My shirt is better than his!!!

Away from hustle bustle of daily life, it was gourmet delight from wife (yeah she does it daily) at the dinner table. As we were near end to our capacity of overloading our stomach, a fine advertisement appeared on our TV screen  – this tooth paste is better than that. Though this may appear just as an advertisement but it summarizes our competitive behavior of placing ourselves better than our near peers/products and what not.

There is one good product which created its own segment and all other followers just simply quote their product as better than that. Making all negative statement about the leader to push their products.

While as a small business for a temporary and easy sale you may like to follow that but certainly if you want to see a sustainable growth and a marker leader approach than for god sake stop doing it.

Just give a thought, from where the buying decision come- either heart and or by mind. then for what sake we believe that merely placing our words in consumer mind would place us top of his heart or mind.

the common mistakes a marketer does are –

• He defines his market as per competition landscape rather than defining market as per his portfolio.
• At the lowest level it is most of the time persuasion rather than realization.
• Just try to create negative sentiments on competition USP, what we may generally say negative marketing.
• His countdown starts from competition loopholes rather focusing on his own positives.
• Short term goals rather than long sustainable approach.

While he may simply follow-

Talk less – sense more

Just sense how the consumer his feeling about your product during demos rather than giving him global gyan about you product.. let him sense your product, let it get registered in his mind rather than his ears.

Never Counter

Its completely waste of resources if you start countering your product against consumers alien questions, non available features or competition comparison. Be positive, have assertive discussions rather than counter arguments.

Focus on your positives

Simply focus on your positives, stop naming any competition or giving any hint about it (please see, are you marketing self or competition?) . Let your brand be registered as unique, different and let it own create its own market.

i don’t know at how far degree i am correct but just sharing these few examples-

• one can’t get other’s girl friend by simply saying that he is better than his boy-friend.
• The biggest and ironically smallest differentiation in you is your DNA. So believe me stop becoming a me-too, create you own identity which has been injected to you biologically, just figure it out.
• Just a rough survey suggests that NaMo during Delhi elections campaigns spoke AAP/Kejriwal name more than 3.5 times than his own party name. And then you know what happened as a result.
• WhatsApp never said it is better than a SMS or rather now when they have competition never compared
• Other such marketers swept across the market never tried comparing them such as FB, OnePlus, Apple etc.

you can never win a race if you keep on running against you competitor..  have a competition with your self.

last but not least –

• Stay hungry but stay positive
• Deliver value not merely amusement to your tall claims
• Relate your consumers or rather you be your first consumer.

Hope i wasn’t sounding that absurd .. don’t mind if i did.. !! :)

Be a human, prove it, don’t be a mere sheep following the herd.

Love,

Ankit

IF Coke or Pepsi would have been Agri input product in india…

Ye dil Mange more..

Thanda Matlab coca cola..

Toofani Thanda

am sure most of us can easily identify by the tag/punch line that which product it is..

Lets change the scenario, think if those are marketed in Agri-input category in India.

Coke-

• ‘000 employees taking day in day out user meeting calling them in a temple
• Every meeting must have the society’s Bade wale Chachas and Taus (Key influential Person)
• Before meeting everywhere there would be coke posters/banners  and leaflets hovering the entire venue along roads
• in the meeting the must have would be a sales pitch saying
  • Coke is more black
  • Coke is more cool
  • Coke Jaldi Thandi ho jati hai
  • Coke can be mixed with your favorite drink
  • Coke can be opened like champagne
  • One bada Tau will stand-up and say I have drunk this and would recommend everybody to drink.
  • One non user would say Government is not helping us to drink
  • Another would say Last time my friend tried this, it was brown
  • Another would say my friend complained about the opener quality he couldn’t open it from his mouth, he demanded for compensation and the case is still pending.
  • The ground force team headed by a Commander called TM followed by Lieutenants PO/FT would pacify the concerns  saying- this lot is different and every user is repeating it.. Its fantastic and revolutionary
• at the end/start of the meeting the bade chahchs and taus would be garlanded and given some present
• Few giveaways for everybody who is attending the meeting
• There would be all food and entertainment management for the audience
• At last they will be shown few live samples –
  • Person drinking coke one after another and burping like anything
  • 4 guys on a table enjoying their party with coke
• Post meeting they would most likely throw a promotion/booking scheme

Pepsi-

everything remains same except-

• Chahchas and Taus (may be earlier coke customers as well)
• All coke posters to be replace by Pepsi
• Sales pitch would be-
  • Pepsi is blacker
  • Pepsi is cooler
  • Pepsi can even be mixed with non-color drinks for great color
  • rest all same

Ironically both Pepsi and Coke ground marketer are mostly each other’s ex-employee only. they would be least bothered to know what is happening to the world, they would only be guessing how much each other is selling. The biggest source of information for them is their trade channel.

There would be few TV adverts where one person with background of a party plot comes out and say Drink this its cool, black and mixable. (30 seconds and advert gone in flash) or few party-men talking about their problem in drinking softdrink and a bada tau coming  in a car saying drink this this has all the solution to your problem.

Ouuuch he hit on my head.. Sachinnnnn  Stop this.. (sorry i didn’t introduce Sachin, he is my colleague).

He is saying  “you (I) so called intelligent human-being telling us to CTRL+C and CTRL+V the marketing tactics of them in Agri-input marketing”

Naaahhh not at all, i never ever meant to say that.

Agri input marketing in India is so complex that even a new definition has to be calved out .. do you know why because-

• Its neither purely FMCG nor FMCD
• Its neither purely a consumable good nor industrial raw material
• Its neither purely B2B nor B2C
• Its neither purely distribution-centric nor product-centric
• Its neither purely on functional benefits nor perceived benefits

So now you may think that i may suggest you some specific solution, sorry not this time :). Not because am an Agri input Marketer (competition to fellow marketer) but because there are no ready-made solutions, we all have to make hit and trials to find out the solutions for creating brand in Agri-input which are sustainable, affordable, renowned and acceptable to all the markets. We are not in a state of dealing with matured customers, they are still information deprived. Not only our consumers but we ourselves are also not equipped with complete data, believe it or not they are mostly guesstimates. Collective and synergistic marketing may save our resources in piloting the things out.There are 130 million farmers and markets are defined basis crops/Geography and not by their socio-economic behavior. CRM, ATL, BTL, TTL are still remains buzz words for us.

Sharing good practices, case studies, blog posts may help us in becoming resource savvy and help our consumer to obtain only the right information at right time.

Hope i wasn’t been too bad in writing.

As Always, Love!!

Ankit

Yay!! I sold a Jet Today!!

Sachin (am sure you now know him that he is my colleague) a recent grad from top notch B-school was on the way to buy his first keys. Showroom after Showroom, multiple of test drives, with umpteen no. of expert advises and with google Baba’s blessings he was confused like anything.

Since he was a young grad it was but obvious that he will make all his knowledge to be practical in every aspect and this time he used Multiple Attribute Utility Theory to scale down for fewer options.

He started re-interviewing the sales guys on the three selected options and the key USPs post his talks with sales guys were like-

Option A – It doesn’t run it flies, it’s a jet.

Option B – Any breakdown, road side assistance will be even before you blink your eyes.

Option C – It’s a fixed deposit, no maintenance cost at all.  

And the Smart Sachin, who always wanted to fly bought option “A”. But wait, after few days he started realizing that it doesn’t take off, this jet only runs on runway that too many a times raced down by few average cars around.

Sachin came to me with all anguish… “bloody I paid 100k extra for this car because that sales walah told me this shall run like jet but it doesn’t run like even a SUV, and that sales walah now joined some other company, what to do with this”

And there was that typical smirk on my face, I said, Sachin listen- “At first place you always wanted to buy a car

-          That runs

-          That too with minimum costs

-          That leaves minimum maintenance costs/headaches

-          That can run on your local city roads

-          That makes you and your family drive safe and comfortable

-          That fit into your budget

then how come the question of jet came into picture?? Dude this is a car and doing all the job which you originally thought for, yet you are completely dissatisfied. “

Ironically I could only make one customer satisfied but think day in day out there are ‘000000 of sales walahs raising the expectation bars of consumers which at the end of the day results into the dis-satisfied customer with no repeat and referrals.

If I were given a chance to define what business is, I would simply quote –

“Business is nothing more than mutual exchange of MINIMUM PREDICTIVE VALUES”

In today’s competitive era when functional benefits are kept aside to overshadow the next competitor.  

Be it anywhere-

-          A manager raising board expectation for fresh round of funding, going certainly away from ground

-          A finance guy showing budgets like company has spent just like that last year

-          A sales guy selling products on his imaginative grounds

The common most issue resides as “Exaggeration”. In order to make ourselves better-off, we knowingly and unknowingly exaggerate the things and many a times it falls flat. The being grounded and genuine approach seems to history now, as we now only focus to encash that moment without even worrying about what it may result.  

But think for a second, can it just by any sense become sustainable-

-          What if the person you sold car realizes that it’s just a car not a jet

-          What if the person you sold a seed realizes it’s a seed not a miracle

-          What if the board whom you sold a three year break even realizes that’s it’s anything but three years

Let’s learn from our few examples of politico environment nearby-

-          We made this party to enact the Jan-Lokpal bill .. (where is it now, did you ever think how difficult and cumbersome it would be)

-          The moment we are into power India would be a developed country (well I exaggerated a bit J, but did they ever thought how practically difficult for them to handle the opposition)

-          Dadri shows the India is intolerant like never before. (well hasn’t it been exaggerated?)

Everybody loves surprises and when this exaggeration comes into picture the surprise quotient become inversely proportional.

So next time when you are trying to sell perceived benefits be sure that your customer perceives it, else be firm on your functional benefits only.

Simplify the things rather than exaggeration.

A child is more likely to buy a certain chocolate in anticipation of a surprise gift inside.

So surprise your every customer rather the just bearing them for a moment.

Build stairs rather simply jumping which will only induce gravitational force and can keep you high only for moments.

Love,

Ankit