The Hispanic-targeted campaign generated very high levels of engagement, suggesting that further targeted marketing activity aimed at that segment should be fruitful. It also suggested that Hispanic segments are more likely to purchase offline than online, so direct ROI expectations should be set accordingly.
• Interaction rates with one creative type were significantly higher than with others and produced significantly higher sell-through activity. For now, the details of the creative types are being kept internal. HP plans to develop additional creative using these formats since customers find it highly engaging, useful, and relevant.
The dashboard enabled HP to track customer behavior both pre- and post-holiday, revealing post-holiday opportunities that had not been considered previously because most programs have been focused on Christmas purchases.

Steps to Building the Dashboard

Developing the integrated dashboard required significant coordination, internal education, and several iterations. HP followed these steps:

1. Familiarize key stakeholders the marketing analytics, advertising, and agency teams with the concept; discuss the benefits and costs, and designate the
core team.
2. Map each data source to the proper stage in the buying process and determine the relevant metrics from each data source.
3. Secure timely source data for each dashboard element. This step can be challenging because the data lives in multiple silos and formats, and is often reported on varying schedules.
4. Develop weightings for each metric and calibrate scores for each important stage of the customer experience or buying process (e.g., engagement, consideration, purchase intent, usage/loyalty) using a combination of testing and considered judgment.
5. Establish a baseline for each composite metric over time.
6. Analyze dashboard for key insights, trends, and spikes that can be correlated to marketing activities, PR, seasonality, or competitor activity.

Despite being designed for an integrated online campaign, the dashboard exposed the need to develop more comprehensive scorecards to track the effectiveness of both online and offline activities. This became especially clear when the team observed significant spikes in the dashboard that coincided with major offline marketing activities during the same campaign timeframe.

Achieving Customer Mindshare Through Advertising

Building "effective mindshare" -- the kind that leads to increased revenues and profits -- requires building in the mind of the customer not only awareness, but interest and desire in the product or service to achieve a top-of-mind position when the customer takes action.

-- B-to-B marketers are discovering the value of deeper insights into their customers. This includes their demographic data, such as age, gender and ethnicity. It also includes their emotional drivers, on the job and in their lives; how they work; and where they like to get information. Key questions include: Do they still read magazines? What Web sites do they use? Do they still go to trade shows? Do they like Webcasts? Podcasts? Do they watch online video? Do they blog ? How much work do they do at home? How do they commute?

-- In the B-to-B world, sales reps and sales engineers are essential in building a personal relationship that leads to closing sales. But using Web-based tactics to provide relevant information in a more cost-effective manner enables the sales force to focus on closing sales.

-- Building mindshare across the awareness-interest-desire-action (AIDA) spectrum is both an art and a science. The science involves the strategic and skillful use of "media" to deliver a message. The increasing complexity, fragmentation and "noise" level of the advertising environment make it more and more challenging to capture customer mindshare. That's where the art comes into play.

-- There are six basic principles that apply to all types of marketers reaching all kinds of customers with any and all kinds of media:

1. Stake out a single brand position .

2. Be unique.

3. Create resonance through relevance.

4. Use emotion for impact.

5. Focus the message and use frequency.

6. Keep promises -- live the brand.

Push Vs Pull Marketing-2( little of both)

In my view, one cannot have these two techniques in isolation. For any marketers need to apply for push and pull marketing strategy for effectively promoting product as well as pulling seroius buyer.

"Push strategy makes use of a company's sales force and trade promotion activities to create demand for a product." These organizations make lots of cold calls.

"Pull strategy is one that requires high spending promotion to build up demand for a product." These organizations receive calls.

Push strategy, I think, is more suited to selling products that customers don't know they need. But it also can be used when there is no effective channel for promotion that Pull requires.

My products only sell to those who truly need them, so Pull strategy has worked extremely well. Especially since the advent of the Internet, making us so easy to find. But, in searching for additional business, can we find the customer before they go looking (using either Push or Pull)? And which will be more effective?

As the pragmatic marketer that I am, I willing to consider an option that falls somewhere in the middle. That option would be 'nurture marketing'. You are pushing-out your message more directly than traditional promotion, but with a goal of pulling-in demand. The change here is at the marketing level, which means me. Can I do this effectively? Or is it easier for me just to let the sales team try to Push?

Push-Pull Marketing-1

Push-pull marketing strategies are two distinct methods of promoting products and services to a target market. There are specific advantages in using each of these two marketing strategies. Being able to know the difference as well as how to use both in conjunction with another is very valuable information to an entrepreneur.

Push/Pull is a newer model for e-business that relates to information delivery. Roughly put, a PUSH is information that is directly delivered to you. Direct Mail and E-Mail are good examples of PUSH information, delivered right to your mailbox. A Web Site is an example of PULL information, for anyone to view as they wish by browsing the address. The Viewer is in control of the PULL.

Combining these two forces is very effective in delivering your marketing message. "PULL" type marketing is LESS effective in originating new business, but is MORE effective in helping to "close" and also helping to "keep in touch."

You PUSH your Web Address to a prospect who goes home and PULLS up your home page on their computer.

Ways to "Push":

1. ALWAYS have your web address on your e-mail signature. Make it a "clickable" link - this is the strongest form of PUSH I know of...

2. Web address in all ads.

3. Get SIGN RIDERS with your URL so neighbors can go home an "PULL" you up!

4. List a web address in your BULK MAILINGS that past clients and/or sphere can go to that is different than your normal web page, just for them.

5. Put your web address on PROMOTIONAL ITEMS, such as pens or calendars, for a long-lasting reminder that may "PULL" visitors months later.

Ways to "PULL" using your web site:

1. Use a "guestbook" to collect e-mail addresses for your "PUSH" list.

2. Offer useful information about your "niche"

3. A special section for clients and past clients (password access)

4. Have Contests or drawings for small prizes that require prospects to visit your page regularly. This is also good for collecting e-mail addresses.

5. Make a "Christmas Card" or family web page for the holidays and then list it in your ads and correspondence. Place a link to your home page on the Christmas Card page.

6. Have a monthly recipe, story, newsletter, whatever, that you can promote for visitors to BOOKMARK your page and return on a regular basis.

The Electronic Newsletter

E-News can be the wave of marketing into the next century. It uses both "Push" and "Pull" to produce an effect more powerful than traditional newsletters, and at the same time, is much less expensive.

You first need your e-mailing list, literally worth more than it's weight in gold. Start TODAY to ask for and collect e-mail addresses from all your past clients, prospects, friends, relatives, old business contacts, local businesses, etc. etc. etc.

Make a newsletter setup for your website. Create a handful of "departments" such as "Monthly Market Report," "SOLDS," "Listing of the month," "Local spotlight," "Etc." After the newsletter is setup, you can change stories and pictures each month within the same format.

Each month, you create an e-mail that is sent out to your list. The e-mail is only a synopsis or promo for them to click and actually visit the page(s) - This is how the "Push/Pull" works. Besides the benefits of having your home page links in your e-mail going to them each month, you are "keeping your name in front of them" and "Pulling" them to your web site all at the same time. Combining your E-news with some of the contest/giveaway ideas makes a powerful combination!

The One Word Sales Pitch
When you have a web site on-line that shows your listings, personal brochure, and marketing presentation, you have the ability to make a One-Word Sales Pitch anywhere - it's your Web Address! Consider the billboard that just says WWW.YOU.COM in 10' letters. Put your "pitch" in EVERY classified. Why do you think you see so many web addresses at the bottom of TV ads.... IT WORKS!

Many Realtors spend $100's or $1000's on homes magazines, display ads, and shoppers. Now you can add your entire Internet Marketing Campaign for no extra cost just by listing your web and e-mail addresses in the same space! DO IT!
source: www.mnrealty.com

There is more Below The current Line

While we learn only 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear and 30% of what we see; we learn fully 80% of what we experience.’ - William Glasser

With a deluge of competitive information being bombarded to consumers at every touch point, there is a growing deviation from the historical model of end to end mass communication. Technological advancements have opened every possible information window a marketer could have envisaged, enabling brands to reach fragmented audiences.

As a reaction however to this sensitized marketing the consumer on the other hand has matured to demand higher quality, better service and more importantly, customization. The outcome, consumers have become more price sensitive in search of value leading to intelligent purchase patterns. This heightened aspirational consumerism coupled with intense competition from domestic and international brands has left little breathing space for today’s marketers.

Thus today marketers look for minimal spill over. Three factors driving this trend are Measurability, Focus and Innovation. While above the line advertising helps in the mass reach of the product, and there is no denying its need as well as benefits however it’s the below-the-line which plays the vital role in reaching out to the consumer, at the right time with most critical thing that drives consumer recruitment - experience. The enhanced ROI is evident just do the maths.

Tracing the progression

A recent world-wide study suggests Marketing Transformation will occur in four phases:

Marketers will make greater use of inbound customer contacts as a channel to present offers.

Marketers will replace many batch campaigns with more relevant event / experience-driven campaigns.

Once marketers have mastered inbound and outbound contacts as separate functions, they will begin to coordinate their activities across channels to create seamless customer conversations.

The final phase of marketing transformation will occur when marketing not only makes offers, but also enhances all customer interaction channels with marketing guidance to make each contact more intelligent – and more valuable.

Brand experience and its USP’s can be shared with long lasting consumer impressions through experiential promotional tactics such as sampling, demonstrations, lifestyle infiltration, interactive mobile marketing and activations.

Below the line offers a flexible environment for marketers to get on to this much sought after one-to-one interaction mode with the consumers. From conventional BTL activities like events & road-shows, exhibitions, conferences and sampling, marketers are exploring newer pastures like Word of Mouth, Viral marketing, Podcasting, Field marketing, contests and Consumer Generated Media. Providing measurable results through ROI metrics, BTL umbrella offers limitless potential fulfilling multiple pre defined objectives; be it Trials, Loyalty Programs, Proactive promotions, or Distribution apart from generating a handy customer database for the marketers.

Below the line in its evolved possibilities, today in India is nascent if not amateur at the risk of offending sensibilities of colleagues across the board. Yes it is evolving. Its evolution however depends as much on the Agency as it does on the marketer. Are we really open to accepting a new logical idea in all its connotations?

An increasing number of Marketers are! As traditional outbound channels become less effective and more regulated, leading marketers are shifting their focus to inbound marketing – the process of delivering cross-sell & up-sell when the customer initiates an interaction over and above the traditional channels such In-shop, promotions, road-shows, etc.

To really bring to light in fairly exact terms we would like to share the recent case of an IT company who changed the perception of cross promotions as we knew it. The Windows Vista launch messaging centered around “Wow” – the simplistic yet powerful emotional reaction that it received from any consumer who saw the product. The core was the all new interface in Windows Vista which has a translucent aero glass display characterized by a unique Flip3D means of accessing multiple windows.

To elicit a “Wow” reaction a café chain (CCD) was completely ‘Vista-ized”. The fundamental colors of CCD were changed to the blue-green Windows Vista palette starting from the door to the menu panel. All other points of interaction with the customer were also “Vista-ized” – this included a totally redesigned menu card, posters, tent-card and even a special edition brew called “Wow-fee”. An innovative cover on Café Beat the in-house newspaper provided detailed consumer benefit messaging ensuring that a consumer had varying levels of messaging at multiple touch points ensuring a complete surround.

The activation was used as a Multiplier in addition to the other facets of the campaign. The activation was driven by the fact that The Target Audience band for Windows Vista includes youth and young adults who are early technology adopters and are already living the digital lifestyle in varying degrees. Windows Vista incredibly enhances the consumer’s ability to live the digital lifestyle. Café Coffee Day was a great ‘fit’ since it enjoys a similar consumer profile. The best part was the captive nature of the audience which allows one to convey the brand messaging & product USP’s in a relaxed and undistracted manner. In fact the relevance and reach of the “The Wow starts now” Windows Vista launch campaign was enhanced through a special edition brew called “Wow-fee”. That was a huge success with over 8,000 cups sold daily!

Marketer’s world over are increasingly resorting to some or the other form of Below the line extensions/innovations as multipliers with measurability. In India, this vertical has remained under-capitalized with conventional activations alone with scope for further specialization – in turn leaving various possibilities for a brand unexplored.

This practice persists despite the fragmenting of mass markets into thousands of minimarkets, each requiring its own approach, in spite of the proliferation of new types of media, and despite the growing consumer sophistication. The most obvious benefit of integrating marketing communications is that it produces stronger message consistency and resultantly, impacts brand perception and eventually sales positively.

According to IPA Report in future agencies must recognize that marketer / agency / consumer relationships will be challenged with new models of engagement. By 2016, the hypothesis is that media owners will be integrating brands directly into existing content and savvy consumers will take control of content and the flow of interactions. So while we plan below the line within its existing templates there is need to explore beyond where wider horizons await.---from jagran

Tipping Point concept for Marketing

Tipping Point, book by Gladwell, explains the three simple principles that underpin the rapid spread of ideas, products and behaviours through a population and can unlock the viral potential of a new product or service to create an epidemic of demand.

By applying these principles, the book outlines how marketers can help produce a ‘tipping point’ for a new product or service, the moment when a domino effect is triggered and an epidemic of demand sweeps through a population like a highly contagious mind virus.

The Law of the Few

First, do not waste time marketing your idea to the masses: focus your energies on the trendsetters, the socially promiscuous and those with the power to influence. Place your idea or product with these people and, by the force of word of mouth added to an innate human tendency to keep up with the Joneses, your epidemic will snowball through society.Focus on the consumers that count, the mass will follow’ is the Tipping Point marketing mantra.

Screening profile for infectious connectors:

o Ahead in adoption
o Connected
o Travellers
o Information Hungry
o Vocal
o Exposed to Media


The Stickiness Factor

Tweaking your idea or product to make it more infectious or "sticky" (Gladwell's preference) is the second step. This does not mean major surgery to transform a mediocre idea into a brilliant idea-a cosmetic makeover will work wonders, so just "tweak and test" with a view to involving your target audience, telling a story, somehow making it relevant to them.

The Stickiness Factor – What makes an Innovation Infectious?

• Excellence: perceived as best of breed
• Uniqueness: clear one-of-a-kind differentiation
• Aesthetics: perceived aesthetic appeal
• Association: generates positive associations
• Engagement: fosters emotional involvement
• Expressive value: visible sign of user values
• Functional value: addresses functional needs
• Nostalgic value: evokes sentimental linkages
• Personification: has character, personality
• Cost: perceived value for money

The Power of Context

Finally, get the context right. The human mind is wired to be receptive to ideas only in certain situations, so make sure your idea fits the context in which it will be adopted, and make sure it fits the context of a mind still primarily adapted to a distant hunter-gatherer past. By testing and tweaking your product to fit the social, physical and mental context of use, the science of social epidemics states that the impact on future sales will be exponential

The Art Of Brochures- an effective marketing tool

Typically, most entrepreneurs and professionals are ineffective at articulating the uniqueness and value of their business offering--a critical tool for turning prospects into paying clients.

Positioning Determines Your Marketing Message

Before a word of sales or marketing copy is ever written, a positioning strategy must be carefully developed. Your positioning should convey a unique and strong selling proposition that sets you apart from your competitors. Some questions to ask yourself before committing to a market position are:


Who is my target market and what do they really want from me?

What requests do my prospects have?

What is my business promising to fulfill?

What are our strengths and weaknesses?

Who are our perceived competitors and what are their strengths and weaknesses?

How are we unique?

What are the personal values that drive our business?

What are the trends and gaps in the current market-place and how can we capitalize on them?

An Effective Brochure Communicates Value

In a successful marketing piece, everything must work together to support the marketing position and message. Although the copywriting should be persuasive and the design compelling, an effective brochure needs to exude confidence and convey a sense of quality, honesty and knowledge to your prospects. It needs to be written in your prospect's language (generic language is not very effective in the relational marketplace). Throw out the general words that mean all things to all people and substitute sensory-based data that relates to your prospect's personal experience.

Endorsements and Testimonials

It has been estimated that 95% of all people are followers and tend to do what their peers do. Because of this fact, I suggest that one panel of your brochure be devoted to testimonials from satisfied clients. Be sure that they point to specific benefits and results and that they are not just generic fluff! If you can get a testimonial from a well-respected expert in your field, I suggest highlighting it in a shaded box, so that it really stands out and gets the notice it deserves.

The Nitty Gritty Information

One panel of your brochure should be devoted to the services you provide and give your prospects some basic information about what you do, how you do it and who can benefit from what you're offering. It works best to bullet point as much of this information as possible, so the reader can scan for what interests him, instead of having to read every word. Be sure to also include a list of several tangible benefits your clients will receive; because the most important information in a brochure answers the question, "what's in it for the client". You may also want to come up with 3-4 qualifying questions that the reader can ask him/herself; it's like a self-test to determine whether they are a prospect for whatever it is you're offering.

The Front Cover

Keep the front cover attractive, but simple. It's purpose is to motivate the reader to pick up your brochure and open it. I recommend consulting with a professional designer or marketing consultant for creative ideas. Include your corporate logo and company name and a brief tag line or slogan.

The Back Cover

I recommend that the back cover of your brochure include a 3-4 paragraph corporate biography that instills confidence in your prospects that you possess the abilities and expertise to perform as promised; in other words, the biography positions you and your company as experts in your field. In the first paragraph tell readers what motivated you to start your business, and why you are the ideal person to be doing this. The second paragraph can highlight the education, credentials and accomplishments of the principals, along with a success story that illustrates the results and benefits you have achieved for other clients. The last paragraph could list professional affiliations, human interest items about the company or its principals and any other pertinent information you may want to add. Don't forget to include all contact info, phone, address, fax, e-mail, etc.

Jaago Re! - Cause Marketing Strategy

Jaago Re!, One Billion Votes Campaign, by TATA TEA, India’s largest tea company by volume, with Janaagraha, a not-for-profit institution, is a classic example of cause marketing technique.

Cause marketing is a collaborative marketing partnership between a nonprofit and a business, where the business provides resources to aid the cause and the cause provides PR for the business.

Marketing studies reveal that people support businesses that support causes. A partnership with just one nonprofit can connect you to an endless web of causes and the massive niche markets they represent. Since their activities are newsworthy, they generate publicity for their partners. Since their memberships are highly motivated by values, their members become a deeply loyal new market for you. And as the above studies show, it isn’t only the niche markets that will respond.

As per the Web site PRWatch.com, cause-marketing sponsorships are now outpacing sports sponsorships, and that large nonprofits are spending upwards of $7.6 billion per year on marketing and PR.

360 Degree Marketing

Today customers have short attention spans and millions of businesses are attempting to attract their attention.

Approaching them via one or two marketing channels is not suffiecient to get their attention. So the Answer is- 360 degree guerrilla marketing. It communicates with your prospects and customers from all directions and across long periods of time.

The reason to employ 360 degree guerrilla marketing is because most prospects are in the market for what you sell only a small fraction of the time. If you're not talking to them at that time, they'll talk to somebody else. With less than 360 degree guerrilla marketing, your chances of connecting with them at that fleeting moment are cut down dramatically.

The fragmenting of media is still another reason to go all-out with marketing and still another opportunity to go easy on your budget because fragments cost much less than whole parts -- TV to selected neighborhoods runs a teeny fraction of the cost of TV to the nation.

Guerrillas employ 360 degree marketing by blending low tech and high tech with high touch and high care. They are always available to their customers via their Website, email address, answering device, fax, snail mail address and telephone, with many also connecting by pager and fax-on-demand software. They're involved in their communities, connecting with prospects face-to-face in non-business settings.

You can be sure they have an active referral system, tapping the enormous referral power of past customers to learn the names of potential customers. They produce and mail brochures -- printed, audio or video, or all three. They take networking seriously and appreciate that rare chance to ask questions, listen to answers and learn of problems they can solve.

Guerrillas are joiners of clubs to learn industry information, meet movers and shakers, and contribute their time and energy to the organization. They offer free consultations and demonstrations whenever possible and set up alliances with other companies in co-marketing ventures -- especially online. They are linkers of the highest order.

There's a good chance they publish a newsletter, possibly even a catalog. Many pen a column for a publication read by their prospects and run a stand-out Yellow Pages ad if businesses such as theirs gain customers that way. They offer their speaking services for free to local groups and have warm, trusting relationships with people at the media in which they hope to gain publicity. When they get it, they make reprints to post and mail.

360 degree guerrilla marketing means they may run classified or small display ads offering their brochure and directing people to their Website. Many maintain awareness on the radio, with cable TV, in business magazines or regional editions of national magazines. They use signs wherever feasible and stay in touch regularly with both prospects and customers with postcard and standard mailings.

Do they send questionnaires to prospects and customers? Bet on it. Even when they're doing all this, they're still engaging in only 180 degree guerrilla marketing. Reality today means the other 180 degrees comes from their wise presence and impressive activity online.

The magic words are presence and activity. Onliners see them not only at their own content-rich website, but also actively participating in forums, chatrooms, and with email that Netizens have requested. 360 degree guerrillas are frequently mentioned in online news reports, host online conferences, and run contests at their site. As new opportunities arise online, and arise they do on a daily basis, guerrillas seize and test them, making sure their aim encompasses all 360 degrees of marketing.

Combining all this weaponry on a continuing basis, over a long period of time rather than in spurts, is a tough job. But succeeding with a small business isn't supposed to be fast or easy. By using 360 degree guerrilla marketing, succeeding does become far more of a certainty.

Cos take a liking to below-the-line ( BTL) advertisement

Rising advertising cost coupled with the desire for direct customer interaction has spurred a gradual increase in ad spends for below-the-line (BTL) promotional activities. Many companies have found a new flavour in this medium, as it provides immediate brand visibility at affordable prices.

BTL advertising is non-media advertising, particularly sales promotions, reduced price offers and interactive sponsorship activities which are more personalised. “This industry has jumped from Rs 300-400 crore, a few years back, to as high as Rs 1,000 crore today.

Budgets for BTL ad spending have grown phenomenally. What was probably 20:80 in favour of above-the-line (ATL) advertising earlier could be 40:60 now,” said Raj Hansoge, MD, Buenos Entertainment, a marketing support company that does BTL campaigns.

Conventionally undertaken at consumer touch points such as retail outlets and coffee shops, companies have begun setting up kiosks in cafeterias at tech parks, enabling them to reach nearly 20,000 potential customers everyday.

BTL promotions are product and brand driven. Brands are courting this medium to promote product attributes without the burden of ad clutter. Once Allen Solly, a brand of Madura Garments, moved into the retail format, BTL advertising became a necessary alternative to drive traffic to their stores.

The company also used direct communication through the SMS format to promote the brand within their catchment area. “Below-the-line retail activation is useful in tracking actual conversion rates.

In the future while our ad spending on traditional mediums will continue, BTL is bound to grow at least 30%,” said Allen Solly brand marketing manager Kapil Khattar.

The ability to customise promotions to suit different markets and obtain immediate feedback has boosted the medium’s popularity. Wireless internet provider Tata Indicom also opted for BTL techniques when they re-positioned their brand. With their ‘plug 2 surf’ campaign, the company found the need to touch base with consumers.

“A television ad just gives us 30-40 seconds to promote a new tariff card while BTL enables a dialogue engagement with consumers,” said Tata Indicom marketing head Abdul Khan.

ATL techniques aren’t cost effective to communicate with a small target group. Dutch food retail chain Spar also digs into their ad spends to finance ground-level promotions within their development area.

“We are currently operational only over a limited geography and ATL ad spending, which involves a lot of wastage, will not ensure substantial footfalls,” said Max Hypermarkets India MD Viney Singh. Being new on the retail front, the chain spends up to 3-4% of revenues on advertising. BTL advertising already accounts for a half of this.

Industry observers feel that the division between BTL and ATL advertising is blurring quickly. “The future will see a great sense of accountability with regard to market expenditure to determine what the real benefits are to the company, so advertising is bound to be interactive,” said Mr Khan.

While BTL advertising is only slated to grow with greater vigour in the future, companies are not in a hurry to completely switch over either.

Viral Marketing

In the early days of the internet, marketers were sceptical about its utility in advertising everyday products.

Things have changed since then. As more of our activities have moved online, advertisers too have attempted to harness the speed and spread of information dissemination that the Net makes possible.

This was earlier restricted to text ads or pop-ups and banners that were at best little more than irritants to consumers and not very effective. But with the rise of Web 2.0 and its emphasis on user-generated content and social networks, advertisers have found a new way to get their message across. It's called viral advertising.

The digital equivalent of word of mouth, viral advertising involves companies or marketers creating messages so funny and interesting that consumers feel compelled to forward them to their friends and family.

The first real example of viral success was a video created to promote an American fast-food chain in 2004. Since then, viral advertising has become a popular tactic to woo consumers to products as diverse as movies and detergent.

The latest Batman film, for instance, used viral marketing to great effect and stoked the interest of customers to a fever pitch pre-release , with the result that the film had the biggest opening weekend in movie history. Indian companies are now getting into the act; a viral promoting a chewing gum is doing the rounds on e-mail.

Marketers employing word of mouth as a tool to create goodwill about their product is hardly radical. But the Web amplifies the word of mouth phenomenon and transcends geographical boundaries. Viral marketing is also popular with advertisers because it is free and comes from someone the consumer knows.

It's difficult to tell with a viral video whether some marketing maven created it or if it was the work of an amateur.

Advertisers also fear virals, of course, because it is outside their control. But few marketers monitor negative buzz. The gains outweigh the risks.

Viral advertising, however, could create difficulties for traditional media, which relies on advertising as its primary source of revenue. Already, the internet is eating into ad spend for print and, to a smaller degree, television.

For instance, Google reported a 42 per cent jump in revenue in the first quarter of 2008 over the same period in 2007, while a leading American newspaper company saw its revenue slip 4.9 per cent and advertising revenue drop 9.2 per cent.

With the availability of a popular and largely free method of marketing like virals, more companies could start diverting their advertising expenditure online.

Marketing Budgets: Striking A Balance

Hugh Davidson, author of Offensive Marketing, points out: “Studies show that brands that maintain or increase marketing spend in a recession tend to
do better than their rivals in the long run.” He cites Reckitt Benckiser’s results as an example. Due to strong NPD and heavy marketing support, the company’s sales rose 20% between 30 March and 30 June.

However, to escape hatchet-wielding finance directors, marketers must take steps to make their spend more efficient in ways that don’t harm demand. Marketing asked a panel of experts for their tips.


Streamline your processes:

“Our research shows that most companies can make 10%-20 % efficiency gains or more, without harming demand, by overhauling inefficient systems and processes,” says Robert Shaw, professor of marketing metrics at Cass Business School. “You can cut up to 50% from production costs by eliminating costly reworking, additional print-runs , and bureaucracy that involves one piece of collateral being reviewed by 100 people.”


Manage agencies more tightly:

Clients should push media agencies to justify their choice of media in financial terms, says Shaw. “It’s amazing how many brands still target difficult-to-reach markets through ad spots in Coronation Street, for example,” he says. Tim Ambler, senior fellow in marketing at London Business School, cites market research as one area to cut back on. “A lot of this is done in a ritualistic attempt to ‘keep in the touch with the customer’ , but doesn’t affect what the company does,” he says.


Do the maths:

“Most companies have a portfolio of brands, and if they know how big they are, their profit margins and so on, they can quickly get a rough idea of which ones are worth supporting and which aren’t ,” says Les Binet, European director of DDB Matrix and author of Marketing in the Era of Accountability. “If more marketers did those sums, they would realise how much of what they do is uneconomic.”


Optimise your price/promotional balance:

Karl Weaver, a director at Data2Decisions, a marketing consultancy that helps clients manage budgets, advises companies to wean themselves off price promotions. “Advertising can help reduce responsiveness to price,” he says. “So advertising and price promotions can cancel each other out, particularly if the advertising is run after a promotion.”


Harness the power of emotion:

The financial payback from emotionally led ads is greater than that from more rational ones. “People are motivated by how they feel, rather than what you tell them, which is another reason to resist brand-eroding tactical activity such as price promotions,” says Binet. He adds that positive word of mouth can increase the efficiency of marketing budgets by about 40%.


Creative is key:

Data2Decisions research shows that creative execution is the second-biggest determinant of an ad’s profitability, after market size. Weaver stresses its importance in a downturn. He adds: “If your current execution is not as effective as the last one, ditch it and bring back the old one.”


Harness the power of integration :

Integrated campaigns can increase efficiency by up to 100% because of interaction between different channels , claims Binet. “Similarly, using one-stop shops for all communications will presumably result in significant cost-savings , too,” he says.


Manage headcount:

Don’t cut marketing staff only to re-employ people on inflated salaries as ‘consultants’ , advises Ambler. “By creating more clarity about what people do and relating it to clearer marketing goals, you will need fewer people,” he adds.


Cosy up to the finance director:

The finance director runs a business, so being able to engage with them is vital. “You do that by talking in terms of investment, rather than spend,” says Andrew Challier, managing partner of media analytics specialist Billetts. Michael Uzielli, head of pricing & promotions for British Gas: “Marketing spend is discretionary and easy to cut. British Gas spends about £40m annually on marketing , and you think, ‘If we spent £20m, would our world fall in?’”


Learn from what you do:

Evaluate everything in business terms to identify what works, advises Binet, who claims that Dell has increased its marketing efficiency in the US by 50% in the past two years by testing everything it does. “If you want to learn and improve, you have to recognise and admit to failure, rather than brushing mistakes under the carpet,” he says.

Marketing crux--Differentiate or Die

Jack Trout, Globally renowned marketing strategist, says, Marketing people spend too much time tinkering with new ideas and really don’t focus on the one thing that they should be focusing upon — differentiation.

According to the co-author of the bluntly titled book, Differentiate Or Die, in “all this fooling around” with new ideas, marketing executives are forgetting the basics of how to separate their brand from the competition. “What marketing folks need to look for is that simple, obvious strategy and not get bogged down in the complexities,” says Trout.

The question, however, that is foremost on many marketers’ lips is the relevancy of differentiation, given the avalanche of new products hitting the market. Trout admits that creating differentiation is becoming increasingly difficult. But, he argues, the arrival of so many products also puts the emphasis back on the need to be different. “You are getting into a market with an army of competitors out there. You have to face that fact and say, ‘Maybe there’s no room for me unless there is something different.’ The trouble with marketing people is that hope springs eternal,” he says. And for clear differentiation, the marketing programme has to inevitably start with the competition. “What you want to do is what your competition will let you do,” Trout says.

According to Trout, the biggest challenge facing the marketing fraternity today can be summed up in two words: Wall Street. “Financial statements are pushing companies to grow and be everything for everybody. Companies, in their insatiable desire to grow, lose focus and move away from a simple idea. Beware of Wall Street,” he cautions. And there’s a valuable lesson here for Indian companies intent on chasing that much-required global scale to remain competitive. “They should plot their growth strategies carefully and not take the brand where it does not make sense,” warns Trout. “You cannot be everything to everybody unless you are a Wal-Mart.” That said, even Wal-Mart discovered, much to its discomfort, that it cannot be everywhere. For example, the chain could not successfully compete in the up-market retailing space against Target, the retail chain that sells “fancier stuff for less,” Trout points out. Another example: Home Depot tried smaller neighbourhood formats to retail hardware, but failed because local retailers had deeper insights into local market needs. What Trout does endorse, from a retailing perspective, is experiment with multiple retailing formats. “Under a separate brand, maybe,” he adds quickly.

Opportunity In Slowdown:

The economic downturn spells bad news to most marketers, but a slump also presents an opportunity to build brands. “You need to have a pretty good idea how to ride the downturn,” Trout says. He cites the example of a real estate company from the US which is exploring a strategy for selling houses in an environment tainted by the sub-prime crisis. “Real estate is always priced on wishful pricing. It’s time for realty to adopt reality pricing. You need a strategy that fits with the times,” he says drawing the discussion back to Wal-Mart. “The best thing that happened to Wal-Mart is a recession,” he says. The retailer, too, was faced with a prospect of a slowdown in sales, but because consumers began downgrading, the recession worked to Wal-Mart’s benefit. Another example he uses to demonstrate his point is Ford’s F-150 pick up trucks. “The company should communicate with fleet owners how the truck will help with business in current times. You should shift your product message to fit the times. You need not change the whole strategy; just change the packaging and messaging to suit the times,” he advises.

Toyota’s hybrid fuel cars are another example of future-focused innovation. “Toyota’s hybrid cars have found a lot of interest as more consumers are moving away from gas because of spiraling fuel prices. When the entire auto industry is in a decline, Toyota is marching ahead,” says Trout. Rival General Motors, according to him, continued to sell its big cars to focus on profit and satisfy Wall Street. But as customers are moving away from gas guzzlers, GM’s erstwhile star-models like the Hummer are on the block. “Sometimes it’s better to be first, than be better,” he adds about Toyota.

This intuitively suggests that R&D needs to be closely connected with marketing. But Trout laments that in most cases “the R&D team sits in a different place from marketing.” He gives the example of P&G’s toothpaste brand Crest, which offered protection from plaque and cavities, but not gingivitis (gum inflammation). Soon Colgate’s Total came and stole the show. Sometimes it’s better to walk up to R&D and insist that this property must be there in a product, says Trout. “In most cases, R&D lives in a different world.” Not occupying a space or need-gap is a mistake that marketers can end up paying for dearly; but vacating a hard-earned space is, in Trout’s opinion, a cardinal sin. “Volvo’s positioning of ‘safety’ is well documented and well respected. But the company decided to extend its product portfolio to convertibles. Big mistake,” Trout announces. So when Volvo was working on convertibles, its Japanese competition was working on the next safety idea — electronics safety. “Volvo should have been working on that and not on convertibles. The convertible goes against Volvo’s ‘safety’ idea,” Trout says.

With so many examples of bad marketing decisions available in public domain, it stands to logic that marketers would have got better at their business. Yet, marketers routinely dig themselves into the next marketing mud hole. Trout believes the issue lies in the kind of people who are present in marketing meetings. “One of the biggest problems is having the right people in the meeting room. If you cannot have the top people, it’s just not worth it. The CEO is the CMO. You cannot push marketing as a function to be executed by someone who’s far below in the pecking order,” insists Trout. He points Apple’s head Steve Jobs as a good case in point. “He is the CMO,” says Trout. A mention of Apple, quite naturally, leads the conversation to the iPhone and the kind of response the device has elicited from rival mobile phone marketers. “All handset manufacturers are under pressure to develop high-technology handsets. It does tend to be a herd mentality,” says Trout. “Herd is the opposite of being different. That’s the key role of the CEO — to find a differentiator.”

Marketing As Strategy-1

"The business enterprise has two and only two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results;all the rest are costs." -Peter Drucker

In the book Marketing As Strategy, Nirmalya kumar says that in todays world marketing is loosing its importance as for todays CEO customer loyalty and retention is the most important issue even before reducing cost, developing leaders, increasing innovation, and improving stock price.
According to him for marketer to capture the imagination of CEO's they must break from the tactical 4 Ps and associate instead with organization-wide transformational initiatives worthy of the CEO's agenda. Marketing must never limit its scope to implementation issues. It must aspire to participate in those conversation that shape the firm's destiny.

Cross functional approach:

Marketing leaders have to think across multiple dimensions and levels of abstraction by targeting problems that involve multiple products, countries, brands, channels, and functions. A cross functional orientation requires marketers to understand the entire value chain thoroughly, including engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, and logistics, as well as the enabling functions of finance and accounting-and not simply advertising, promotion, and pricing.
Marketer must be- more strategic, more cross-functional, and more bottom-line oriented.

I will write on series to topics from different areas covered in the book.

STP-Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Segmentation:

A segmentation process identifies variables that will maximise the differences between segments while simultaneously minimizing the differences within each segment. The ultimate segmentation scheme from the customer's perspective is mass customization, where each customer is a distinct segment.

Actionable segments share three characteristic:

1. Distinctiveness- different segments respond differently to the marketing mix.
2. Identity- the ability to reasonably profile which customer fall within which segment.
3. Adequate size- to develop tailored marketing programs for each segments to be economically vaible for the firm.

Segmentation variables can be broadly classified into two catagories:identifier and response.
Identifier: based on who the customer are. Here segmentation are based on sex, age, education, and income or size of firm, industry and geographical location in B2B markets.
Response: based on how customer behave. here segmentation are based on primary concern of the customer like in Telecom price or the quality of service.

Marketing person need to understand both to fine tune their understanding of marketing segments.

A company in car repair first devided customer by Age of car-they need more repair, Size of car-higher the value of sale and margin, and Sex of car owner-women more likely to buy additional services. They further devided the customer on the basis of car lover- (allowing them to see the repair to show tangible evidence and follow up with phone calls every six months to remind for another check-up) and utilitarians-( offer news paper to read during repair and guarantee the car for X number of miles without the problem recurring).

Targeting:

It is the process of selecting which market segment the company should actively pursue to generate sales. Now the selected segment can be targeted using
undifferentiated-(target with same marketing mix),
Differentiated(simultaneously targets several market segment each with unique marketing mix, like maruti with maruti, swift, SX4 for different segment), or
Concentrated (selects one segment and concentrates on serving it like over forty male, college graduate with Rs 5,00,000 income) targeting strategies.

Positioning:

Is about developing unique selling proposition (USP) for the target segment.USP should be capable of being briefly communicated by completing the sentence:" You should buy my product because...." here in completing the sentence the answer should be driven by customer benefits and not by product features.
Marketer need to communicate this USP to the customer in the most effective way through the most effective marketing channel so as to reach the right segment.Example: Volkswagen targeted a younger, more educated, more affluent demographic, and an adventurous, confident customer who enjoy driving and even disobey speed limits. It positioned itself rationally as " affodable and German engineered," and emotionally as a " different driving experience more connected to road and world."