Shop Floor - The New PRIME TIME.

I started documenting the changes in the way shoppers behave when taking a decision on the brand purchases sometime back and have collated the top 10 trends, as I see them, in this white paper.

The trends strongly reiterate the urgency and the need for brands to focus on the “shop floor” in the same manner as they have traditionally focused on the prime time on TV to advertise and promote themselves and their products.

This whitepaper on the changing shopper behavior and its reasons is now available for a free download from here. You will however, need to register on the site and then log into it to download the whitepaper.

There is a lot more information on each of the trends; do email me if you wish to know more – I will be happy to share the same with you. You will also find some of the additional information on each of the trends on this blog over the next few weeks – so do subscribe to either the RSS fee or by way of email for regular updates.

Happy reading! And look forward to your views.

Anatomy of Recession-Proof Business.

There was a debate on about running this campaign "Anatomy of Recession-Proof Business", and, I thought I should get a quick reaction from you guys!
Read more : about endure
Read more : about prevail

Retailing in the Recession - a playbook.

Just got this whitepaper from WPP's retail knowledge initiative - The Store titled "Retailing in the Recession". This is the 1st in a series of "playbooks" to help retailers and brand owners succeed in today’s unpredictable climate. I believe you will find this insightful although it does tend to address the US market trends - however, a number of them are applicable for Asia as well.

I have linked it here for a free download, although you will need to register on the site to access the document. When on the site, also check out the demos of the last mile effectiveness measurement tools.

My A to Z list of digital tools. (ABC)

This is a list which I have complied after a request from a few friends, who wanted to be more effective with their own online presence. A to Z listing of online tools is a compilation of tools which can assist you in being in better control of your digital marketing effort. These are effective, insightful, very useful and have been tested extensively. Together they can provide a very comprehensive ability to manage digital marketing – and you would notice that a lot of them are free. These are my personal favourites and not in any specific order;

A.

This tool forecasts the impression count and predicts demographic distributions of keywords.

B.

This tool helps in visualizing and analyzing the customers' search sequences.

C.

This tool helps test & improve a website performance. It calculates the size of individual elements and sums up each type of web page component. Based on these page characteristics the script then offers advice on how to improve page load time.

Read about more tools on my A to Z list of digital tools. Click here.

My A to Z list of tools contd. (DEFGH)

D.

This tool allows one to analyse changes which have occurred across the category over a period of time - actually way back to the start of the internet revolution.

E.

This tool allows you to triangulate traffic graphs from Alexa, Compete, and Quantcast of any website you're browsing. Very handy.

F.
This is a open source link analysis tool ideal for SEO

G.

This is a free and easy analytics tool that allows one to track a website more easily and effectively.

H.

comScore's Brand Metrix measures the impact of online advertising on a brand’s level of awareness and the attitudes and perceptions towards a brand. Also check out it's other tools.

Read more about digital tools on my A to Z list ; Click here

My A to Z list of tools contd. (IJKLM)

I.

This is a great tool that’s helps you generate heat maps of what and where people clicked on your site. This tells you what’s hot and what’s not, so you can make changes that matter.




J.
Good ol' good ol'. Basics of SEO. This one and about 10 others are mandatory.


K.
Another great tool which generates heat maps of useage patterns of the website.


L.
This tool allows you to compare feed subscribers across various sites. Great way to look at competitions effectiveness.


M.
A very effective tool for one to stay informed and updated about latest & relevant news, queries and topics / content pertaining to the website.

Read more about digital tools on my A to Z list of digital tools; Click here

My A to Z list of tools contd. (NOPQR)

N.
With this tool you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames. Helps you gets better SEO results.


O.
Net Promoter is both a loyalty metric and a discipline for using customer feedback to fuel profitable growth in your business.



P.
Piwik is a downloadable, open source web analytics software program. It provides you with detailed reports on your website visitors: the search engines and keywords they used, the language they speak, your popular pages… and so much more.



Q.
PostRank measures audience engagement and provides integrated tools to enable you to customize your RSS subscriptions.





R.
Quantcast provides publishers, marketers and agencies unmatched capabilities to measure, organize, discover and transact based on directly-measured traffic and inferred audience data.

Read more about my digital tools on my A to Z list of digital tools ; click here

My A to Z list of tools contd. (STUVW)

S.
SearchStatus is a toolbar extension for Firefox and Mozilla that allows you to see how any and every website in the world is performing. Designed for the highly specialised needs of search engine marketers, this toolbar provides extensive search-related information about a site, all conveniently displayed in one discreet and compact toolbar.

T.
You can use readability.info to analyze the characteristics of your writing and ascertain a multitude of readability scores.

U.
Statbrain uses different resources on the web combined with mathematical and statistical methods to estimate how many visits a website has.

V.
Technorati collects, organizes, and distributes the global online conversation.

W.
With Google Trends, you can compare the world’s interest in your favorite topics.









Read about the last three tools on A to Z list of digital tools ; Click here

My A to Z list of tools (XYZ)

X.
Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.



Y.
Find out how well your site is doing in popular search engines, social bookmarking and other site statistics.




Z.
Site Explorer allows you to explore all the web pages indexed by Yahoo! Search. View the most popular pages from any site, dive into a comprehensive site map, and find pages that link to that site or any page.

Hope you are able to put the tools on this list to their effective use.

Click here to go back to the top of the list.

Missed out on SunTech Days?

If like me, you too missed out on the SunTech Days in Hyderabad this year; don't give up hope just yet. Here's a virtual ring side seat to the action in Hyderabad.

I am still hoping to find my way there... although a day late.

Marketing Buzz

Marketing Buzz is the new blog authored by Rajesh Ghatge. The blog is worth a read and worth indexing for future posts. Visit the blog from here.

The last mile just got longer!

The one-way, one-message-for-all, top-down brand communication format is on the way out and we need to find a more interesting way of igniting conversations between corporations and consumers.

Storytelling for brands is not just about the images and words. It is about everything you do that touches your prospects and customers. Narrating the brand story through activation is a process of engaging the prospect in an experience about the brand – at consumer touchpoint(s) and with their permission – to positively influence their brand preference and ensure a change in behaviour towards that brand for a lifetime.

The brand experience is fundamental and critical for a couple of reasons. Here are 5 of them;

1. Consumers no longer believe commercial messages. End of story. Read More HERE

2. A consumer’s source of information, research, evaluation and influence are not led by an organisation or brand. Read More HERE

3. The central idea of the campaign has become more important than the media used. The campaign idea needs to create the ripples which should take a life of their own. Read More HERE

4. Brand activation brings with it a large extent of measurability. Read More HERE

5. The customer’s experience with the brand throughout its lifetime will drive the future. Marketers increasingly need to look at extending their roles throughout the lifecycle of the product to ensure future purchases. Read More HERE

The last mile just got longer! Contd..1

1. Consumers no longer believe commercial messages. End of story.

The promises made by commercial messages are tough to digest and while they might increase recall, the consumer takes the core messages with more than a pinch of salt. Consumers need to believe in the product’s virtues to become passionate enough to demand it by name and then defend the choice over others in the category.

There has to be a two-way conversation. It must be a longish conversation – not just 30 seconds – that not only informs but also resolves a consumer’s concerns. It is a conversation that facilitates a pre-purchase hands-on evaluation, a conversation that furthers the consumer’s belief that the brand fits his lifestyle or that his lifestyle matches the brand. The fact is each customer wants a personalised experience regardless of their value to you.

Go to 2. A consumer’s source of information, research, evaluation and influence are not led by an organisation or brand.

Or go to the main post.

The last mile just got longer! Contd..2

2. A consumer’s source of information, research, evaluation and influence are not led by an organisation or brand.

The consumer seeks information from a myriad of sources that he defines and trusts. These opinion forming communities can destroy the prospect’s chance of ever buying the product or build up a frenzy and passion. The need to own “the” iPhone, for example, made passionate consumers queue for hours, although everyone of them already had a mobile phone.

There are communication and interaction opportunities that allow brands to deploy a broader set of messages, tailored to reach their audiences where they live and play. It is critical to address all these touchpoints because while the consumer undertakes his brand research through one touchpoint, he seeks affirmation of his choice through a different touchpoint and will probably make a purchase at a very different touchpoint.

3. The central idea of the campaign has become more important than the media used. The campaign idea needs to create the ripples which should take a life of their own.

Or go to the main post

The last mile just got longer! Contd..3

3. The central idea of the campaign has become more important than the media used. The campaign idea needs to create the ripples which should take a life of their own.

It is important to create seamless messages and experiences at every touchpoint throughout the path to a purchase. No longer is it possible for a brand owner to look at the TVC and its messages in isolation or within that specific media silo. The brand owner needs to understand how the message will be translated at every consumer touchpoint, be it across sales channels, in the last mile, on the web or the TVC.

In Asia, this comes with its own challenges. Asia is diverse, multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual. The task of ensuring seamless brand communication and its amplification across media formats, across on-ground activation formats and across the online space, is critical.

4. Brand activation brings with it a large extent of measurability.

Or go to the main post

The last mile just got longer! Contd..4

4. Brand activation brings with it a large extent of measurability.

The complexities of the market and geography do not necessarily have to mean complexities in measuring the return on the marketing spend. A closed loop marketing campaign process, with a clear definition of takeaways, can help create a defined ROI and marketing effectiveness matrix.

However, the benefits of brand activation are not limited to the lifetime value of the one prospect that is exposed to the experience. It would be suicidal for marketers to limit their evaluation criteria to 'cost per contact' rather than evaluating the long-term relevance of the contact. Activation allows a brand to create tribes of believers and communities of advocates who propagate the brand with all its virtues.

In a business environment where the brand options are ever increasing and there is the possibility of an economic slow-down, there is more pressure on marketing budgets and an enhanced need to retain existing customers.

5. The customer’s experience with the brand throughout its lifetime will drive the future. Marketers increasingly need to look at extending their roles throughout the lifecycle of the product to ensure future purchases.

Or go to the main post

The last mile just got longer! Contd..5

5. The customer’s experience with the brand throughout its lifetime will drive the future. Marketers increasingly need to look at extending their roles throughout the lifecycle of the product to ensure future purchases.

Cute brand messaging will need to be extended to laborious number crunching and analysis. Customer relationship management will be important not only in the high value B2B businesses scenario but also in the low product value (read low brand switching costs) B2C scenario. Re-purchase has become the new and critical benchmark to monitor brand marketing success.

The role of the marketer is growing and is going to be far more revenue-led than in the past. No longer is it considered enough to create fantastic brand experiences pre-purchase, or even to ensure conversion at the purchase point. In fact, that is just the beginning. The last mile just got a lot longer.

Go to the main post

Map of Online Communities

Came across this map of Online Communities. Thought it was worth sharing. I am doing research on how different age groups spend time on the web in different geographies, which sites do they visit, percentages of time spends, etc, and how does this behavior change with age. Any information / past research on the same is very welcome. In the meanwhile enjoy the Map of Online communities.

Revolutionize Intuitive Vortals

Love this website / tool which is very ideally named "The Marketing Bullshit Generator". I had real fun recently when I used it while attending a recent marketing seminar... I am positive some of the other speakers had used this asset to its fullest potential in their presentations - while there were others who were contributed to the content big time. :-)

Heres' wishing everyone a great year ahead.