Customer is GOD

 

"Customer is GOD"!

Once a devotee asked a question to some preacher

Devotee: "Who created us Human being?"

Preacher: GOD

Devotee: Then who created GOD?

Preacher: Human being :)

This conversation ignited me to think in terms of business, we often says "Customer is GOD", but what it really means?

"If there is a customer it creates an opportunity to build a business and if there is a business it needs customers to survive."

The concept of "Customer is GOD" applies in business in the way:

G stands for Generator. You create a base of customers who works like brand ambassador to generate business for you. Still in India business is more generated on the basis of personal relationships and recommendations. We need to invest on product quality and service delivery in a way to delight the customer so that they become brand ambassador.

O stands for Organizer. Always open to listen to the customers query, suggestions and areas of improvement to organize our business in a better way.

D stands for both Developer & Destroyer. A happy and satisfied customer helps to develop your business. If you follow co-creation it helps even in creating a scope for NPD. But if you ignore the genuine query, suggestions and scope for improvement an unhappy and dissatisfied customer base can destroy your business.

So treat customer like GOD and you get good customer base.

#business #opportunity #developer #quality #india #brand #strategy #concept

Marketing: What it is, what it is not!

In general marketing seen as all about selling the product or service by show off too much or most specifically mis-selling.

Being marketing educator and marketer, I feel offended that a subject with richness of concepts, full of intervention of different subjects like behavioral science, neuro science, geography, art and other subjects considered only an art of (mis) selling only. Its true that all the marketing efforts ultimately directed towards sells only but it is not true that marketing is all about selling a product by showing off what it is not.

Marketing concept evolved from production concept to product concept to customer focus and now co-creation where customer choses what kind of features it needed in its product and company put its efforts and available resources to create such product. 

Marketing got its true shape when in the year 1960 McCarthy gave concept of 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place & Promotion) to shape the company's decision in streamlining its marketing activities in the market. It was later used and made famous by marketing Guru of his time Philip Kotler. 

In the year 1995 Dholkia, Venketesh, Firat & Fuat coined the term customerization  which gave an equal opportunity for a customer to decide what they want in a product. Later it was argued that customer also need expertise to decide it. 

In the year 1996 Kambil coined the term co-creation as a part of company's strategy to reframe its value preposition keeping its available resources in mind. 

In the year 2000 CK Prahalad & Venkat Ramswamy made co-creation concept famous and in the year 2004 they envisioned the concept in their book "The Future of competition" that customer can also play an equal part in deciding the product features and the final outcome/shape of the product or service they want. 

But viability of this concept is equally depends upon the nature of industry and affordability of the company as well as customer or consumer. 

In past marketing means to sell the product whatever is produced in the factory.

In todays time major aim of any marketing concept/strategy is to focus on the demand of the consumer, creating the better product which suits the demand of the consumer and presenting it in the best manner to showcase the utility/features of the product and even to get the feedback of the consumer to improve for betterment. 

Though focus of marketing revolves around the consumer to meet its demand in terms of creating the required product/service and not just selling it. It comprises many factors before selling the product. 

If we keep the very basic 4Ps of marketing:

Product: It comprises various features of products. Ingredients, color, features, packaging etc. depending upon the industry it varies.

Price: Competitive pricing, Premium pricing, Skimmed pricing etc.

Place: Distribution channel, Operation, Storage,  Ware housing etc. 

Promotion: Advertising, BTL (Below the line) & ATL (Above the line) promotions, Story telling, Events, Awareness campaigns, Social media promotion, online promotions etc.  

Now 5th P i.e. People also added in the marketing

People: It includes all the human stakeholders in the company/industry i.e. customer, competitor, employees etc.  

In the last but not the least aim of the marketing as a subject is not to sell mud as river but mud as a product and its goodness for skin and its valuable usage. For a true marketing person mud and river are different products have different markets and customer segments. 

Marketing is a neutral tool and it all depends upon the user how one is using it. Its like use of knife as an instrument to cut vegetables or use it to harm someone all depends upon the mindset of the person who is using it. 

Rural Marketing is not selling to Rural market only!

Being an independent marketing professional and keen researcher in the area of rural marketing often heard the line "there is a huge potential lies in the rural market", and read many case studies about successful penetration done by many national and international companies in rural markets. Yes it is true in last 15 years importance of rural market grew manifolds and thanks to Shri Pradeep Kashyap and many more such rural marketing stalwarts for their arduous efforts but still there is a missing link to utilize the potential of rural marketing.

In 1988 Professor Mithileshwar Jha for the first time introduces a holistic view in his article Rural Marketing Some Conceptual Issues. It indicated a flow of marketing opportunities lies in both urban and rural market as follows:

Rural to Rural (Local products like milk, pottery etc. exchanging products and services within rural markets)

Rural to Urban (Unorganized business from rural areas like handicraft and agriculture output selling in urban markets)

Urban to Rural (Organized business like FMCG, Consumer goods, agri-inputs etc. providing their products and services in rural markets)

In last 15-20 years many companies focused on the rural markets and few got marginal success and very few still penetrating potential lies in rural market. Not a single company thought of utilizing the potential lies for rural produces mainly handicraft and handloom in the urban and overseas markets. The biggest potential is for agricultural produces but that is not my focus area because of no expertise in it. After agricultural the most important sector is handloom and handicraft sector which provides employment to more than 1 crore rural population in India. There is a huge potential lies in marketing of such products which can be explored by organized players along with penetrating the rural markets with their existing offerings. The value chain analysis would be optimized if explored in a right way. 

Rann Utsav is one of such initiative to promote the rural product and services through an event marketing among the target customer segment. FabIndia is also such an initiative marketing handicrafts produced by rural craftsmen of India in urban and overseas markets through a chain of retail stores.

It does not only increase the new business opportunities for organized players but also improve the pockets of rural population to purchase their offerings at the same time. e-Chaupal initiative of ITC has done it in some way but their focus was on particular crop and limited to the few rural areas only.

What I can say about rural marketing is that it is not all selling urban produces in rural market but vice versa too. In the last but not the least Future lies with those who are not seeing rural as customers but also as producers.

World Record Branding: New marketing mantra

Out of the box thinking always pays to you only if it has been properly implemented and targeted to the right audience and at the right time. Here I am discussing about a new trend in marketing which is branding of your company by attempting world record. Eight months ago my management mentor Shri Manish Vishnoei discussed about this with me and we had planned one event to attempt the 11 world records in a consecutive 11 days on different themes related to social issues. I was thinking that we were the first to introduce this funda but someone somewhere in the world is also thinking the same way you are; recently I was reading Journal of Management & Entrepreneurship of Xavier institute and came through one interesting case study focused on the impact of Guinness World Record in the field of aerobics could have on potential clients for some fitness studio in Hyderabad.

The basic funda behind branding through world record is to position your product or service in a "Pride" and "the only of its kind", category in the world by maximizing the potential of your product or service upto the level of uniqueness or has never done before by any other person or company. For an example In the category of World's biggest cake you will find many categories like "World's biggest ice cream cake", "World's biggest birth day cake", "World's biggest chocolate cake" etc. I am sharing you one very interesting case about a company named "Baker's Ville" of Indore who wanted to propagate its unique offering of Photo Cake (Cake with the edible photo made up of sugar and icing) through an unique event among the target audience. 

After searching about many options Mr. Neeraj CEO, Bakers Ville found that an NGO named Shri Vision Social Empowerment & Welfare Association (SRVSEWA) had organized 11 day world record charity event. He called up to the organizer and coordinator of the event to discuss how they can help him to manage an event to propagate his photo cake product offering in a unique way through an event? After searching for worlds record category in cake they have decided to propagate it by creating new category “World’s biggest photo cake”. After the final words the outline of the event was a follows:

Golden Book of World Records, Asia Books of Records and India Book of Records were agreed happily and gave consent to consider it a record. Team of Backers Ville and SRV SEWA were like on the seventh heaven after getting positive response. They decided to organize this event on the evening of 1/1/2012 to celebrate first day of New Year to get better coverage and the response of target customers.

Both have started working in this direction and a summary of the event is as follows:

Date of the event: 01/01/2012

Organizer: SRV SEWA

Sponsor: Bakers Ville

Venue: Indore Central Mall, Indore, Madhya Pradesh (India).

"Today this photo cake has been approved as a world record by India book of record, Asia book of records and Golden Book of Records."

Programme: Miracle of One “World’s biggest photo cake” 

Supporter: Nafees Bakery, Dev’s Bakery and other local bakery

Photo Cake Specification

Length: 11 feet

Width: 7 & ½ feet

Height: 4 inch

Weight: 500 pound

Photo description: Micky mouse & friends

There were more than 5000 people consumed the cake and 10000 people who have watched this event and came to know about the new product photo cake (Newspaper coverage not included in this figure).

This event had got a huge success and after a month there was a significant increase in the demand of the photo cake in the city of Indore.

How Marketer commercialize "Jugaad"?

Introduction to Jugaad: An Indian way of improvisation innovation

Jugaad is a slang for the Punjabi word "Jugaat" which has its root in Sanskrit word "Yukti", which means innovative solution to the existing problem or adverse situations. "Jugaad" means an improvised or quick-fix solution and inventiveness to the problem.

Jugaad literally menas an arrangement or a work around which has to be used because of lack of resources. In wider role it also refers to find the multiple uses of a thing which is meant for some specific use or purpose. In India a generator has been used as an engine on a vehicle(truck+pickup)made completely from 

junk to transport humans,luggage & animals & it is even called by the name 'Jugaad'!! In South India a Jugaad vehicle made by the integration of bullet (Yezdi or Enfield) and trolley called "Meen body vandi" means fish bed vehicle. It is innovated by Tamil fishermen who needed the cheaper transport vehicle to carry dead fishes to the market in less time. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad)

In India Jugaad is also a colloquial Hindi word that can mean an innovative fix, sometimes of poor quality or of unaccepted standards used for solutions that bend rules or a response that can be used as such to solve the worrying issue. In essence it is a tribute to native genius and lateral thinking. But it is very important for the marketers to study the jugaad trends to imply it systematically in the business to create a wider scope in the organized market.

My definition for Jugaad

"Jugaad means cleaver tricks or innovative use of anything to compensate the scarcity of resources. It also means an innovative improvisation done at local level to utilize the available resources to get the desired results and solution to the current problem."

Why Jugaad

 Necessity is the mother of all invention and scarcity is the father of all innovations. India is the country of best creative minds in the world. Real India lives in the village, approx. 70%  of the total population living in India where scarcity of resources is a big problem. As we already discussed scarcity is the father of innovation and Indians are creative breed so these favorable conditions are behind the evolution of Jugaad in India. Indians always looking for cheap quick fix solutions of the problem. Maximum utilization of the available resources with creative inputs is in the blood of Indians. So if any marketer comes with the creative, qualitative and value pack solution in India it gets priority over all. This initiative from the marketer helps to penetrate rural market in India.

How it helps Marketer:  In a recent survey by the Legatum Institute, 81% of Indian businessmen said jugaad was the key reason for their success (Source:http://swaminomics.org/?p=1877). Basically Jugaad helps marketer in two ways:

Jugaad helps marketer in two ways

To make profit out of it                                     

·New product development                  

·Integration of two products            

·To promote New uses/different usage (Marketing innovation)

      To save cost from it. (Bottom-up approach to solve the problem)

                         Chakra(In Gujarat) a kind of Jugaad vehicle

   A marketing innovation case

 A close eye on the market and interaction with the customers helps marketer to know about the different usage of the their products. For example: Washing machine is used to wash clothes but in Punjab it is also used in making lassi, so company can come up with the new product with the facility or specially designed for the lassi making. I am also preparing one similar case study but different industry about the same idea which was commercialized by the marketer successfully. 

Cost Saving from it

Purely a bottom-up approach to solve the existing problem where no rational thinking works only creativity and innovation helps to overcome. What it required:

·        Bottom-up approach (To welcome the views from shop floor worker to each level of management).

·        Open to creativity and innovative thinking

A famous case study of Soap industry given by Raghuraman sir (Management Guru) in Dainik Bhaskar (A daily Hindi news paper of India) is a best example to understand this:

A Case study of two different soap companies to the same problem:

A premium soap making company was in problem due to empty soap boxes packed in the container which supplied to its distributor. To find the solution to this problem company took the services of a management consultancy. After a research and lateral thinking they come up with the solution by fixing a weight reader machine at the end of the slider from where soap box  goes into the container. If soap box is empty it will go out of the slider and if it has soap in it will directly go into the container. To solve this problem company invested millions of money on consultancy and machine.

     In second scene a small manufacturing soap making unit is facing the same problem. The top management decided to take the opinion of every employee right from the managers to shop floor worker. After a few days a worker came up with the large fan and fixed it in front of slider, from where soap boxes goes into the container. With the pressure of air empty boxes blew away from the slider and boxes filled with the soap go smoothly into the container. Here company got the solution to the problem within the organization by spending some time and money on the big fan.

 I wanted to contribute some of the matrix I have made to make it more clear and simple but due to some constraint right now unable to export it on the blog. I hope you enjoy this post.................

Brand Irritation

Are poor services irritating you? Is less and wrong information given about the products or services by the marketing people made you angry? If your answer is yes for both the questions and it affects negatively your next purchase decision in choosing that particular brand and its sister brand or sub-brand then the company is suffering from brand irritation. Brand irritation means a negative image created about a particular brand or company in the mind of a customer due to his/her bad experience with products or services or sales personnel behavior and it reflects his/her decision in not buying other product/services of the same company or brand under the umbrella.

After industrial revolution we have gained a lot of insights into business management. Present business model is based on the extensive research of the society and its needs. We have came across the various marketing strategies right from the Production concept, Sales concept, Marketing concept and a new concept of Co-creation. All these concepts have shown the paradigm shift from business owners' choice to customers' choice. Due to this paradigm shift and increasing competition we are not only talking about satisfaction of the customer but talking about the customer delight. On the practical ground most of the companies are not even able to satisfy the customers. Just recruiting bulk marketing personnel and push them aggressively to capture market may give you instant growth in numbers and market share but in long term always lead to hell. A leading financial group in India is the best example of the same.

During my stint with the same group as a sales person I experienced so many victims of aggressive sales, who are not at all satisfied with the services of home loan division, credit card division, life insurance division and banking division. This irritation with the brand ends my sales interaction with many customers on negative note. I met so many people who are not satisfied with the particular service of a particular service provider brand and afraid of taking product/service of its sister concern brand, because parent brand name is associated with it. It also leads to the negative publicity of the whole brand.

Factors lead to Brand Irritation:

• Poor services and poor product mix of the company
• Lack of knowledge of sales personnel about the products/services due to lack of proper training
• No customer care dept./ Outsourced customer care
• No or improper after sales service
• Mis selling/Hiding of important information/Misguidance
• Lack of commitment from the sales personnel

Brand irritation concept is based on my experience and study of service sector and specially financial sector, its impact on FMCG and other sectors is yet to be identify. I will be back with some more insights about Brand Irritation based on the intensive research.