Archive for category Marketing
How can Google Adwords approve this ad!?!
My anger & ‘flabbergast-edness’ slowly reside as I type this out. Did the advertiser do this on purpose? To get that “who’re the idiots who made this ad?” reaction and finally get the ad to bring in the visitor. You think someone can actually risk looking so stupid in exchange for visits? I hope the smart/stupid guy doesn’t have a typo in the URL to send the visitor to – and I pray Google does not employ retards who approve! I left the “www.directdialogs.com” unfudged in the image – they’re anyway trying so hard for visits 
Onam – Facebook is where to advertise.
Did you know that Onam is a ten-day affair? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onam. Lekshmi says it’s more than 10 days (she should contribute at Wikipedia!) and that the season spans over a month. No wonder that the August edition of the afaqs reporter had a cover page takeover by Manorama Online, a good one month in advance of Thiruonam (September 9th).
The ad copy claims Malayalees will be on their website during Onam and that theirs should be THE website to advertise on during the Onam season. The site will definitely have the biggest gathering of Malayalee eyeballs but apart from their regular website visitors, I doubt they will have seen any spike in visitation during Onam.
From the many Facebook updates I see, the Malayalee was certainly on Facebook wishing everyone and checking out what everybody’s up to. A restaurant owner in the USA should be on Facebook to get all those “I am craving for an Onam sadya” updates converted to happy customers; customers who’d easily come back knowing our craze for good avail/ porota beef roast/cappa meen curry!
Wishing us all a very happy, prosperous and blessed Onam season.
Mohanlal – golden star
No I’m not talking about his unquestionable acting prowess (strictly read acting as only acting without the bollywoodish attachments of muscle-dance -sunglasses!). This is about Mohanlal being seen so much in TV advertisements, especially those having to do with gold. Sitting 10 minutes on any Malayalam channel you are likely to catch one of below advertisements:
- Malabar Gold (jewellery house)
- Manapuram Finance (financing institution specializing in loan-against-gold)
- Kerala Grand Shopping Festival (fest. with 101kg of gold to be won)
So in one ad you have Mohanlal recommend that you buy Malabar gold and a minute later you have the same man advising you to pledge your gold to Manapuram and avail easy loans! The other day I saw a reality comedy show make a joke of this too.
The latest news is that Asianet’s awarded the ‘golden star’ to Mohanlal – is that because of the many ‘golden’ advertisements? Lalletta can I manage your endorsements? I have zero experience but I’m so sure I can do a better job!
Celebrity endorsements gone awry – a classic case from our very own Lalletan
Mohanlal says buy gold
Mohanlal says pawn gold!
SLAs – for differentiation & positioning
Posted by Sreelesh in Marketing, Technology on July 31, 2010
I’ve been wanting to blog on this for some time and after reading many related posts in the recent times, I decided I had to get this off my chest. We all know of Service Level Agreements – those contractual bindings a service provider and his customer lay out as they seal their buyer-seller relationship. The SLAs when seen from the two angles: for the customer it’s a document that ensures he gets a “minimum” guarantee on services and maybe a compensation if this is not met, while for the service provider he sees this as opportunity to defend himself against any litigation that could happen (he is not sued for millions).
How many times have you come across words you cannot understand in these documents? SLAs today are just communication between the legal departments of organizations and are not really referred to unless something huge really happens that involves failure and costs.
SLAs to differentiate
There’s definitely a lot many better ways of using SLAs in today’s businesses –right from the very business model incorporated to the way market differentiation & positioning is done. What you would you think of a company that sends you its SLA doc that just has on it, in bold:
We promise to work our a** off to give you our 100%, here’s our CEO’s number if you think we’re not delivering
With the above, for those customers really bothered on what’s being done to ensure top services, add a whole section on technicalities involved – failover mechanisms, back up processes, state-of-the-art facilities bla bla. But no complicated “ifs”, “buts”, percentages and small text. Being upfront and convincing of sincerity goes a long way to winning over the customer’s faith than numbers and percentages. Something to the lines of this is what I read at http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2010/03/the-best-sla-ive-seen-in-a-while.html.
I had another idea on a radically new business model centered on SLA and number of customers. I ran this through a few friends and they seemed pretty convinced. I’ll put that in my next post, any service provider willing to listen before I go public 
? My really long shot at some sweet money!
You have to be the First-Announcer in the Internet age
Posted by Sreelesh in Marketing, Technology on March 1, 2010
Whether to purchase or otherwise, most of us reach amazon.com when we try searching for a book on the internet. Barnes & Noble too has an online bookstore but certainly not as popular as Amazon’s. And today as we know it, Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world doing sales (~19 billion!) about three times as much as the closest competition Staples.
Ok, that’s what many of us know. Did you know of a site called books.com? This site (now redirects to Barnes & Nobel site) was there on the internet selling books two years before Amazon was started by Jeff Bezos. Charles Stack, books.com founder, apparently was an ‘inside guy’ more interested in building an infrastructure than promoting a business. The price for being an insider guy? In 1996, Stack sold his business for $4.2 million while a month later Amazon was able to mop up a staggering $32 million in its first IPO!
Stack lost out because he did not let enough people know about his site. He had a two year headstart over Amazon and yet he was not able to own the online retail market at least for books (even with a killer of a domain named books.com!) In today’s internet age, one barely has a headstart. Somehow word gets to the competition and the so-called first-mover advantage is hard to realize. Imagine having spent a lot on R&D, successfully seeing the release and working of a great feature, not having this publicized and the very next year your competition does the same feature but makes more news of it and before you know it they’re touted the pioneer, cutting-edge, industry-leading blah blah.
If you are innovating, make sure you let your market know; else you could actually be signing off your hardwork to competition. Make sure to be the first-announcer and constantly follow up with your marketing and PR departments!
For effective SMS marketing
SMS marketing to the publicity-deprived entrepreneur is like the Gold rush to the small-time miner. You have an easy mine of gold found at very low cost, mined like crazy without a process or a plan, profits reaped, other miners join in for scale, more competing miners rush in and before you know it the gold mine is empty.
Today the cell phone user is inundated with marketing SMS and it is increasingly difficult to catch user attention. Check out my friend’s frustration on the number of mobile spam he receives: “51 unread SMS in just 3 days!”
Just like how gold mining improved in the prospecting, extraction, purification and transportation, mobile SMS marketing has to find ways of getting effective – finding the right, needing audience, at the right time and with the right message. Here is a quick checklist before you send out that SMS:
- Who is in your database of mobile numbers? Have you got their permission? Even if it means reading through every entry and investigating, make sure you know your list.
- Make sure your SMS has a value offering, not just an introductory SMS. e.g. “Reply YES to join the XYZ 25% discount promo“
- SMS is very personal. Never send an SMS without the customer’s name being mentioned.
- Get the message worded perfect. I loved this one from this site.
“Beat the queue! Show this text at Metropolis Nightclub before 10pm tonight and we’ll take you through the members’ only entrance. Free single shot at the bar with this text.”
Any club in Chennai reading? - Always include an ‘unsubscribe’ or opt-out option such as “reply STOP to be removed“
- Never send the same SMS twice!!!
- When you have many messages to be sent(highly discouraged though), never have the SMS sent in a flurry, space them out over time.
- make sure your website has a mobile friendly version
Here is one that I received recently, it did not follow much of the above list but it caught my attention and it stays in my inbox!
Dear Customer,
Stay Indoor to Get Outdoor!
Bicycle service at your doorstep – BSA Hercules Care,
Call Toll Free 18001022324.
Mon to Fri (9 am to 5 pm)
“Stay indoor to get outdoor”… I liked that
Cartoons for advertising and communication
Cartoons are loved by everyone, of every age group, of every social/economic/cultural background. And that includes marketers and advertisers! Amul’s ad campaigns are one of the most long-running and anticipated ads in India… Whether it’s the very recognized Amul baby face or the good product quality, it’s always Amul butter and cheese in my fridge.
The cartoon medium is probably the easiest, quickest and most powerful way of communicating even a serious message. Check out this signboard I captured at the Madras Crocodile Bank. It not just passed on the message clearly, but put a smile on every visitor’s face too.
‘Dil titli’ Airtel ad – thumbs down!
I felt so strongly on this one I had to blog! Airtel’s marketing made a big mistake with the latest ad on “superior picture clarity” for Airtel DTH . These guys always had feel-good ads – the husband-wife relationship with Madhavan and Vidya Balan, the beautiful father-daughter ad with papa showing sweet daughter the stars over a phone call, the two kids playing football across the border.. The latest one has Saif looking for his childhood sweetheart, finding her thanks to “picture clarity” and then finally dumping her for Kareena just as she walks by. C’mon guys, Airtel is all love and warmth, not this idiocy! And don’t tell me you are trying the “hep/hip youth” angle here!
Doing business & the Internet
Posted by Sreelesh in Marketing, Technology on March 9, 2008
Brick & mortar companies, click & mortar companies, internet-only companies.. I remember feeling so interested just by the coinage of terms!
There are lots to be gained by companies who finally decide to have Internet presence. Apart from the immediate extension of distribution channels, brand equity, economies of scale and what not, the most to be gained from is the whole new feedback mechanism that your products and services are exposed to. You now get immediate, usable feedback from your patrons; in fact, you can probably do away with your Market Research and idea generation teams!
This brings me to more serious thinking: if your company’s not doing good in the Internet age, you are definitely not giving your customers what they want! If you are planning to go online with your business, make sure you have the stomach and the head to make use of customer feedback: listen up or you’ll soon shut shop!
Indian Thanksgiving?
It’s Thanksgiving in the US today.
I asked myself have we no such day here in India? That’s when I realized that we are supposed to be giving our thanks on Onam, Pongal & Makar Sankranthi. Instead we are all so excited about the new clothes, gadgets, food, sweets, gatherings etc. that comes with the festivities.. I don’t recall any Ad campaigns that focus on the ‘thanksgiving’ part during any of these festivals. Instead it’s just “50% off”, “buy one get two free” and other plays on numbers. Someone should do a campaign on the ‘gratitude’ aspect of these festivals, bring alive the goodness and love within society and yes get some good sales done while they’re at it. Marketing is a powerful act, in getting profits, for your company as well as society.
Here’s saying Thank You to all my friends who’ve encouraged me on my writing here. If I ever get more regular at this, here’s an even Bigger Thank you!
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You are currently browsing the archives for the Marketing category.
The Kenyan Keralite- How can Google Adwords approve this ad!?! December 22, 2011
- Onam – Facebook is where to advertise. September 11, 2011
- Biz Manager to Chief Strategist June 12, 2011
- Mohanlal – golden star January 2, 2011
- Ten signs you’re losing your friend to the Internet November 16, 2010
- SLAs – for differentiation & positioning July 31, 2010
- You have to be the First-Announcer in the Internet age March 1, 2010
- Congrats Premchand! February 18, 2010
- Implementing IPv6 November 30, 2009
- marooned, n lovin it! November 10, 2009