tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17205180506825537432024-03-13T07:16:42.871+05:30There was a Brand!There were Brands and then, there were Brands! How this has changed in the post internet age? How the Brand ownership has moved away from Brand owners to Brand users? How the Brand Relationship has evolved?Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-47338498971617788062018-04-06T00:29:00.004+05:302018-04-06T00:29:51.871+05:30E-Summit by E-Cell, IIT Madras for the aspiring Indian Entrepreneurs <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">E-Cell and its activities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Entrepreneurship
Cell at IIT Madras believes that entrepreneurship is not just about starting
companies, but a pathway towards India’s socio-economic development. Our vision
is to make students and faculty ‘entrepreneurial’ in every work that they do.
We hope to enable them to solve global challenges as we see students as the
greatest capital and intend to nurture them, provide them with opportunities
for excellence.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">E-Summit and its objectives<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">E-Cell aims to
unlock students’ latent inventive potential. Not only do we show you the doors
of opportunity but we also equip you to walk through it. Through our
conference, social events, lectures, speaker engagements and workshops, we're
hoping to bring together everyone interested in the startup world and to help
students best utilize resources to found or join startups.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri Light, sans-serif;">1.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">E-Cell </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify;"> IIT Madras is bringing INTERNFAIR2018 for bringing talent
from around the</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify;">country and connecting
them with Forbes 30 under 30 CEOs. Stipends available up to Rs 50k.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Register Here: https://lnkd.in/fh7iyrg<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Link for Student’s Guidance PDF - https://lnkd.in/fQaDdnh<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">#Esummit2018
#ConnectAscendConquer </span><br />
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-70446526598252757412016-05-18T19:48:00.000+05:302016-05-18T19:48:05.600+05:30Choose Instragram to Humanize Your Brand.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i8a2jD7nWTo/VzM_I9_gXdI/AAAAAAAAASg/rJru7vXPpT4dsqKsmqVDp5BTHczI5Cs1gCLcB/s1600/Instagram%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i8a2jD7nWTo/VzM_I9_gXdI/AAAAAAAAASg/rJru7vXPpT4dsqKsmqVDp5BTHczI5Cs1gCLcB/s320/Instagram%2B1.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/instagram?source=feed_text&story_id=1061626670578132" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl" style="color: #4267b2;">#</span><span class="_58cm">Instagram</span></a> is no more a go-to social network for individuals anymore; many marketers have now caught wind of this powerful social network and using it very creatively.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />The platform's heavy emphasis on visual content like photos, videos, illustrations, and GIFs is becoming a critical way for brands to communicate their story and message. Plus, it's a great way for businesses to humanize their brand, recruit future employees, showcase their product and content, and delight<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"> and engage customers.</span>One particularly great thing about Instagram is that it isn't just for still photography. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There's a lot of directions to go with each post, whether it's posting shots from behind-the-scenes, videos, animated GIFs, holiday-themed content, contests and giveaways, reposts of followers and employees ... the list goes on.<br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Talk to us if you want us to build your Instagram plan.</span></div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-57691149348708533662016-05-11T19:47:00.000+05:302016-05-11T19:47:05.745+05:30Meet our First Marketing Strategy Advisory Client : Pure Ice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="color: #1d2129;">Meet our First Marketing Strategy Advisory Client : Pure Ice</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="line-height: 19.32px;">Year : 2008 </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="line-height: 19.32px;">Duration of work: 6 months</span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="line-height: 19.32px;">About the Client: Bangalore’s first branded ice cubes for B2B & B2C market</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What We did for them:</span></div>
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<li><span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Market & Marketing Strategy Advisory -</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Market Entry Strategy</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Segment, Target & Positioning Strategy</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pricing & Distribution Strategy</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Product Launch – events planning</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Helped with the Brand Identity (logo) design guideline.</span></span></li>
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What we learnt: That ice cubes were unsafe mostly, and there are three different types of ice cubes based on what drink you are having.<br />Success Story : Now they are the leading ice cube brand in Bangalore, selling up to 10,000 kg per month!</span><br />
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-79833119173487283012016-01-02T18:52:00.001+05:302016-01-02T18:52:51.534+05:3010 Ways you can make your customers love you.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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And you thought best price is the only way to your customer’s heart? </h2>
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There are plenty of reasons why a customer chooses one supplier / partner / vendor above many others; and a recent research has some interesting (but quite obvious – if you are reading my other blogs / posts) findings:</div>
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1. Bring New Perspectives and Ideas</div>
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If customers could diagnose their own problems and come up with workable solutions on their own, they would do so. The reason that they’re turning to you and your firm is that they’re stuck and need your help. Therefore, you must be able to bring something new to the table.</div>
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2. Be Willing to Collaborate</h4>
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Customers absolutely do NOT want you to sell them something, even something that’s wonderful. They want you to work with them to achieve a mutual goal, by being responsive to the customer’s concerns and ways of doing business. Ideally, customers want you <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">to become integral to their success.</em></div>
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3. Have Confidence In Your Ability to Achieve Results</h4>
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Customers will not buy from you if you can’t persuade them that you, your firm, and your firms offerings will truly achieve the promised results. It is nearly impossible to persuade a customer to believe in these things unless you yourself believe in them. You must make your confidence contagious.</div>
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4. Listen, Really Listen, to the Customer</h4>
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When they’re describing themselves and their needs, customers sense <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">immediately</em> when somebody is just waiting for a break in the conversation in order to launch into a sales pitch. In order to really listen, you must suppress your own inner-voice and forget your goals. It’s about the customer, not about you.</div>
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5. Understand ALL the Customer’s Needs</h4>
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It’s not enough to “connect the dots” between customer needs and your company’s offering. You must also connect with the individuals who will be affected by your offering, and understand how buying from you will satisfy their personal needs, like career advancement and job security.</div>
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6. Help the Customer Avoid Potential Pitfalls</h4>
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Here’s where many sellers fall flat. Customers know that every business decision entails risk but they also want your help to minimize that risk. They want to know what <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">could</em> go wrong and what <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">has</em> gone wrong in similar situations, and what steps you’re taking to make sure these problems won’t recur.</div>
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7. Craft a Compelling Solution</h4>
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Solution selling is definitely not dead. Customers want and expect you to have the basic selling skill of defining and proposing a workable solution. What’s different now though is that the ability to do this is the “price of entry” and not enough, by itself, to win in a competitive sales situation.</div>
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8. Communicate the Purchasing Process</h4>
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Customers hate it when sellers dance around issues like price, discounts, availability, total cost, add-on options, and so forth. They want you to be able to tell them, in plain and simple language, what’s involved in a purchase and how that purchase will take place. No surprises. No last minute upsells.</div>
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9. Connect Personally With the Customer</h4>
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Ultimately, every selling situation involves making a connection between two individuals who like and trust each other. As a great sales guru once said: “All things being equal, most people would rather buy from somebody they like… and that’s true even when all things aren’t equal.”</div>
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10. Provide Value That’s Superior to Other Options</h4>
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And here, finally, at the No. 10 spot (below everything else) comes the price and how that price compares to similar offerings. Unless you can prove that buying from you is the right business decision for the customer, the customer can and should buy elsewhere</div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-73370729099095105702015-12-14T20:27:00.002+05:302015-12-14T20:29:53.952+05:30Why You Need Value Based Selling NOW!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It’s a sad fact that today’s average B2B sales person is still far more comfortable talking about their products than they are discussing business issues or customers’ problems. However the average B2B buyer regards a sales person’s relevant business knowledge and the understanding of his business problem as being far more valuable than their ability to regurgitate product features, functions and benefits.</div>
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This terrible mismatch has profound consequences - on average 87% of the revenues in complex B2B sales environments are being generated by just 13% of the sales population. So what these best-in-class sales organizations do differently ?</div>
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<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Very simply put they have mastered the technique to systematically create unique value to their customers through the disciplined application of value-based selling across their entire sales and marketing organisation.</em> And the results can be seen in top line revenue growth that far exceeds market averages.</div>
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Value based selling is delivering value to a customer rather than just selling a product / service to them. However, as some early definitions suggested – it’s not just about maximising the value of your solution to the customer. In fact focusing on your value too early in the development of a sales opportunity can actually compromise your chances of success. Because if there is no problem, there can be no solution.</div>
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Therefore, before the value of your solution is in any way relevant to your<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">potential customer</strong>, they must first - hopefully with your help - <strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">recognise the value of solving the problem the first place, and acknowledge the cost of inaction and the urgent need for change. Otherwise, the most likely outcome is that they will simply decide to stick with the status quo.</strong></div>
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Value-based selling requires in-depth understanding of how the customer uses the product and the contribution the product makes to his business operations. It also requires that service sales personnel understand cost behaviour and their customer’s P&L structure. They need easy-to-use tools to help demonstrate and quantify the financial contribution and service value to senior customer management.</div>
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<img class="center" data-loading-tracked="true" height="315" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrinknp_800_800/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAVaAAAAJDRkMDRmYWNjLWEwOTktNDA4Zi1iMTE4LTBkYjZlMGFmMzdkZQ.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 30px auto; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;" width="450" /></div>
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It, therefore, demonstrates how this contractually assured service can make a significant contribution toward increasing customer productivity, profit, and in some instances, capacity. Rather than resorting to price reductions to avert contract cancellations, the sales force actually can sell premium products /service at a higher price.</div>
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To sum it up : <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Value Based Sales equips the sales force with the skill to identify each customer’s problem areas and then offer a unique solution to that problem with their respective products.</em></div>
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To build sufficient VBS capability, a framework of sales effectiveness drivers must be evaluated and addressed.</div>
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Value Based Sales Workshop Objectives:</div>
<ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 35px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Improve average order values</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Increase the take of ‘Wallet Share’</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Move further up the value chain away from 'commodity hell'</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Improve your reputation as a value adding salesperson</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Analyse their personal performance, and through increased self-awareness reduce weaknesses and maximise strengths in their sales approach</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Build their confidence in presenting value rather than costs</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Develop business relationships which ensure customers want to do more business with them</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Review difficult sales situations and construct more effective sales presentations / pitch</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Develop greater opportunities for closing more business</li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Increase job satisfaction and improve customer service scores through professional and effective needs alignment.</li>
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Write to us at <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #008cc9; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">contact@thesmartideas.in</a> to schedule a meeting.</div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com1Bengaluru, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.59456269999998312.4764182 76.949115699999979 13.4667792 78.240009699999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-55737632090267280462015-09-29T13:00:00.003+05:302015-12-14T20:30:40.044+05:30Branding is NOT Advertisement!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gKJjtqY_RD8/Vgo96qV6JmI/AAAAAAAAAOc/KeT3Rjbrzdw/s1600/brand%2Band%2Bad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gKJjtqY_RD8/Vgo96qV6JmI/AAAAAAAAAOc/KeT3Rjbrzdw/s400/brand%2Band%2Bad.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Off late I am meeting lot of branding “gurus” who are propagating what is branding and how do you brand a product. Nothing wrong in that though, because that’s the way this subject would flourish. However, since Marketing, Sales, Branding are more qualitative subjects and we can’t (generally) do 1+1= 2 here, we make our own assumptions. I mean, no one would say “In my opinion the 3rd law of Newton is ….. “ and run their imagination wild. You get the idea, right? </div>
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For starters, Yes, there are fundamentals and definitions and re-definitions of these subjects and these definitions are based on empirical research over decades and then their minute analysis from both quantitative and qualitative aspects.</div>
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So here is a very quick look at these subjects as Experts, Thought leaders, Ivy League B-Schools and successful practitioners think globally:</div>
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<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Branding</strong> is part of marketing - the process of establishing a brand is based on the rational, emotional & functional attributes that connects the brand with the Target Customers.</div>
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A brand is made of brand attributes (as above), brand promise (based on attributes) and brand delivery (final experience), which is created by intensive market research among its desired market segments and Target Audience. Based on these BA, BP & BD - the value proposition of a brand is established and is manifested as the Positioning Statement that the common people call tagline. </div>
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<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Advertisement, </strong>on the other hand, is one of the communication processes to promote the brand through mass media.<br />
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Marketing</strong> (we can't leave this subject now) is a pull strategy which creates product / services to meet a particular need of a segment of people.<br />
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sales</strong> is a push strategy where you produce products / services without any care of the market and then sell them through promotions to anyone who might buy. </div>
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As a very sales driven country we are completely ignorant of the subject called “Marketing”. We think marketing is promotion and branding is advertisement. This is sad because this is the reason, why, instead of focusing on value proposing to pull the customers to us, we push the products with discounts after discounts thereby competing with our competition on just price.</div>
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In these days of quick availability of information, it is very easy to learn about a subject and then be an expert by practice; which essentially means you really have to <strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">LEARN</strong> the subject to begin with to become the <strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">EXPERT</strong> you are trying to be. It’s not that difficult. :)</div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-8111046832417980092015-08-28T14:23:00.002+05:302015-08-28T14:23:38.125+05:3010 Statements that show your Company has an Out-of-date View of Marketing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We’ve all been there and I come across this quite regularly -- restraining a laugh or almost throwing up hands in despair, when a company’s leading men put forth an opinion any modern marketer would find outrageous.</div>
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But then, we can’t always blame the CEO or the owner. After all, many chief executives simply don’t come from a marketing or technical backgrounds, and even if they do, their knowledge is most likely to be not current.</div>
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(That takes it back to my earlier post – How old is your Marketing Head?</div>
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However, the fact today is that marketing has evolved to become increasingly technical as well as emotional, whether the CEO/ Business Owner believes it or not.</div>
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Here are 10 statements that we hear commonly that indicate that these CEO’s views of marketing are stuck in the past.</div>
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1. “Social media is a waste of time.”</h3>
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2. “Our customers are not on social media.”</h3>
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3. “Our blog should talk more about how well we do things.”</h3>
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4. “What do you mean I can’t fight back on Twitter / Facebook?”</h3>
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5. “Every piece of content should always lead to a sale.”</h3>
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6. “Let’s get demand gen up by attending more trade shows.”</h3>
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7. “Listening to market feedback is a waste of time.”</h3>
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8. “We should rebrand to better communicate our value.”</h3>
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9. “Friction between Sales and Marketing is normal.”</h3>
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10. “I know what the customers want.”</h3>
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These examples are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to CEOs / Business Owners not understanding the marketing intricacies that drive their companies’ growth and that prevent many businesses from moving forward and realizing their full potential.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--XhEqbZYNSE/VeAhdAwp3tI/AAAAAAAAANA/YlJbr8HCsvA/s1600/Fotolia_54207426_XS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--XhEqbZYNSE/VeAhdAwp3tI/AAAAAAAAANA/YlJbr8HCsvA/s320/Fotolia_54207426_XS.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-68964494934303774782015-05-05T13:23:00.001+05:302015-05-05T13:23:37.031+05:30Brand Strategy : Don’t Sell Your Products!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If your aim is to build a brand that is remarkably different
and not to become just the best choice but to <strong>become the only choice</strong>,
then read on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The BIG mistake : you sell features,
not the experience.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></strong></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tMSkk_BoSZA/VUh27525VLI/AAAAAAAAAMA/NBJppa8o1KE/s1600/Goal-of-Prospecting-Dont-Sell.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tMSkk_BoSZA/VUh27525VLI/AAAAAAAAAMA/NBJppa8o1KE/s320/Goal-of-Prospecting-Dont-Sell.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As a small to medium sized business owner, if you keep
making this mistake you'll be hanging the closed sign for good, and we don't
want that!<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Therefore,<b> w</b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">hen
you think about the service or product you sell, you need to change the way you
think.<br />
<br />
Instead of listing out all the features you offer, put the customer first.
Focus on all the benefits they'll get (what's in it for them) and how they'll
feel when you solve their nagging pains and problems. Layer your personality on
top of it, and <em>voila</em>!
You become memorable, likable and trusted, and they grab hold of you and keep
coming back for more. <br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let’s take a look at a few examples. <br />
<br />
<strong>An athletic club doesn't
sell classes or memberships</strong>, they sell how great you'll look
and feel in your two piece in Goa this winter. <br />
<br />
<strong>A real estate company isn't
selling houses</strong>, they're selling the place your babies will
learn to walk and talk, and where you'll start traditions - they're selling the
comfort of homes. <br />
<br />
<strong>Disney doesn't sell theme
parks and movies</strong>, they sell family fun with a little dose of
magic.<br />
<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><strong><o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So basically, you're selling the
feelings they get when they do business with you.</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<br />
<br />
It's all about the meaning, the idea, the spirit behind what you're selling.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The experience.<br />
<br />
<strong>When you find the hidden
emotional need you are meeting, over and beyond the actual physical product or
service, your customers will grab on to you and never let go. </strong><br />
<br />
They trust you. You offer something unique and differentiated that solves a
need nobody else understands. You make a big difference and they won't forget. <br />
<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let's try it as an exercise:<br />
<br />
Think of your customers first, and what you really do. What's really in it for
them? How do you make them feel? </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
Once you're clear on this, you'll not only be the best choice, you'll be the
only choice! </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Complete the 4 step process to uncover what you really sell:
<br />
<br />
1) Make a list of all the reasons people buy from you.<br />
If you don't know, ask them. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2) Include all the biggest pains and problems you solve for
them.<br />
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3) When you're finished, pick the BIGGEST result/benefit your customer feels. <br />
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4) This is where you'll hang your hat. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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All the Best!</div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-70034798158699815772015-05-05T13:20:00.001+05:302015-05-05T13:20:14.575+05:30What is a Brand?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A lot of people are talking about it. But very few understand it.</div>
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The brand is the most powerful business tool you have.</div>
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Everyone seems to want it, but not very many know how to get it.</div>
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First, lets start with what a brand is not.</div>
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A brand is not a logo. It's a symbol for the brand, but it's not the brand itself.</div>
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Corporate colors, fonts, your website, and brochures are not a brand either.<br />
They are the visual identity that communicates the brand.<br />
So then, what is a brand?</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A brand is the thoughts, feelings, words, or emotions you have when you hear a name.</strong></div>
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It's all about how they make you feel.</div>
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Let me show you what I mean.</div>
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Think about these 3 strong brands:</div>
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Apple, TATA and Asian Paints</div>
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We all think the same thing, and we all use the same words to describe each of those strong brands when we hear their names.<br />
Right?</div>
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Apple: innovation, creativity</div>
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TATA: integrity, passion</div>
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Asian Paints: colourful, friendly</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Simply put, branding is recognition. Or perception.</strong></div>
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It's not defined by what the companies think, but by what individuals, like you and I, think.</div>
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The brand is held in the hearts and minds of people.</div>
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So your brand isn't what you think it is.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It's what they think it is.</strong></div>
</div>
Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-6097547166484730592015-03-13T17:48:00.000+05:302015-03-13T17:48:04.797+05:3010 Things to Remember for an aspiring entrepreneur<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7368tE5Nfcc/VQLVFnJJHyI/AAAAAAAAALo/iPaUFgs-Jos/s1600/Main-Image.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7368tE5Nfcc/VQLVFnJJHyI/AAAAAAAAALo/iPaUFgs-Jos/s1600/Main-Image.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<ol style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4d4f51; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 30px 40px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Don't listen to what others are saying</li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Don't sit with your ideas. Make it happen.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Size of your idea doesn’t matter.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Be humble enough to know you can’t know everything. Be wise enough to know who to ask for help.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Be honest. Don’t cheat or take shortcut. Build your reputation.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Be here for the long run. If you want quick money / success – try smuggling.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Deliver what you promised. Promise what you can deliver.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bring clarity to your thought. If your customers, investors or collaborators do not understand what you have to offer; they will never buy it from you.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Network well. Remember that networking doesn’t mean collecting business cards.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And help others first without expectations.</li>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-77877620991707919732014-11-18T12:22:00.000+05:302014-11-18T12:22:08.616+05:30Social Media Marketing For Real Estate<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ECz1MAGZOW0/VGrryukwAdI/AAAAAAAAAJs/qOS2-HoxFYI/s1600/home-prices-rise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ECz1MAGZOW0/VGrryukwAdI/AAAAAAAAAJs/qOS2-HoxFYI/s1600/home-prices-rise.jpg" height="103" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Like any other
business, industry or domain, Real Estate can leverage Social Media as a very
effective Marketing, Branding & Communication Tool. Social Media can also
be a potential tool for inquiry generation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Real Estate Social Media Objectives: The Main Concern
Areas<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Win
customers trust</span></b><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Online
Reputation</span></b><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Create
Differentiation</span></b><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Build
Brand</span></b><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Social Media can help
addressing these objectives very effectively.</span></i><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Real Estate is all About "REF"
attributes of the brand</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">R</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ational - It has to make sense - the price, location,
requirement, etc<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">E</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">motional - It has to connect - dream home, first home, my
own space, etc<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">F</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">unctional - It has to be useful - Kitchen, Bedrooms, Living
space, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you are building your product
keeping this REF in mind, it would help tremendously to connect to the right
audience / potential customers through social media.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Social Media Mix for Real Estate Organizations</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Facebook<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Blog<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Don't treat social
media as a fancy fad to be in vogue. Use them judiciously and correctly for
maximum benefits and ROI.</span></i><span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-56947278220320730142014-11-11T23:28:00.000+05:302014-11-11T23:29:24.475+05:30How old is your Marketing Head?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It is said that Facebook has started to lose its sheen in the West, it is, however, performing exceedingly well in countries like India, Brazil and other Asian, African and some European countries.</div>
<div style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px;">
Increasing <a data-mce-href="http://www.iamai.in/PRelease_detail.aspx?nid=3222&NMonth=11&NYear=2013" href="http://www.iamai.in/PRelease_detail.aspx?nid=3222&NMonth=11&NYear=2013" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">internet penetration in India</a> and lucrative Facebook features have led to rise in adoption of Facebook for social networking amongst web users. In India the social media giant has amassed 92 million users, which is now the 2nd highest after the U.S, according to Facebook’s own data.</div>
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The most interesting fact however, in all these numbers is that :</div>
<div style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px;">
<strong>Teens Aged 18-24 Account For 50% Of Total Facebook Users In India!</strong></div>
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Of the total 92 million (7.73% of the total user-base) Facebook users in India, nearly 50% belong to the age group 18-24 years.</div>
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Facebook, at an infancy stage in India, finds it's biggest follower in teens who find it exciting and are very active in Facebook. Nearly 11% or 10.6 million Facebook users in India are aged below 17, about 26 million (28% of total Facebook India population) fall in the age group of 25-34. Close to 6.6 million are between 35-44 years, 2.2 million between 45-54 years and the rest above 55 years.</div>
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India is also the youngest country in the world in terms of its population's average age which is between 25 and 29 years. With almost 65% of the population under less than 30 years we have, therefore, 65% of all consumers who are less than 30 years!</div>
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<div style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 30px;">
But how old is the man who is the Marketing Head or the Brand Head in your organization? Does he understand what a 21 year old gizmo freak, digital age, instant gratifying, fickle Indian wants to get from you that would either simplify his life or stimulate his intellectual wisdom? Nope! I am not recommending a 21 Year old Marketing Head. </div>
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Want to know more? Write to me at susmita@thesmartideas.in </div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-84285774197865514652014-11-11T23:18:00.001+05:302014-11-11T23:21:39.926+05:30The "Why" Marketing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">"Marketing practitioners are divided on whether it’s necessary to understand why consumers behave the way that they do. One view is that understanding “why” enables marketers to develop appealing offers and messages to best match consumer ne</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #4d4f51; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">eds. The alternative view is that “why” doesn’t matter when determining the effectiveness of marketing and ROI. Behavioral information is what’s required.<br /><br />Basic consumer characteristics, such as income, assets and location, probably account for more than perceived product benefits and emotional needs.<br /><br />Why invest significantly in understanding the consumer’s motivation when it’s costly, imprecise and not immediately linked to sales uplift? If the “why” question is important in today’s environment, how can it be proved in a behavioral way, such as in demonstrated sales impact?<br /><br />Recent research findings related to mindset metrics and long-term marketing effects provide powerful support for going beyond immediate sales lift as the sole measure of marketing effectiveness. They give a compelling reason to measure consumer mindsets and incorporate the “why” question in comprehensive strategic marketing."</span><br />
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-21215147023944066592014-07-06T11:11:00.001+05:302014-07-07T17:52:15.734+05:30The Omnipotent Brand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A typical response I get even from some veteran entrepreneurs is that small businesses, with not enough money to spend, should concentrate on 'more important' aspects of the business than on branding; or even better - they think they have no need for Branding ! Branding for many small (even bigger) enterprises never go beyond creating a logo and a "tag-line" (<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">whatever that means</em>!).</div>
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However, what most organizations don't understand is that every business creates an impression knowingly or unknowingly, positive or negative - that creates a certain perception about them in their customers' mind. The name, logo, ads, service quality, employees' behavior and attitude - everything contribute to this perception.</div>
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So, like it or not you do have a brand; what you do with it is, of course, entirely up to you.</div>
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The best thing, however, would be to take control of it to your advantage instead of just letting impression happen haphazardly which might result in a negative perception.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Haphazard branding efforts doesn't help your customers associate themselves with your business - they might get confused, you would not have top of mind recall, or they would have no clear idea on what you can do for them.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Branding helps in removing these clutter. In addition, a clear and consistent message sets you apart from your competition and communicates exactly what you are offering. But avoid using repetitive and qualitative standard phrases like best of class", "award-winning", etc. And most importantly, walk the talk so it shows you value your commitment.</span></div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-61289323805105724362014-06-20T11:02:00.000+05:302014-06-21T16:15:03.849+05:30From Unsocial Media Promotions to Social Media Marketing - It's High Time!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Would you
believe that most, repeat most brands and organizations indulge themselves in
something called Unsocial Media Promotion in the name of Social Media
Marketing?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet, it’s
not hard to believe because :<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1. We are so used to selling / promoting products for so long that we can’t think beyond it<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2. Not many people know what Social Media Marketing
is actually!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It has been
our experience and observation that while social media opens up a brand new,
dynamic and revolutionary strategic marketing process, most social media
practitioners are using it as an extension of old, conventional, tactical
marketing tool – simply as a Promotional tool with excessive one-way dialogue. <b>And so, there is nothing social about it
nor it is Marketing</b>!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Therefore,
though we see a very high page likes (sometimes) – through paid ads – we hardly
see any engagements happening.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And as you
know, in social media, engagement is the only measurement criterion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">They don’t
realize that social media engagement measures the activities of their fans and
friends – likes, shares, comments, tags, etc - and has <u>almost</u> nothing to
do with their posts and pictures? The more they talk, the less is the
engagement!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So, how do
we move from Unsocial Media Promotions to Social Media Marketing?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Concentrate
on the “Social” and the “Marketing” part - that is put emphasis </span></span></div>
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</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">on multi-way
communication - between you, the brand and your fans, friends, customers, end-users, influencer and brand advocates.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 15pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">don't forget your elementary marketing lessons of 4Ps and 3Cs of Product, Price, Place & Promotion and
Customer, Competition & Competencies.</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In your social media marketing planning, implementation and
analysis put a lot of emphasis on in-depth market research (on customers,
targets, competition, market trends, etc) and have a structured content management
process in place. This should be reviewed every week to see that you are reaching the desired engagement level.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">All the best.</span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15pt; margin: 12pt 0in; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">(C) Susmita Das Gupta</span></div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com0Bangalore, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.59456269999998312.4764182 76.949115699999979 13.4667792 78.240009699999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-7738455478978247632014-05-21T17:17:00.000+05:302014-06-21T16:16:04.704+05:30The Brand Relationship ...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #1f497d;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“In pre-internet days, the
buyer’s process was fairly straightforward: stimulus, shelf, experience. A
stimulus sparked a buyer’s interest in a product, they went to the store or
called a salesperson to buy it, and then they experienced the product. There
were very few places where a brand could intersect with the buyer: an
advertisement, which may have been the stimulus; the packaging and display,
which spurred the purchase; and, possibly, after the sale in customer service –
though if it came to that, it was inevitably because something had gone wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1f497d;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1f497d;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Today’s purchasing journey,
whether for a consumer product or complex business purchase, has infinitely
more touch-points where a brand and buyer might intersect.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1f497d;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1f497d;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The more interesting thing here
is that – while brands used to be the “property” of the brand owner (product /
service) since the beginning of the concept of brand, it is no longer so. Now
the brand belongs to the person who uses it, recommends it, advocates for it or
slams it openly. Therefore, while the brand custodian has changed in the post
internet period, the brand association has certainly increased, with those who
use or refuse them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1f497d;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1f497d;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When a customer talks
passionately about a brand whether loving or thrashing it – there is a sense of
ownership involved. And that ownership is something which the brand should
leverage on. And perhaps, that is what brand friendship is all about.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1f497d;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Ultimately, if the brand and me
are not friends, how do I care what happens to it?</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1f497d;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">www.thesmartideas.in</span></span></div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-33809002792302009532013-10-03T13:37:00.000+05:302013-10-03T13:37:22.666+05:30Who is The New Young India?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">It is very interesting to see that while the average age of India (read buyers) is just about 29 - all the marketers are well into their 50! Not only there is a huge generation gap, there is a complete lack of understanding about who these you</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">ths are and what do they exactly think.<br /><br />Just pretending to be youthful won't help. Youth today are very different than what we have ever experienced, so no amount of extrapolation of old experience would work at all.<br /><br />So what is the way forward?<br /><br /><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=137703342970474&extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A0%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Smart-iDeAS/137703342970474?directed_target_id=0" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Smart iDeAS</a> has been continuously undertaking India Youth Study. At the moment </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">5 Bschools in India are working with </span><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=137703342970474&extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A0%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Smart-iDeAS/137703342970474?directed_target_id=0" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Smart iDeAS</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> in understanding the Next Gen Indians. We have identified 23 parameters on which we are researching and we are looking at young Indians between the age of 15 to 20 years and 20 to 30 years. </span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wH69c93z76A/Uk0kzCurovI/AAAAAAAAAEs/qGzrLtr6mSQ/s1600/Young+country.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wH69c93z76A/Uk0kzCurovI/AAAAAAAAAEs/qGzrLtr6mSQ/s320/Young+country.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-49163482311350306232013-07-24T19:22:00.000+05:302013-07-26T00:28:39.879+05:30Brand Yourself<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Have you ever thought of Branding Yourself?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well, I don't really mean those tattoos / iron marks on your arm or shoulders - that's not branding!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What I mean is - Have you ever thought of you as a Brand?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sounds strange? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Trust Me - this is in existence since time immemorial; only that so far just a very few and smart ones understood its importance and used it effectively.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So what is Personal Branding that I am talking about?</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">The term personal brand is believed to have first appeared in the August 1997 issue of Fast Company Magazine, in an article by management guru and author Tom Peters, who wrote,</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>"We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You." </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="font-size: 16px;">Personal branding describes the process by which individuals and entrepreneurs differentiate themselves and stand out from a crowd by identifying and articulating their unique value proposition, whether professional or personal, and then leveraging it across platforms with a consistent message and image to achieve a specific goal. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">In this way, individuals can </span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">enhance their recognition as experts in their field, </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">advance their careers, and</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;"> build self-confidence.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Therefore, personal branding is something which not only affects you as an individual but also how it affects the organization that you represent. However, personal branding is not putting on a mask which you are not; but refining yourself in a way that brings only the best in you. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">As a senior executive of your organization you also have to keep in mind how you should present yourself to the outside world, your attitude and behaviour in a social & professional context and how others perceive you given your such self projections. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pujOHiUZcBM/Ue_bXzHKyvI/AAAAAAAAAEI/gO8nC7_msF8/s1600/Personal+Branding+Brochure++2+July+2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pujOHiUZcBM/Ue_bXzHKyvI/AAAAAAAAAEI/gO8nC7_msF8/s320/Personal+Branding+Brochure++2+July+2013.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">A well-executed personal branding creates a strong, consistent, and specific association between the individual and the perceived value they offer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><span style="font-size: 16px;">Personal Branding as a concept is new to India, albeit a very strong and important one. Please remember Personal Branding is not about being fashionable or looking trendy. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Personal branding typically begins with establishing an inventory of professional & personal strengths, expertise, demonstrated abilities, and existing level of recognition, informed by market research or feedback. Questions to be answered revolve around who are you? Who is your audience? Why do you do what you do? and How do you do it? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">The ultimate aim of Personal Branding is to be the "go-to" person for something that you are capable of performing best than the rest in line. Or, to be the "Only" solution to someone's problem.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Are you up for the challenge?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">write to us at contact@thesmartideas.in to attend our workshops on Personal Branding.</span></span><br />
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-80708175670268000152013-06-12T12:47:00.000+05:302013-06-12T12:47:23.311+05:30Trailblazing Brands...1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;">There are plenty of good brands, smart business owners, and savvy marketers that are both risk-averse and successful. They follow trends, do their research, and identify good opportunities to capitalize on.<br /><br />Then there are the trailblazers. The ones that identify trends before mainstream adoption, or heck, just create the trends themselves. The result? They're more than just successful. They redef<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">ine their industry -- sometimes even national or international discourse -- and of course, make a pretty penny from their foresight.<br /><br />DeBeers<br /><br />Believe it or not, diamonds were not always associated with love. In the late 30s expensive diamonds weren't popular in the United States -- not surprising, considering the economy. They were sold in Europe, but not as engagement rings. And when the United States did sell diamonds as engagement rings, they were smaller and of poor quality.<br /><br />DeBeers decided to change all this. They launched an ad campaign designed to convince men that the size of a diamond in an engagement ring showed how much they loved their fiancé. They also showed movie stars wearing lavish, expensive diamonds in new movies, further convincing America that diamonds demonstrated love. Finally, in 1947, DeBeers coined the phrase, "A diamond is forever." The sale of diamonds in the United States increased by 55%.<br /><br />To this date, the slogan "a diamond is forever" still lives on and is, at this point, just a part of popular culture. (Any James Bond fans out there?) DeBeers' campaign to convince America to associate diamonds with love and engagement also lives on, as we still see the emphasis on larger diamonds on engagement rings -- just the first step in an ever-burgeoning wedding industry. The campaign may have been decades ago, but DeBeers' impact is still seen in advertising for diamonds today, and the attitude toward diamonds today.</span></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">source : Hubspot blog</span></span></div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-58723412291779054982013-06-11T03:59:00.000+05:302013-06-11T03:59:33.923+05:30Social Engagement - It's Relationship that Matters..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In Social Media Engagement isn’t hard, or so it is thought! – “anybody can engage… use cute cat videos”. However, the prerequisite for sustained engagement over a long time is a relationship.</div>
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Strong relationships need lots of time and attention, something that the modern customer is unlikely to have – particularly for brands. People have finite time and attention for relationships, and by their very nature, relationships with brands are always weaker than interpersonal relationships with people.</div>
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So how can brands build stronger relationships with customers?</div>
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<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Time – Time together with a person increases tie strength. But if the desire to spend time together isn’t mutual it can turn to hate! So the key is to know when the customer wants to spend time with you and then be there for them at those times.</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Intensity – Customer intensity is always lower for brands than for friends. But you can appeal to greater causes that customers may have strong emotions about, such as the environment… But don’t try too hard in this area and don’t be fake about it because it will backfire.</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Trust – Social media can really help brands develop trust. Trust is essentially how transparent you are. The more transparent you are, the more trust you can build. There are two types of transparency: brand-customer transparency (letting customers know what is happening at your organisation via blogs, etc) and customer-customer transparency (customers want to know what other customers think of the brand, i.e. through community discussion forums). While transparency is one way of building trust, there is another approach: co-creation. People trust themselves, so they tend to trust brands that co-create with them. There are two types of co-creation: passive co-creation (brands are listening and collecting information from customers and then quietly implementing the ideas) and active (actively going out to crowdsource ideation).</li>
<li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Reciprocity – Make it easy for customers to help each other and reward them properly and serve them right. Co-creation also builds reciprocity as it’s all about the customer telling the brand what they want and then the brand building it. The key is not to forget to let your customer help you, as it is good for both of you.</li>
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Ultimately, customer communities are ideal platforms for building relationships with customers. </div>
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“They are opt-in, so they are there for the customer if they want it but they won’t bug you,” explained Wu. “It may have a greater cause. They are a transparent channel. They are platforms for co-creation. It also enables reciprocity. And that means that it helps your brand to build the four pillars of customer relationships.”</div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">With the social customer, it is not enough to just monetise them. If you only focus on monetisation, you will miss engagement – and then you’ll only be able to monetise them once and that is it. You need to focus on the entire journey – the journey to the transaction point, and after that transaction point.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">source: </span><span style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 1.2;">Going through the gears: How to ensure your social strategy is sustainable</span></div>
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-43041064827815758192013-05-31T13:17:00.002+05:302013-05-31T13:39:59.594+05:30People for People for Social Media Marketing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Remember Social media is Social!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Social media strategies are becoming automated, impersonal,
and are actually contributing further to the exact problem they were put out
there to solve for: streams of noise, shouting, and irrelevant messages. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Developing a people-centric social media strategy is a huge
opportunity for companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors. A
seemingly “faceless” brand making a personal connection over social media is
such a rarity, that when it does happen, the resulting positive emotion from
the recipient is remarkable in comparison to the avalanche of noise out there.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Easiest Way to Scale Social Media Is Around People</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You see, your company is a living, breathing entity, made up
of many people and departments. Your most important relationships to manage are
with your prospects, leads, and customers, and social media is a rich, nutritional
resource for fostering these relationships. Social media is meant for messages
from the real people in your company, to the real people out there on the
internet.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Have Messages Come From the Right Person</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This personal social media strategy not only becomes
scalable, but becomes much more effective when you distribute the
responsibilities of your entire social media marketing contribution across the
various departments of your organization, to the most relevant people. At any
given time, you have people in every part of your funnel. Marketing wants to
hear from prospects. Sales wants to know what their high quality leads are
saying. Customer Service needs to know what issues actual, paying customers are
facing. Let them contribute. Let them be part of the Social Media Management
team.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Every Department Needs a Social Media Strategy</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Start by identifying the departments that will play a role
in your social media strategy, what their goals in participation are, and help
them customize their social media feeds to satisfy those goals. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Make social media marketing a daily responsibility for each
of these team members. Only when you have an integrated approach towards social
media marketing implementation, that you can truly connect with your customers
on a personal basis.</span></div>
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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:
11.0pt;line-height:115%;color:white;mso-themecolor:background1'>Smart iDeAS
is a Market Research, Organizational & Personal Brand Advisory
organization. Social Media Marketing Planning and Implementation is part of
our Organizational Brand services portfolio.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:
11.0pt;line-height:115%;color:white;mso-themecolor:background1'>www.thesmartideas.in<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>contact@thesmartideas.in<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>+91 9986690081</span><span
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then social media makes or breaks it for you.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1720518050682553743" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Text Box: Smart iDeAS is a Market Research, Organizational & Personal Brand Advisory organization. Social Media Marketing Planning and Implementation is part of our Organizational Brand services portfolio.
www.thesmartideas.in contact@thesmartideas.in +91 9986690081
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www.thesmartideas.in contact@thesmartideas.in +91 9986690081
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Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-34984641081093959772013-04-02T09:51:00.000+05:302013-04-02T09:51:07.968+05:30Can Customer Be Bad? Part 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Who is the customer actually? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The company or the person sitting behind the desk and negotiating on behalf of the company? I have seen that in a very good company, there are some people who you would not like to deal with at all; and there are good people in a bad company whom you would never fail to say hi. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">However, these are rare incidents. The behavior of an employee in a</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">n organization reflects the overall philosophy of that organization. In fact, when a so called bad manager hires a deputy, he finds just the replica of himself (and vice versa).<br /><br />Sad part though is that while most companies strive to make their customers almost God, all of them treat their vendors as slaves.<br /><br />So, are we only considering the external value chain and ignoring the internal one?<br /><br />Time to Rethink.</span></div>
Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-76771963214931456552013-03-29T08:29:00.001+05:302013-03-29T08:29:33.422+05:30Can customers be bad? 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Now this is funny! As soon as we become customers to someone, we completely forget all our complaints, woes and bad experiences. We immediately start behaving exactly like those customers of ours who we curse after every phone call or visit, with our "vendors" ! How weird is that?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Someone needs to change the motion of wheel here and break this cycle. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The company where I </span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">started my career, I was taught to consider a supplier as a partner, because without him (whoever it is) we can't function.<br /><br />A while back I walked out of meeting with a prospective client because he kept me waiting for 45 mins at a coffee shop. Later on, he sent me a mail saying "this kind of a behavior I don't accept from a VENDOR".<br /><br />Would I work with such people ever? No. Simply because if he is like this Now, I am sure he is going to make my life miserable once we start our business.</span></div>
Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-16232776508569034462013-03-28T11:59:00.001+05:302013-03-28T12:03:47.719+05:30Can customers be bad?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Yes, indeed they can be. The first lesson I learnt at the beginning of my career 17 years ago was to be able to walk out of a meeting with a customer if he fails to treat you respectfully. My mentor explained "your attitude towards yourself shall force your customers to take you seriously and respectfully. otherwise, they know you are just one</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> of those "vendors" who can be replaced anytime they want. However, breaking a partnership is not that easy. and to be considered a partner in solving their problems, they would first have to respect you."<br /><br />This philosophy has saved me a plenty of time. And this is the foundation of building long term relationships with the customers, which we term as Customer Friendship. Because at the end of the day friendship happens only among equals.<br /><br />So, be ruthless in throwing away any rotten eggs in your kitty, they not only spoil others but also stink. </span></div>
Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1720518050682553743.post-10096889211305347492012-04-24T01:29:00.000+05:302012-04-24T01:29:54.496+05:30Stop Blabbing About Innovation And Start Actually Doing It<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
---- by <i>Aaron Shapiro is CEO of Huge, a digital agency.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These days, every established company is at risk of having its industry--and its own business--disrupted by a startup. Cognizant of this, companies devote a lot of time to talking about how important it is to innovate. But here’s the truth: most companies can’t innovate because everyone is paid to maintain the status quo.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is the single biggest reason companies fail to do anything new or exciting. You and everyone else are maxed out making sure your company is doing what it’s supposed to do; innovation is what the weekends are for.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Despite the real risk involved, this actually makes sense. Companies are set up to do one thing very well. That’s the business they’re in. All of the roles in the company are defined and structured to create the best environment for doing that one thing as efficiently as possible. The number of people employed by the company fluctuates with the workload. More work, more people. Too many people and too little work means layoffs or mismanagement. Success is doing the same thing you’ve always done, just a little bit better, achieving just a few more sales or shaving a hair off of costs. Change is discouraged by time constraints and the stifling number of approvals needed. Failure is punishable by pink slip. Every day is the same.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yet, today, your entire industry can change in the space of a headline. If your business can’t innovate, it won’t survive when the startup in the garage across town that doesn’t have to answer to your shareholders does all the things legal has been telling you that you can’t do, all the things that you don’t have time for. It’s never been more urgent to stop talking about innovation and actually start doing things differently. And, with digital, the opportunities have never been greater. Instead of innovating on your weekends, overcome the structural impediments and time constraints to real change by approaching innovation from two directions: outside-in and inside-out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Outside-in,” when not based on acquisition, often comes in the form of a skunkworks project. It’s colloquially defined as a startup funded by the parent company, but kept separate from the dysfunction and sluggishness of the whole, in order to incubate great technological advancements. I’ve referenced this tactic before, as the first step big businesses should take to evolve their organizational structures. Google, JetBlue, NBC Universal, and News Corp. have all used the strategy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here’s the recipe:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Set the right goals.</b> A skunkworks project should be tasked with developing a new, specific tech product or service.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Give the team freedom to create</b>. Bureaucracy, office politics, and the aforementioned requirement to keep the ship sailing straight ahead all slow down and inhibit big advancements. To succeed, the skunkworks team must be kept free from these deterrents.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Appoint separate senior management</b>. Management by committee is not an option. The quickest route to failure is slow decision making. The skunkworks team should report directly to a senior-level executive who is authorized to green-light initiatives that are separate from the company’s main purpose and to implement these new solutions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Choose a separate location.</b> The team should not be housed in the corporate headquarters. Ideally, it should live nearby, but in some cases, it needs to be in a completely different location to be able to access the right talent. When Johnson & Johnson decided to build a unit oriented to design, creativity, and technology, the division planted a flag in an old industrial building in a trendy neighborhood in New York. Its corporate headquarters are in suburban New Jersey.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Mix up the staff. </b>The staff should be a healthy hybrid of high-performing internal employees and newbies, so that some participants are familiar with the company’s core business while others have an open mind and fresh ideas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Give it time</b>. Really well-developed products often take a year from the time people start working on them until launch. You can get things done in six to nine months, but it’s unusual, especially if the team refines it with iterative improvements.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Bring it back into the fold.</b> Once the project is complete, skunkworks team members should move back in with the parent company. They either become a distinct department or are dispersed throughout the company, in order to effectively run and manage the particular product.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On the other hand, “inside-out” innovation is all about incentivizing existing staff members to be revolutionary within their own jobs. The most important ingredients are largely cultural:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Freedom to fail</b>. Traditionally, companies are averse to risk, so if you fail at something, it hurts your career. But to innovate, you need to be able to try new things without risking your livelihood. As Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I've just found ten thousand ways that won't work.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Free time.</b> Performance evaluations for managers should include assessment of the volume and quality of new ideas they brought to the table. If the company’s priority is solely productivity, no one will have time to think about creating something new, let alone bring it to life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Training</b>. An office that encourages and facilitates education openly admits there’s room to grow and inspires people take that leap.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The risk involved in these changes is less than the risk of not making them. Innovation is outside the comfort zones of most businesses--but so is Chapter 11.</span><br />
</div>Susmita Das Guptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833486162184673023noreply@blogger.com2