Overuse brand colour at your own risk

Use brand colours wisely. (c) www.freepixels.com

I was overwhelmed by the red colour during the festive season of Dashain, the most important festival of Hindus. Everywhere there was red – little children wearing red dress, women wearing red saris, family members wearing red tika on their foreheads after receiving blessings from the elders and even the decorations in the marketplace – all were red.

It perfectly matched the adage, “Paint the town red”. Then I landed in this newly opened restaurant. I would not take its full name so that their marketing efforts are not jeopardized by my comments. It was named “The Red…..”.

When I entered, there was red and only red everywhere. The door was painted in red, the sofas, tables, chairs and curtains – everything was red. When the waiter came with the menu, not only its cover was red but even the inside pages were red. To my dismay, even the plate and cup were red in colour.

While eating, it felt as if the red colour will stick to my tongue. You can imagine what others have felt. The restaurant was well designed, located at a prime point in the marketplace, well promoted in the local media, and of course the dishes were delicious. However, I saw, the customer turnout was not so exciting.   

Talking about the use of brand colours, I can’t forget another example where the marketers have overwhelmingly used their colours to brand their product. It’s of NCell, a telecom service provider in Nepal. The marketers have not spared any nook and cranny in the country. They have painted with purple the flower pots, street lamp posts, bus stations, small restaurants, public parks and to my dismay even the national monuments. The roundabout of Kohalpur in the Western Nepal has been smudged with their brand colour. Seeing all purple in the surrounding, I was feeling as if I will puke purple!

I don’t mean that it’s bad to use brand colours and your logos in abundance. It’s what the marketers have done in the past to subconsciously attract the customers and influence their purchase decisions. But there is a limit to everything. Simply painting the surroundings with your brand colours won’t help your brand make its way to your customers’ hearts. Instead, they will be annoyed to see the same colour everywhere.

Use your primary and secondary brand colours wisely. Remember the saying “if you overeat sugar, it will seem bitter after a while”.  
 

5 organisational lessons from animals and insects

Have you ever thought of animals and insects teaching us to organise better and effectively market our products? In the last few weeks, I rummaged through research journals to delve into the animal and insect behaviour, and came up with some interesting facts fuelling some practical lessons.

Change your strategy to suit the market needs

Goat kids change ‘accents’ to sound like their peers: As “kids”, the goats mimic the sounds of their mother and siblings. But when they get older, they wander off to join social groups, or “crèches”, with goats their own age, changing their accents to sound like their peers.

Now let’s talk about the practicality of this trait. Once Facebook was only for college students and required .edu e-mail addresses in order to join. Many of its users preferred its “exclusivity” to the “generality” of other social networking sites like “Friendster” and “MySpace”. However, Mark Zuckerberg gradually changed the strategy of catering only to college students to accommodate more users and the rest is history.   

Stick to discipline and organisational culture
Ants mark violators for policing: Policing is a familiar mechanism for maintaining cooperative behaviour in human societies. This mechanism also operates in other animal societies. Among ants, the workers physically attack other workers that selfishly attempt to produce their own eggs, and by such policing keep the colony focused on cooperatively aiding the queen’s reproduction.

This teaches us to build a culture within our organisation and ensure it is strictly followed through the ranks in the organisation. At the end, it is the organisational culture that makes an organisation stand out among competitors and create a brand of its own. It creates a common ground for team members, reduces uncertainty, and contributes to a sense of continuity and unity providing a vision to the organisation. Like the ants, you need to make sure that the members’ shared values, beliefs and behaviours are guided towards a common goal and no one violates the rules.        

Concentrate your efforts on a particular value
Rhinos leave dung piles at a particular place: Rhinos are known for their habit of leaving dung piles at a particular place. Most rhinos use piles of dung to leave “messages” for other rhinos - nuances in the smell of dung can tell a rhino a lot about others in the area. Each rhino’s smell identifies its owner as unique - the smell is different for young vs. adult animals, for males vs. females, and females in estrus vs. non-reproductive females.

Likewise, don’t try to be everything. Follow certain values to establish an identity of your own. In their book “The Discipline of Market Leaders”, Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersma say, “No firm can be all things to all people and that a firm’s managers must clarify the value proposition, select a value discipline from one of three major choices and then build the right value-driven operating model to support that discipline”.

The three value disciplines that Treacy and Wiersma outline are:
 

• Operational Excellence-where firms focus on price and convenience.
• Product Leadership-where the emphasis is on creating products that consistently push performance boundaries.
• Customer Intimacy-where firms cultivate deep relationships with their clients.

Target the decision influencers
Leapfrogging in lady beetles: Herbivores aggregate in habitats where their plant resources are optimal and avoid habitats where their predators are in abundant. The research has shown that lady beetles aggregate where their prey’s plant resources are best, even though they as predators make no direct use of the plants. This strategy is termed ‘leapfrogging’ because the predator’s attention skips over the adjacent trophic level to concentrate on the one that is two levels down.


While you are formulating your marketing strategy, not only focus on the direct buyers, the primary targets but also take care of the influencers. It’s the same old theory of a housewife influencing the husband and children influencing their parents during the purchase. Nowadays, with the influx of so many social media platforms, the decision influencers have grown by leaps and bounds. That’s the reason marketers are putting their efforts in getting the maximum number of “likes” in Facebook pages of their products and are trying their best to instigate the consumers to share the pages with their peers and friends.
      
Tell the competitors to stay away

Honeybees tell hornet predators to buzz off: Asian honeybees signal to their enemies - bee-eating hornets - to let them know they have been spotted. All the guard bees simultaneously vibrate their abdomens from side-to-side for a few seconds when a hornet approaches the colony. In the wild, this produces a spectacular "Mexican wave" of vibrating bees. Warned wasps would retreat from the colony and try to catch bees in flight instead.

Keep on admonishing your competitors by continually improvising your products. This not only keeps intact the interest of your customers and creates long term brand loyalty, but also makes the customers feel proud using the products. Take the example of Facebook. Its continuous improvement in terms of features, navigation and utility has not only helped it attract more than 800 million users but has also kept the competition at bay. 

I am sure there are many more animal and insect behaviour that give us clue to organise better. Please add to the list if you come across any such lessons.

 

5 Cs of consumer behaviour

Recently I travelled to Nepalgunj, a city in Western Nepal famous for its chat (a spicy mixture of potato, onion, chilly, curd, tamarind and spices), rabri (a form of condensed milk) and sekuwa (grilled mutton chunks). I was alone and it gave me freedom to roam the streets and observe the consumer and trader behaviour.

Clustering attracts customers
As I approached the Tribhuvan Chowk, the street that is famous for chat, I could see hordes of food carts selling the delicacy. Even the surrounding shops were catering to the demands of the customers. They were also selling chat. It is really helpful to have a street full of sellers selling same commodity. One doesn’t need to wander here and there in the city in search of the required material. The benefit of clustering together is – the customer has many choices to choose from. So, it attracts the customers in first place. In case of sellers, they don’t need to wait for customers in an obscured corner, but the customers come to the street looking for them. It is like being part of the fraternity selling similar things.

Caring for the crowds
Having a plethora of choices, I moved on to a cart which was surrounded by many eaters. It is a human psychology to believe in the crowds. It provides live testimony that the seller is selling quality products. A seller needs to care for the crowds and for every single customer in the crowd. If s/he is able to satisfy the demand of the customer, the crowding-in continues. It is not only word of mouth publicity but I would rather say sight for eyes advertising.  

The chatwallah knew all Cs of consumer behaviour.

Catering to the customer’s needs 
On reaching the food stall, I was greeted by a warm smile of the vendor. He asked me to wait for my turn gracefully. A duo of father and daughter had arrived earlier than me and he was catering to their needs. I was the next in the line and it was my turn within few minutes. I didn’t hate waiting for my turn due to his friendly and warm behaviour.

Clean and clutter-free ambience enhances the mood to buy
In spite of being in a busy street, the disposable plates and spoons were clean, the stall and the handler both were neat and tidy. Above all, the delicacy was hot and spicy, fresh from the frying pan. I gulped down the chat within a minute. It was very delicious as recommended by my friends. I sensed that the cleanliness and clutter-free ambience amplified my desire to eat.    

Caring your customers builds loyalty
When I was leaving the stall, the vendor asked me with a smile, “How was the taste, Sir? Did you like it?” I told him that the taste was terrific. He then requested me to visit again. That was the reason to visit his stall again and savour the tasty chat prepared by him.

I was satisfied in every way – I got to eat the delicious chat, was treated like a royal and above all, the experience reinvigorated the consumer behaviour theories remaining stagnant in my grey cells!   
 

7 media trip essentials

Media trip is a time-tested tool for communicators to highlight the project successes. The journalists get to see and verify the first hand information, analyse the situation and report accordingly. You don’t need to put extra efforts to convince them to write on the subject.


Forming a small and diverse team
The team should be small – not more than seven members and should comprise journalists from all media: print, electronic and online. Make sure the journalists are from top ranking newspapers, television, radio and online portals.

Preparing a well planned itinerary
The itinerary should be planned well with all the meetings fixed ahead of the trip. The itinerary should be shared with the journalists well ahead. Make sure you set aside enough time for the real job and daily essentials like breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If your itinerary includes trekking or walking in rugged terrain, inform them of the duration and landscape. They will be prepared for it accordingly.

Briefing about the project
The journalists should be briefed well ahead of the trip. A backgrounder with all project details should be forwarded to the journalists at least a week ahead, so that they are well informed on the subject. Brochures, booklets, flyers and relevant project publications should be provided.

Besides, they should be informed of the weather and things to carry with them. They should also be informed about the tradition and culture of the place, so that they don’t end up dishonouring the local people and their culture.

Sticking to the story angle
The story angle should be decided well ahead and the coordinator should stick to it. The itinerary should be based on the story angle and the interviews should be scheduled accordingly. Meanwhile the journalists should be convinced to disseminate the story in the same way.

They will, in the most cases, highlight the humane interest stories. However, you should be careful enough to link your project objectives in the stories in a subtle manner.

Treating the participants with dignity
Treating the journalists well is a must. They should be made to feel at ease. However, the professional boundary should not cross the personal limits.

The stakeholders with whom the journalists will meet should be informed of the meeting in advance and they should be briefed ahead of the publications/channels they represent.

Following-up for stories
The journalists are busy with so many assignments and stories. You need to follow-up but in the mean time must make sure that you are not pushing them to publish the stories.

Sometimes they take time to gather the relevant information needed for their articles. Also you’ll need to check the statistics with the journalists. Sometimes the facts are exaggerated and in some cases under-reported.

Following-up for future relations
Just taking the journalists to the field, getting the stories published and closing the chapter is not enough. Relationship building is a must for future.

Once the journalists are interested in the issue, they will continue to write on that topic. However, they will need some leads to the stories. You will also need to pitch your interesting stories from time to time to get them published at regular intervals.

9 Es of Advertising

Ernest Vincent Wright might have written the novel Gadsby: A Story of Over 50,000 words without Using the Letter “E”, but it is not possible to advertise without considering the Es. Having worked and being heavily involved in the advertising industry, I could not keep myself mum when I went through an article in an Indian magazine 4P which dealt with 5 Es of Advertising (Engage, Empower, Educate, Entertain and Enrich). I have added few more Es to the list and poured in my views on each of the Es. I hope you would find them interesting.

If you have experienced more Es in advertising, you are welcome to add to the list. Here goes my list of Es.

Engage
Engaging with the consumers should be the prime focus of the advertisement. If you don’t engage with your prospective and current consumers, then you are losing their insights, suggestions, inputs and feedback to you and your product.

You must have seen the message in the bottles and packs of consumer items with the toll-free number and email ID for consumer feedback and suggestions. It was the only way to interact in the past with the consumers.

Now you have got Facebook – create a fan page of the product and interact with your consumers. A Twitter account will help you get your message regarding the product to your consumers who follow you and your product. The Pinterest boards are also gaining popularity where you can display your products and their attributes.

However, just being in the social media platform is not enough, make sure that you are there to interact with the consumers, reply to their queries in real time.

Educate
There’s more than engaging with the consumers. Educate them, but make sure not to be a teacher. A blog about the product, its features, and its benefits will attract more of your consumers to your product, provided you are offering what you are preaching.

If you are launching your product that is ahead of time, you need to make sure that the consumers are educated about the product. It’s a must. I remember eating dumplings in a Delhi restaurant “Belle Momos” a long time ago. At that time, the proper Delhites were not used to eating dumplings. So, to educate them they had hung framed advertisements teaching “how to eat momos”. It was hilarious for dumpling fans like me but was an eye opener for the starters.

Empower
Make the consumers feel that they have a stake in their favourite product. Listen carefully to what they say, what they suggest and don’t even leave behind any crazy suggestion that comes your way. Some of them might lead you and your product to innovation which your competitors might not even think of.

Many fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) are coming up with innovative advertising campaigns empowering their consumers, in the process building brand loyalty. Earlier this was restricted to the FMCGs asking for recipes from the consumers and putting the snaps of consumers on the packages (Remember the Kurkure and Maggi campaigns?).

Now crowdsourcing has gained momentum, not only in raising money and for a cause, but also for collecting individual opinions and advices on a subject. Summarising the opinions and views and picking up the best can lead to innovative ideas to reckon with.

The Times of India’s Lead India campaign was highly successful in motivating the youth to becoming leaders to change the fate of the country.

Enrich
Enrich the customer experience. Make them walk along with you while you are advertising and building the brand. It all depends on how you communicate the experience behind the product you are offering.

There’s a famous Nepali bottled water brand “Aqua Hundred”. In its advertisements it asks the customers to visit the factory premises and observe how the water is purified. This gives not only a sense of security to the consumers but eager ones can see on their own how the water is made safe for drinking.

Entertain
Make your advertisement interesting and make sure it entertains the audience. P S Mann, the Creative Director at RR Swamy BBDO in an interview to 4P says, “If an advertisement is just an advertisement, the consumer will develop a defence mechanism and not watch it.” “So it’s extremely important to deliver entertainment. Engagement comes from entertainment and from entertainment comes attention.”

To entertain the consumers you should create advertisements which are original, interesting, creative and of course entertaining. Just have a look at the Fevicol advertisements created by Piyush Pandey and you will get an idea of what entertaining is.

Evolve
Evolve with time. Change is the name of the game. Be aware of the ambience and what your competitors are doing and offering. You must be able to change yourself accordingly. Creating an advertisement with old setting won’t work (It might work sometimes but only for a short duration).

Use the modern techniques, tools and medium to reach the audience. Rise above the above the line and below the line advertising. Target cloud advertising – get online and attract the online customers.

Empathise
Have you ever wondered why the guy in the television advertisement resembles you? Because the advertisers are targeting the customers like you! Study the demographics, psychographics and lifestyle of your target audience and create your advertisements according to their tastes, interests and aspirations. They will like your product if a character of their class is shown preaching about the product.

Evaluate
Evaluate your efforts and redo the campaigns and advertisements to suit the customer preferences. Do the cost-benefit analysis and pour in more money sensibly if your efforts are not generating customers.

There is no dearth of crazy people with ideas these days. With decent spend you can get a good team of creative people who can come up with compelling campaigns.

Entice
Last but not the least, don’t leave any stones unturned to entice your customers. This doesn’t mean that you should splash skin all the time like all the deodorants do. Sex obviously sells but it should not be made the main means to attract the customers all the time.

Leave no stone unturned to entice your customers.

You must have heard that a poor guy sued the deodorant “Axe” after he wasn’t able to attract any girl after spraying it all over himself. However, the help of sensuousness can be taken to advertise your product like the “Aamsutra” campaign which shows a Bollywood actress (Katrina Kaif) devouring a mango enticingly while advertising a mango drink Slice.

Now it’s your turn to add to the list of Es!

Advertise, advocate and sell your ideas

“Bolne ko pitho bikchha, nabolne ko chamal pani bikdaina” (One who advocates can sell even a lowly rated commodity like flour, but one who doesn’t speak can not sell even a highly rated commodity like rice) – the Nepali proverb says you should advertise – tell others about your product to sell it. The age old proverb simply asks to preach about the product and advocate to the prospective buyers.

Spread your idea like fire.


With the advent of advertising, the “talking to the prospective consumers” has leapfrogged and every day the advertisers are coming up with innovative ideas to attract and arouse interest among the consumers.

Rather than going for the “saying on the face” trend, the advertisers are resorting for subliminal forms of selling. Product placement is one among them. Now the advertisers won’t tell you to drink a fizzy drink. However, you will notice your favourite actor drinking it on screen in one of your best movies. Consumers are enticed to purchase the products after seeing their idols using them.

Besides, stealth endorsement is catching up where the celebrities are asked to wear merchandise or talk about the product in public forum. This indirect form of endorsement keeps audiences guessing whether the celebrities are endorsing the products.

Likewise, through cross-merchandising the advertisers market different merchandise prior to the release of a film. Many Hollywood and Bollywood movies utilise this technique to create interest about the forthcoming films among the audiences.

Another form of advertising which is quite popular is ambient advertising. Marketers these days put the advertisements everywhere from shopping mall floor to metro and public vehicle bodies. The moving vehicles carrying the advertisements reach thousands of consumers. The old tradition of putting hoarding boards at crossroads (still in practice these days) is being taken over by innovations like 3-D hoarding boards, rotating boards, display changing boards etc. As I mentioned in my previous article this form of advertisement is gaining popularity.

Organising events is another big hit these days. Won’t you be enthralled to know that your favourite beer is bringing Snoop Dogg to your city? Obviously, lot many consumers get to know the brand sponsoring such mega events.

So, next time you plan to advocate your cause, remember the above forms of advertisements that will sell your idea to a larger audience.

Revitalising the media multiplier effect

A decade ago, it was the buzzword and everybody used to talk about the multi-benefits of media multiplier effect. It is pounding the consumers with the same marketing message through all channels at the same time – so that a consumer sees a brand displayed on a hoarding while passing through a major junction, hears the product jingle in FM radio, reads the message in daily newspaper and watches the product commercial in television. However, with the onset of the 21st century and the advent of social media, the concept is being sidelined. With the evergrowing Web 2.0 and the fascination for the social networks, the marketing and advertising concepts have completely changed and so has the media multiplier concept.


The three famous buttons
You must have noticed the three famous buttons splashed everywhere at the end of any online article – share this through Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus. More buttons are being added to the list, LinkedIn and Pinterest being the most prominent ones. In a way these buttons are replacing the traditional media multiplier effect efforts. It’s quite easy to click these buttons and share the news, advertising or any other piece of writing to your followers and acquaintances. If the stuff is interesting, they further share the same with their followers and acquaintances, thus, spreading the word much faster than expected.

BTL versus online marketing
Below the line (BTL) refers to non-classical ways of communication and promotion in opposition to classical advertising through mass media. The hoarding boards at prime junctions and promotion materials at the point of sales still do the trick of promoting your brand. However, the consumer has to walk the extra mile to see your brand. Suppose they don’t get to see your message – it means they will be unaware of your brand and its benefits.

To bridge the time gap, the internet has come to the rescue of marketers. Media and specifically online advertising can be powerful in creating consumer awareness and attracting them to the product websites. Social networking sites as well as specific product-related blogs, open forums, online guides, wikis and consumer communities are fast emerging and provide opportunities to initiate positive word-of-mouth publicity and strengthen brand recognition and loyalty.

Consumer marketing versus cooperative marketing
Consumer marketing includes activities that are directly aimed at reaching end-consumers and stimulating interest and ultimately demand.

Cooperative marketing includes joint advertising, joint media and press relation activities, cooperative publication of promotional leaflets, sponsoring of client events and distribution of promotional materials, and developing joint budget allocation to share costs for activities among partners.

Cooperation makes work easier.

Joint marketing provides a clear financial advantage, as costs for marketing activities can be shared among marketing partners. Moreover, joint marketing may have the advantage of increased consumer awareness through brand alignment and mutual brand endorsement.

Collaborating with strong brands help to build trust and brand credibility for the upcoming brand, among consumers.

You can develop ideas for creative, innovative and fun campaign concepts (i.e. including a consumer competition component) that initiate participation, high involvement and viral distribution through word-of-mouth, social media and online channels. Establish strategic marketing partnerships with industry partners, interest groups, associations and brand companies and develop joint/cooperative marketing activities.

Media versus public relations
Journalistic media coverage including features on TV programmes, print magazines and newspaper articles can be influential in creating awareness and inspiring consumers in their purchase decision. Strategic and targeted media relations and PR are therefore important.

Develop and implement a media release programme with quarterly media newsletters. Pitch stories around the product to media representatives through one-on-one media calls (face-to-face, email, phone). Use networking events to initiate media contacts and organise specialised media events such as press conferences and press events. Develop a press pack with background information including a fact sheet. Initiate media cooperation and media promotion activities such as reader competitions.

Celebrity endorsements versus events
It still bears a question mark – whether celebrity endorsements work or consumer targeted events work better. However, there is no harm to appoint a celebrity who matches your brand persona. S/he will at least pull her/his followers to your brand. Plan interactive events involving your celebrity and you will see the hordes of increasing consumers.

Now put together all mentioned above, squeeze out the best ones and remember to place your message everywhere, in each media, targeting all your consumers – and you will see your media multiplier effect bearing results!