FYI : My new role & new company

Designation : Business Analyst
Cadre : Sr. Officer
Department : Sales & Marketing
Company : Stylespa Furniture
Group : K K Birla Group.
For company info visit www.stylespafurniture.com

8th P of Marketing: Personal Interest - Written by Bharath

All we learned in the basics of Marketing is the 4Ps as the mix of marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. As far as a Service is concerned we add three more Ps: People, Physical evidence and Process. What if all these factors are similar to two same kind of Products / Services but of different Brands. We choose one from these two. So what induces a buyer to choose a particular Brand? What gives the chosen Brand an edge over the left out?

It’s the 8th P of Marketing: Personal Interest. Sometimes this 8^th P plays a predominant role than any other P. This 8^th P can be caused by anything.

Consider this case for a better understanding. I chose a particular service outlet because it is near to my girl friend’s home. This 8^th P of marketing may be confused with Promotion.

Try this to get a clear picture: I chose a brand because I hate my boss and my boss hates that Brand. Isn’t my personal interest made me to chose that Brand? How to create this Personal Interest? We have to opt for Personalized Advertisement. But Advertisement is meant to be a mass communication tool.

Is personalized advertisement possible? Yes… it is. Catch the below link. Its a clipping from Steven Spielberg's Minority Report. Its a story happening in Washington D.C. in the year 2054. The clipping shows a sample of Personalized Advertisement. http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=0ucwrnJBD6c&feature=related

So… May be…. In 2054 or before, Personal Interest can be considered as the 8^th P of Marketing. Agree with me?

Marketing is an art; I'm an artist

Anyone can do marketing. That is what my two years work experience has taught me. I’ve seen lot of successful marketers especially sales persons without any professional learning in the respective area.

Doesn't marketing needs proper education like other management functions? Well... If you ask me... the answer is a big "NO". But you need a great passion in it. Of course the two years of learning definitely helped me in my work. Thanks to my lecturers, professors and the great Kotler. But I would have shined in my work without my MBA degree and only with my passion.

But to survive and to maintain the top spot, updating continuously is necessary without any doubts.

So.... undoubtedly... Marketing is an art... I'm an artist...

Enough practice is always needed to master the art.

But I would suggest... Proper education + Great Passion in the art makes a good artist.

Impatient Aspirers

I really enjoyed this short film. Though it revealed me the truth that i'm not unique and just one among 18 million. Good take on the advertising world.

Customer is a Child - Written by Bharath

Lot of speculation about how to treat a customer. As a marketing analyst, working at the back end of the department I believe treating the customer as a child is the right way. Reasons: What can be more beautiful in this world than the smile of a child? You have to treat the child with lot of care and affection to gain his love. But if he starts loving you then he would never leave you unless or until if there is any flaw from your side. And when lot of children around you, you have to give equal importance to every child and have to equally distribute your love but giving each child a feeling that you love him more than any other child around you. That’s more important. Because these children are very possessive and sensitive. And they always need your attention. Advertisements and Sales promotion are the chocolates and ice-creams to attract these children. Warning: Don’t fool or threaten this child to feed him. He is not an ordinary child. He is infant Jesus in the hands of Mary. He very well knows what to do. So give him the due respect. But don’t be afraid of him, he still needs your love. Suggest; don’t advice. Inform; don’t teach. Spend most of your time as you can with him. But don’t forget to concentrate on the next child and love him like the same. The most essential quality of a marketer is to get obsessed in loving these children. Love thy Children.

Types of Word of Mouth Marketing

• Buzz Marketing: Using high-profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about your brand.

• Viral Marketing: Creating entertaining or informative messages that are designed to be passed along in an exponential fashion, often electronically or by email.

• Community Marketing: Forming or supporting niche communities that are likely to share interests about the brand (such as user groups, fan clubs, and discussion forums); providing tools, content, and information to support those communities.

• Grassroots Marketing: Organizing and motivating volunteers to engage in personal or local outreach.

• Evangelist Marketing: Cultivating evangelists, advocates, or volunteers who are encouraged to take a leadership role in actively spreading the word on your behalf.

• Product Seeding: Placing the right product into the right hands at the right time, providing information or samples to influential individuals.

• Influencer Marketing: Identifying key communities and opinion leaders who are likely to talk about products and have the ability to influence the opinions of others.

• Cause Marketing: Supporting social causes to earn respect and support from people who feel strongly about the cause.

• Conversation Creation: Interesting or fun advertising, emails, catch phrases, entertainment, or promotions designed to start word of mouth activity.

• Brand Blogging: Creating blogs and participating in the blogosphere, in the spirit of open, transparent communications; sharing information of value that the blog community may talk about.

• Referral Programs: Creating tools that enable satisfied customers to refer their friends.

Online video ads expected to increase a lot in 2008

A new Internet marketing survey conducted by Western Wats in an AT and T-commissioned study reveals that about 65 percent of small businesses surveyed said they advertised in a printed yellow pages directory.

Approximately 53.1 percent of the small businesses that responded to the survey said they expected to buy online video ads in 2008 and 2009.

About 24 percent said they advertised on the Internet, and approximately 67.4 percent said they had their own Web site.

"Overall, it would seem that there are many consumers that are still using the Yellow Pages as their primary choice for local business information.

Frank Jules, CEO of AT&T Advertising and Publishing said "however, we've also noted that they're also searching on the Internet before they actually buy."

About 61.9 percent of U.S. consumers said they still preferred the printed Yellow Pages to find local business information, according to data from The Kelsey Group released by AT&T as part of the findings.

Those numbers were actually higher than the 13 percent who preferred Google and other search engines, and the 7.2 percent who said they preferred the Internet yellow pages best.

Source: eMarketer