Effective Marketing

As a part of its Smart Ideas for Smarter Cities campaign, IBM and Ogilvy Paris made three billboards with different functions: One is a bench, the other is a ramp for stairs, and the last serves as a rain shelter. Such small initiatives helps a brand to catch the attention of the consumers. These initiatives don't cost much but are very much effective. The challenge is to identify such opportunities and execute your idea to it.  

Price War in Online & In Shop shopping

The year 2013 is going to witness quite a lot changes brought in by internet in our daily lives. One among the factors will be our shopping experience. The revolution called e-commerce came to the market way back in the beginning of 2000, but it took a decade to show its presence and gain popularity among the population. Last couple of years was certainly beneficial for the e-commerce industry with the entrance of smart phones, 3G, wide publicity by players such as ebay, infibeam, flipkart etc. 

As slowly the generation moved forward along with the shopping trendz the shopping experience also changed. Being vibrant is always acceptable for the youth. Thus the frequency and popularity of online shopping increased. The big question started to emerge in the market. Whether the consumers prefer online shopping above the in-shop retail shopping. The answer up to a certain limit is YES. The big reason for this is the price difference offered in both the platforms. To take an example the price of I Phone 5 in retail outlet against the online has a clear difference of Rs. 5000/-. The difference could not only be from margins, but the difference in set up cost also is vital. Every retail set up comes with some added cost of rental, electricity, staff etc. which doesn't comes in an online shop. The convenience not only limits to this, comparison, free home delivery and additional cost which comes along with normal shopping such as, eating out are completely excluded here. 

In the coming years the price war will widen with online platforms coming with more attractive offers and consumers choosing to take advantage of it sitting at home.  

Right Place at the Right Time

For a result oriented approach, every marketing activity should be time bound. Being in the right place at the right time could do 50% of the work for the brand. For this, the activities should be well planned, well organised and also well executed. A recent such campaign conducted was during Akshaya Tritiya. Most of the brands in the jewellery sector & financial services used this opportunity to drive new business through fresh purchases or new investments. With over half a lakh stickers circulated at vital locations to induce the thought among the investors to think of fresh investments during Akshaya Tritiya was initiated last weekend. More than deriving business from this activity, the main purpose was to attract or get the lime light with the innovative design and approach. An effort to be among the targets before they finalise the purchase decision.

The Power of Youth

The coming ages are of youth. Marketers are thus moving their activity concentration towards focusing youth. The recent campaigns of Pepsi co., Sprite, the hit campaign of Airtel "har ek friend saroori hota hai" etc are classic example of these shift. Even the financial industry is realizing the importance of catching them from the root. Already the brands started to adopt and modify the social platforms for their needs & wants. Online account opening, introducing mock trading in facebook etc are classic examples of this. Reaching to the targets at earlier stage will certainly help to create an early entry in to their minds and also will help for an early brand recall. At the same time the biggest challenges in front of these brands are, youths are always impatient, if you don't meet their requirements there is always a possibility that they will move to the competitor. To meet the expectations constantly will always remain a challenge for the brands.

An affordable laptop called Tablet

Its not been more than 2 years since we came to experience a new look of desktop and laptop and that too adapted to a size of mobile phone called Tablets. In the last 1 year, this product went through such a dramatic change which any product or brand would just dream for. The pricing and configuration made this product eye catchy and affordable. Up to a certain extend, this product already eat in to the market of smartphones. The Chinese models and the upcoming local players in the Indian Market brought the starting price of the Tablet from Rs. 4000/- onwards. There is not much difference now left with high end tablets and  laptops. One of the prominent brand in the sector is planning to bring a 7'' tablet later this year along with some amazing features. The only main feature missing is of a CD ROM in the tablet. But considering the main  purpose of a tablet user wont be for playing a CD. Leaving it apart, the future of tablets are pretty bright and in the coming years it will certainly replace the mobile markets.

Derived Oppurtunities

It is not necessary that your product will be in depend through out the year. Even though it may not be a seasonal product, the demand and supply will very from time to time. You cant be in the sucess stream with out holding a product thats in demand 365 days. In such a scenario comes the option of Derived Oppurtunities or rather named as Created Oppurtunities. You need to create the situation where your product comes in demand hence you have to link your product to a festival, occassions or some happenings in the society. Akshaya Tritiya is such a situation which was developed mainly by the jewellery brands to generate a demand. Over the years it certainly gained its importance. In the earlier times it used to be popular among a particular caste or region but now, the brands through effective marketing strategies created the demand across the country.

Certainly this year also during the occassion the gold price will see an upward trend as the demand increases.

The trend called Social Media

Social Media more than a communication platform has become a trend in the market and in every business model. It depend on the business how effectively they use the medium in their benefit. It is going to be certain that every business may not be able to derive same benefit from it. Some could use it for effective communication, building positive sentiments about the brand online, communicating periodic offers & schemes etc. In my opinion the brands that are youth centric will be able to reap the benefit of social media than any other business. As per the recent survey by a well known agency shows that 50% of the users are below age of 25.. In case of facebook, it is quite difficult to understand how of the actual users are active. It is also possible that, many people opened the accounts because everyone around him/her is in Facebook. 

But no doubt, the platform will a cost effective tool for branding across the globe. Every business should have a clear cut idea particularly on how they are going to use this medium in long term for their benefit rather than wasting the time & money just for the sake of being online.