Marketing Is Fling.

I have no budget

I have no time

I have no patience

I have no team

But

I want the business to happen

I want leads coming in regularly

I want people to talk about me

I want to see myself as a brand.

So, what do you have?

I have taken an agency or franchise of a big brand.

I have a small office

I have one staff for everything.

I have a database of a few.

So, what do we do?

See some case studies.

Brand – A famous Chinese smartphone brand. Let’s call it XYZ

Had No marketing budget

Had No Advertising spend on Tv ads.

Had No brand ambassador

What they had

A vision

A strategy

A story to sell

A dream for partners.

What they did

They have asked the retailer to put orange cladding on stores.

These stores created visibility at strategic points in the city

They took money from retailers with the promise of making them big.

Strategy – Keep on creating a shortage of stocks in stores.

People visit to buy a popular phone.

The phone is not available.

Dealers suggest some other phone or search online.

Customers go to Amazon and buy their favourite phones.

The phone got delivered, and he became happy.

And the benefits –

Demand is created in the market.

The customers spoke to his friends – XYZ Phone is not available in the market.

Hence word of mouth

Got the mindshare.

The sale is already made online.

Everyone becomes happy.

But

Is it ethical way?

So, create a buzz in the market and make a sellout online.

Tension in the stores, check out on Amazon.

 Sometimes

 They do the scripted new launch of flash sales.

In a few seconds, all phones sold.

In Midnight people come to shop to buy the new launch.

The next day entire social media platforms covered and shared

They are all staged. Isn’t it?

MD is a visionary and charming salesman.

He didn’t keep a brand ambassador.

He was inspired by MDH’s uncle.

He hired a team of cameramen and an IT cell that had 100s of different sets of accounts.

Their work is to like and comment on all the posts.

He created Fan Groups in cities

And

Tried to develop a culture of the brand

But

Failed to do so.

XYZ‘s brand could not create an attitude.

XYZ failed to make a tribe

Unlike

Apple, is a culture, an aspiration.

Having an Apple brings you above the poverty line

Having an Apple is a ticket for the tribe.

Apple is an emotion.

XYZ is an arrangement.

Apple adds value to its user.

XYZ is value for money.

 This way, XYZ restrict within the value for money category

This way, XYZ could not afford to demand a premium

They tried to create a 108MP story and sell 40k cost mobile

This story again failed miserably.

 Premiumization is not

Just premium black packaging

Not expensive pricing

Not pan India OOH campaign.

Premiumization is a cinema that makes you numb.

sometimes smart sometimes dumb.

It takes you to another world.

It connects you to another proud owner.

It is beyond the features

Again, it is an emotion for the brand

And requires devotion from brand

It is loyalty that gives the royalty.

Because

Marketing is fling

And flings

makes you healthy and young

A story is just a story when it lacks sincerity.

Story with facts makes it narrative.

The narrative which creates audiology

Business follows audiology.

Another case study.

LG smartphone

 Superbrand

Quality product

But

Failed miserably.

Why

The brand had no story to tell.

No aspiration for the buyers.

And it got trapped in brand cannibalism

LG means TV, fridge and washing machine.

People could not identify LG with mobile.

 It is like.

Surf salt.

Hajmola Soap

Kamasutra Chocolate.

 Another case study –

 Askmibazar.com

Huge marketing budget.

Ranvir and Bipasha as brand ambassadors

 Result – failed.

Why

Again

No story, no value, no innovation.

Just another Shoaly of the 90s or making a remake of DDLG

 Story based on a certain narrative works.

But

Storytelling is art without acting.

Storytelling is music without an instrument.

The storyteller should use his words with

conviction

Confidence

Sincerity

Devotion, and most importantly

Trust your audience.

Let’s understand it with a few stupid examples.

2011 – Arvind Kejriwal did it.

He convinced people that he was honest.

His strategy – Maflar, Cough, Chappal, Blue wagon R, oversized shirts. All created an image of Aam Aadmi.

His appeal, persona , promise, and talk directly to his audience.

He did the experiments, made mistakes, took a U-turn

But

He apologised with conviction to his people, his tribe. His cadre.

Preview of Anna revolution like Gandhiji after 1947.

The market was ready, the audience was set, so the brand launch went well.

 All worked well.

Magic happened.

AAP made their tribe.

How?

People used to feel proud associated with AAP.

In 2012, I was caught by Pune traffic police at SP College, Tilak Road. I stopped the car, came to the road, and challenged the constable – to arrest me if I was guilty; I am an AAP volunteer, and I follow the rules.

Constable was amused, smiled, and let me go.

AAP made their tribe beyond the party.

A feeling, a community, a culture.

of common man, an honest man.

In 2014, our beloved PM, Mr Modi, did it.

Just expanded the cadre, the tribe.

And why not others could do it,

The reason is simple.

The story is not matched with the facts.

Their emotional story is overused and expired.

No conviction, No trust in the audience.

Everyone has their own audiology.

Few could not make it yet.

Why some could not win

Do they use whiskey or jinn?

Why do people forget someone’s sin?

Because their story has something,

Remember

Marketing is a fling 🙂

So, the finding is

Be genuine

Be honest

Be sincere

Spend on innovation

Spend on digitisation

Spend on value creation

Spend on creating relations

Which is beyond networking.

 Make your audience before launching your story.

Take a calculated risk.

Don’t do what 99% do.

Accomplish what 1% can do.

Marketing is not all about budget.

Marketing is neither advertising nor sales.

Marketing is helping people.

Help genuinely with sincerity.

And off course

 Raise bills for the help.

Marketing is the fling.

Sales is marriage.

In between a lot of things

Special offers and discount rings

Produce more customers from this marriage

But the lousy customer service

Leads to

A Bitter Divorce in consumer court

Or simply an extra marriage affair

When customers quietly go to the competition

And you remain left with discussion.

Everyone would like to work with like-minded people

Like-minded people make a group

Group growth and becoming a community

Community flourish and transforms into the tribe

And each tribe has its own culture.

 Marketing teaches us to romance

How to woo the customer

How to convince the buyers

How to select a specific set of people

How to make love and create our tribe

Selfless and genuine love, not the bribe

And keep helping them

with ever-evolving ideas, products, and services.

 Marketing teaches us to grow together.

Brand and its the audience grow together

Both expand and prosper together

The brand marries the audience and accumulates together

Both love and live together.

Baki..:))

Marketing is fling

And flings is fun

These all are for big firms; what about

small ones, the daring entrepreneurs.

how do they tell their story

how do they create magic

magic which drives them the best friend of their people

how to get the leads to help customers.

Conventional ways don’t work anymore.

So let’s meet in the next part of this series.

Share your views in the comment section or

write directly to me.

Ping me on WhatsApp.

Connect me on LinkedIn.

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Email – ashish91@gmail.com

Phone – 9823741455

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