Image building works in ripples. The source of communication ripple is the top management. The ripple spreads to the innermost circle of employees. Then comes the suppliers and bankers. Later, the effect passes on to the customers. Next it reaches opinion makers like the press, the elite, the government and its steel frame — the bureaucracy, and finally the ripple dissolves into public at large. In corporate image image building, we cannot talk directly to the general public, bypassing the intermediate groups. The effect of communication is felt much more closer to the source, and it is lesser the farther away we are from it. Most corporate campaigns have a salutary effect on its employees. Image building starts at the source, from where the ripple originates. It is possible to leapfrog over the immediate layers by targeting a specific group by direct communication. Such communication should not cause negative ripples in other layers. As there is no ‘reverse ripple’ corporate image cannot be based on outside factors.
Author: Shabbir Chunawalla
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The Mumbai Samachar
The Mumbai Samachar is a popular Gujarati daily newspaper which sells 2 lac copies everyday. It has retained its old masthead and layout. It is accessible and affordable to a vast majority of people. The front page ads are small. The editorial style is not literary. It has a good reach amongst cash-rich urban Gujarati population. It was started in 1822 as a Gujarati weekly. Then 10 years later, it became a daily. Muncherjee Cama, the grandfather of the present director bought this paper from Belgamvala. It has an existence of almost two centuries. The Camas emphasize value for money. It is reasonably priced and the Camas are averse to to raise its price. The production process has been modernised, though not the layout and the editorial style. Its commerce section is its greatest attraction.
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Programmatic Buying
Programmatic buying is a new approach to digital advertising. It takes marketing from a fragmented campaign-to-campaign criteria to an always-on paradigm covering the entire customer like cycle. It is an automated technology driven method of buying or selling ad placements. There are two main sub-categories within programmatic — real time bidding ( RTB ) or programmatic direct.
RTB can do ad placement through a public auction using open exchanges like OpenX, DoubleClick, FBX. The process of open RTB through open exchange route does not guarantee media placement. Bidding can be done through a private marketplace.
Programmatic direct is followed in case the inventory is guaranteed.
In India, programmatic buying has not been widely adopted. One key reason is the data needed to define a consumer. To decide whether RTB is media efficient, one must have a full picture of the consumer who sees the ad. The data emanates from clicks, demographics, behavioural stream, first party and third party data. There are gaps here. These days mobiles are predominant. There are opportunities to match the app users to ideal consumer profiles. However, the absence of cookies create challenges.
On open exchanges, there is quality inventory from large publishers. Thus there is uncertainty of transparency in placement. Buyers feel comfortable in direct buy.
Besides, programmatic requires rich media which is scarce.
Programmatic buying is today confined to banner ads. Video and custom rich media ad units are still sold through direct sales channels. There is more programmatic buying for desktops. Brand campaigns have yet to adopt true RTB. Mobile ecosystem suits RTB.
RTB auction take place in less than 100 milliseconds. And there are opportunities galore. Marketers can use programmatic buying for a variety of marketing effort — new customer acquisition, loyalty marketing, branding conversions etc. If the campaign is aims at performance, it is easier to see the effectiveness of programmatic buying. There could be a group exposed to programmatic buying and one that is not so exposed. In real time, it can be shown what effect the brand marketing has on buying intention, or awareness, or favourable attitude.
Some brand safety measures are necessary. There should be correct reporting. Each impression should be correct reporting. Each impression should be quality impression . It should be compliant. Ad should be served and displayed as intended. There should be correct geo-targetting. There should be correct placement. Brand marketers must have a list of black-listed sites to ensure that ads are not placed against inappropriare content/inventory.
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Cult Brands
A cult, according to the dictionary, is a system of religious beliefs, and a cult brand is built when a set of people revere it almost like religion. Branding can become a way of identifying the kind of person you are and the beliefs you have. Some brands are icons without being cults, e.g. Coca Cola. It does not have a dedicated following that Harley Davidson does. Harley Davidson is held up as a symbol — as a false God if you so like.
Cults display an intensity of relationship between the user and brand itself. They are brands which polarise attitudes and where meaning is created by difference, by being distinctive. They cannot be all things to all people. They must exclude some people. (C James Best ).
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Lee Lynch
Lee Lynch, the founder of Minnaopolis advertising agency Carmichael Lynch, which is a part of Interpublic Group is responsible for advertising such mega-brands as Harley Davidson, Porche and Gibson. Harley Davidson has been with Lynch for 22 years, and this consistency is at the heart of the brands success. Lynch understands what is the target market and what messages are relevant to them. Branding , accordingly to Lynch, does not just aim at making the brand popular. It is all about sticking to the core . Harley, as you are aware, is a cult brand and very popular so to say. The advertising is thus kept a little on the dark side — a lot of happy people are not shown. They appeal to freedom — freedom from the boss, from congestion and freedom on the open road. Harley is made an aspiring brand for the young in their 20’s and 30’s. Harley has many professionals who want to be bad on week-ends. Harley sold 2.76 lac bikes in 2001. The company has made this progress from near bankruptcy in 1984 to a company worth $ 3.3 billion. Lynch is worried about ad clutter. He wants company to understand the critical values of the brand.Coca Coca cola is physically just water and syrup. But it is great stuff. It is refreshing and represents American vallues. It makes it a big product.
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Tracking TV Ads and Digital Devices Ads
SilverPush has developed cross-device technology to track ads by connecting various mobile and digital devices. It maps users with their digital devices. It links TV with mobile to trace user interaction. Companies spend huge amounts on TV ads. As there is no information on user engagement with these ads, the success of these campaigns or demographics of the viewers cannot be determined. As it is, TRP rating of a channel has no correlation with the success of an advertisement. SilverPush offers ‘ television and analytics suite ‘. The companies can get information on the target audiences due to their patented ‘ audio beacon technology.’ A TV ad is integrated with inaudible frequency before it is aired. The moment it is played, the SilverPush SDK installed in the user’s smart phone is activated, which pairs it with the TV or computer. After pairing, it is mapped under a unique ID and a persona is created for the user. It does not encroach on the privacy of the audience, since the platform can be activated by inaudible sounds. It has been launched towards the end of 2914. It has mapped about 680 million unique device IDs till date using this technology.
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Industrial Marketing
Industrial marketing till recently was considered just a selling function. However, it has now emerged as a critical function, much more than mere selling. Products were sold on the basis of quality and price. Today there is increased competition. Prices are not just cost-plus, but are dictated by competition. This is one of the reasons for the shift of emphasis from selling to marketing. Technological advantage does not always give the competitive edge. It calls for a marketing approach. Many companies are keeping in touch with the market and the consumer. They are setting up Market Development Groups. These monitor are market and spot the opportunities for new and better products. Gabriel discovered through such a group that its shock absorbers have a new market, i.e. of washing machine and exercise equipment. Product up-gradation is also necessary. The manufacturing process should be geared to provide better values to the consumer. In purchasing, product features and specifications are the key factors. The industrial market is also being segmented, e.g. high, medium and low voltage switch gears. There are image building corporate campaigns. Prior to selling, a presentation of the corporate profile is made. Mainstream advertising is used to project a corporate image.
The product information is critical and selling is based upon it, rather than emotional appeals. There is generic promotion. As the buyers are well-informed, there is no place for hard sell.The concept of consultative selling is growing. Though personal selling is still a major element of promotion, we come across seminars, exhibitions, business-to-business interactions and direct marketing. Companies like to cater to OEM market (original equipment manufacturer ). There is also a replacement and spares market. In selling to OEMs, the key factors are the quality and cost. The nature of the buying organisation also matters — whether it is the government , the private sector or the public sector. Public sector selling involves tendering. In defence selling the quality and reputation of the manufacture matter more. In government buying, two committees are involved in decision making — technical committee and price committee. The buying decision is based on purchase negotiations, the price, credit period, spares availability and after-sales-service. Service is emerging as a vital component of the marketing mix. Service has been made a revenue centre by many organisations. Channel decisions are also important in industrial marketing. Some companies operate through dealers or stockists. Some operate through distributors. When distributors are appointed, we have to deal with a small number of people and receiving payment is quite easier. But a dealer network ensures that the company is in touch with the marketing realities. A dealer provides valuable feedback.
Industrial marketers should not be limited to a small product range. They are vulnerable in a turbulent environment. They should resort to market segmentation. Industrial markets tend to be seasonal, affecting demand. Besides technological advances change the consumer requirements. The reliability is a key factor in building reputation.
A single order in industrial markets could be worth several crores.
Several industrial marketers have ventured into consumer marketing with varying degrees of success, e.g. the Tatas, Wipro, HMT, Andrew Yule, Crompton Greaves, TVS.
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Google Transforming Itself
Google built its search business on open web. However smart phone users spend most of their time in mobile apps. Google search has been given speed and intelligence over years. It is just 17 years old. But it has a huge impact. In the cell phone using world, it faces competition from start ups funded by venture capitalists. Google can, however, buy any start up with $ 65 billion in its bank account. The interesting part is that Apple has entered the search business. Its iOs software allows users the searches of music, apps and services, bypassing Google. Google too runs the world’s largest mobile operating system — Ardroid. It makes billions of dollars a year selling apps through Google Play Store. However, the apps do dilute the position in search. E-marketer, a research firm, puts Google’s search revenue at 68 per cent of mobile search revenue, but it has come down from 81 per cent share it had in 2012. This has happened as apps occupy more time of people. And on mobiles, the difference is that people avoid going to the search box as the first resort. Smart watches is not a good option for searches. Google updates ranking alogorithms so that web-sites that are deemed to be mobile unfriendly fall in search rankings. Google built products. Like Knowledge Graph which provides answers to queries. It reinforces voice search. Another ambitions project of Google is Now On Tap to facilitate searches on mobiles. Just tap on the home screen button to search, rather than cutting and pasting or typing words in the search box. The original search alogrithms developed by founder Larry Page and Sergey Brin are constantly being re-written. Google can now answer questions of mobile voice searches. Search results come with tappable actions.
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Product Sampling
Product sampling has emerged as a major sales promotion technique which is preferred to mass couponing and mass advertising. Samples are being distributed at retail outlets, in airplanes, theatres and special events. They also come to us directly through mail and media. Sampling is very common for new products. Sampling helps established products too. It creates brand awareness and builds up brand equity. Sampling is more likely to lead to purchase than distribution of a coupon alone. Coupons could be attached to samples and then redeemed. Such coupling leads to a better redemption rate. Test drives of autos is also a sampling practice. Computer demos are also a sampling practice. In theatre give-aways are becoming popular. Sampling puts food products into the mouth of customers. Sampling keeps products top-of-mind.
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IBM’s Silicon-Germanium Chip
IBM research on chips has led to working versions of ultradense computer chips. It is four times more powerful than the most powerful chips. As such the semiconductor industry is under cloud. It doubles its transistor density every two years. Moore’s Law continued to operate for chip improvement. Whether this improvement would go beyond the current 14-nanometer generation of chips is being questioned by technologists. Each generation of chip is defined by the minimum size of fundamental components that switch current at nano-second intervals. Industry is travelling from 14-nanometers to 10-nanometers. Each generation reduces the area required for circuitry by 50 per cent. This shrinkage continue hopefully till 2018. IBM is working on 7-nanometer transistors by using silicon-germanium instead of pure silicon to enable faster transistor switching and lower power consumption. This indicates that such advances will call for newer materials.
To impress on you the tiny nature of the transistors, an RBC in blood is 7500 nanometers and a DNA strand 2.5 nanometers. IBM wants to make chips with 20 billion transistors.
IBM may license this hardware capacity to other manufacturers. It is for the semi-conductor industry to decide whether IBM’s gamble on silicon-germanium is the best way forward.