In a fast changing "click and portal' world, marketers need to undergo a paradigm shift. They can choose to be laggards and lose the plot or take the lead and pro-actively shape the organisation transformation.
What marketers need to do to be ahead of the deal hunting customer
Be a marketing catalyst
1. Be a Marketing Catalyst
In the fast changing world, could Marketing
afford to be a laggard? Here are a few practices
that I would certainly like to help transform
--- Anisha Motwani
2. Marketing Department to Marketing Labs
Successful organizations realize that the only way to predict the future is by consistently aiming
to create and re-create it. This has to be a continuous and self perpetuating cycle within the
organization DNA. Social scientists study lifestyles, emerging trends and product teams “cook”
insights in to create breakthrough products and innovations.
3. This would be pretty impossible in conventional organizations where Product R&D develop
products for existing markets whereas Google, Apple, 3M & GE create scenarios imagining the
future... Future ready brands need to create a “lab environment” for fizzy innovations. Isn’t that
how Man created – fire? By accident...!
Marketing Department to Marketing Labs
4. Customer Mania in the organization
Today every employee and every part of business has the potential to touch the customer at
some point along the purchase cycle. From a tweet to a blog to a call center experience, the
customer’s expectation of service is just a click away. In such a scenario, the responsibility of
owning the customer agenda cannot be with just one function or a handful of employees.
5. Customer Mania in the organization
Whilst all organizations claim to keep
the customer at the forefront, very few
of them actually deep dive and rally
every single employee to work for this
common cause. Marketing does not
own the customer, each employee
does and therefore this means a huge
transformation in organisations. What
marketing can ensure is that they
create a culture and almost a maniacal
passion around the subject of
customer-centricity. Not just through
communication but concrete actions
and processes with clear measurable
outcomes.
6. Advertising to Content
If you are a brand that believes in show
and tell you are stuck in the 90’s!
Customers will tend to remember how you
made them feel, or how you treated them
or the drama that your brand story created
in their life. This is where the next
dimension of content curation comes in as
a golden opportunity to reach across and
co-create branded content with
customers.
7. Advertising to Content
Research proves that branded content has highest recall and clearly cuts above conventional
format advertising. Co-creation is a enriching experience for both – brand and consumer. The
give and take results in a potent brand story created by, for and of the consumer, making it
easier to accept at not just functional but cognitive and emotional levels, resulting in brand
stickiness that is hard to achieve, otherwise.
Content curation is the new holy grail of brands of future. It’s where the sizzle lies.
8. Social Engagement to Social Business
Digital engagement, just collecting some likes
on social platforms, is past. Social networks
are today as real as the physical world and
marketing department has to view every
interaction on social networking as an
opportunity for social monetization.
The digitally equipped marketers need to
understand the socio-commercial behaviour
of netizens, collect insights and offer its
consumers an opportunity to do business in
the social environment they are comfortable
in. As Indians latch on to the digital domain
communicating, buying, selling and shopping
in new ways, it is for brands to lead the way
and monetize the user base online
progressively.