Practical concepts - Marketing & Sales | Indian context

BTL Marketing: Must be offline, Are you sure

2020-01-31T11:26:00.001+05:30

Why BTL Marketing has to be always Offline?

What is a “Line” doing in marketing...??

Just take your geometry book out & check yourself (😉), or give your own definition, like a “line is a dot on a walk” 😂. We all know it’s a mathematical term, but what is it doing in marketing 😯

What is a line doing in Marketing

Line in marketing.???.... Well, it’s very much there…. u forgot...!!.... ABOVE-THE-LINE/THROUGH-THE-LINE/BELOW-THE-LINE…. ATL/TTL/BTL...!!...So, now we all know line is a mathematical term used in marketing...!! If “Line” is a mathematical term, then it must be very well defined…right like all other mathematical terms, so let me ask you a couple of questions

Q1. in ATL/TTL/BTL…. why is the line required??

Q2. In ATL/TTL/BTL…where is the line??

Stumped...!!so was I when I first asked this question to myself. Let’s get back to the history to answer it.

First & Foremost, to start off there was no term as TTL (Through-the-line), it’s more of “Fill-in-the-blanks”. So initially 2 terms first came together ATL & BTL, courtesy P&G. The reason, you will be surprised was not marketing-driven, but cost driven 😮, although the basis for the division was marketing.

Way back in 1954, agencies (primarily advertising agencies) were paid on the same platform whether they used mass-media or direct-marketing approach. P&G wanted to pay those two types of approaches @ a different rate & also earmark those two types of agencies differently. Hence, for the advertising agencies with mass-media they called ATL & that with a direct-marketing they called BTL. Hence the origin. This means the ATL & BTL division was primarily based on the “way marketing reached to consumers”, which till date holds good. So, anything above the line is called ATL & anything below the line is called BTL. Later, companies found alone one is not enough, they need to do both together i.e. ATL & BTL keeping the message to the target audience same…hence came the concept of IMC (Integrated marketing communication) which is also called (but less used) TTL (through the line), as it’s a mix of both ATL & BTL. So, this broadly answers the first question, why the line is required…

Line is required primarily to distinguish between the different “way marketing reached to consumers” & accordingly design the back-end of marketing campaigns & also accordingly pay the respective type of marketing agencies.

Now comes the second question…. where is the line…well it gets a bit tricky here😃? Let’s look @ the definition to understand it…ATL refers to addressing “mass-consumers”. Over a period “mass-marketing” has been termed as “mass-media” because you address “mass-consumers” by “mass-media”. This means all media vehicles which address mass becomes ATL, hence TV, Radio, print etc. etc. becomes ATL. This change of definition due to “convenience” has created the confusion.

Let’s go back to the basic & ask the fundamental question is what is “mass-consumer”??...for a CPG (consumer packed goods), consumer durable business “mass-consumer” is everybody as anybody can buy a soap, fan etc.

Let’s talk about a “female fashion” brand, here “mass-consumer” is all females… right (few males may also use, but we keep them away for the time being…😜.

For an auto ancillary/accessory brand (auto-ancillary category like lubricant, tire, battery, spare-parts, auto-accessory like seat/steering cover etc.) “mass-consumers” is anybody who owns an automobile...!!...for a plane-making company “mass-consumer” is primarily all airlines companies/few private buyers/governments. So, the definition of “mass-consumer” changes as per business as” mass-consumer” primarily refers to the all/most of one’s consumers/probable consumers”.

What’s ATL for one business may/mayn’t be ATL for another 😀

For example, an exhibition/seminar for an airline company where all their customers/probable customers visit (they are small hence possible) is an ATL whereas an exhibition for a CPG business is primarily a BTL (as number of consumers that is reaches to will be handful compared to the potential large base of consumers). Now continuing with the same exhibition, it’s a platform to direct-connect with consumers, so it’s also BTL...!!So is it an ATL or a BTL?? …or since it does both, we call it TTL...?? 😲

Let’s assume the same airline company makes a TV ad, now by definition it’s an ATL…right…. but it addresses the same group of consumers which it does by exhibition...!! Hence, the definition of ATL/TTL/BTL is highly “business-type” centric & not “media-centric”. The originator, P&G being primarily a consumer goods company, the definition of “mass-consumers” refers to people @ large, which may/mayn’t be the case for all business types.

ATL/TTL/BTL are defined by business-types as “mass-consumer” definition is different for different business-type.

Well, the above is for conceptual clarity & doesn’t much help in practical application except may be bucketing in into different expense header for A&P (advertising & promotion) expense.

Ever since last 15/20 years, TTL (through-the-line) has been gaining more importance than either ATL or BTL, with more contribution from BTL as companies are finding longer-lasting relationship with direct-consumer contact where they are able to convey their point-of-view to consumers in a more captive way which gets higher consumer attention.

Why BTL has to be always offline?

Why BTL has to be Offline.. Its a source to connect to customer which may not be Offline always

BTL which is Direct-consumer contact is offline interaction with consumers. Here lies the catch…. why it must be offline…it must be direct interaction…. has direct got to be offline...??...this brings us to the topic of this article 😊

Let’s first try to understand BTL is detail to arrive @ the answer to the question…. does BTL necessarily need to be offline. The concept of BTL (Below-the-Line) has origin way before the concept of ATL. In fact, the concept of ATL happened primarily through “mass-marketing”/“mass-production”/“mass-distribution” in late 1860’s. BTL has been the source of connect with the customer way before ATL has arrived, probably as early as business started taking shape, although BTL in those day mayn’t be in the same form as today’s highly organized & professional BTL.

Types of BTL?

The BTL which companies/brands do, can be broadly divided into 2 types namely:

Regular Calendar BTL: Those are planned BTL’s which happen @ a regular frequency over the entire year for example, dealer/influencer/consumer meets etc.
Campaign BTL: Those are marketing/sales campaign specific & hence the scale & scope of the BTL completely depends on the objective & budget of the campaign.

Let’s discuss both the categories separately

Regular calendar BTL

This is the core of BTL program for corporates. In-fact this was the one which defined BTL initially. The target groups for those BTL’s are generally the direct stake-holders with whom the company/brand need to interact on a periodic basis like trade partners, vendors, certain consumer groups, employees etc. etc. Since the interactions with those groups happen on a regular basis, hence the company/brand touch base with structured program whose name is coined generally based on the target group—for example if it’s trade partners it’s generally called distributor/dealer/influencer(like painter, electrician, architects, mechanics, interior-designers, fashion-designers etc) meet, if it’s consumers it’s generally called consumer meets etc. Bigger brands have made this entire “Regular BTL” as a part of their calendar, so it’s planned well in advance sometimes even for the entire year. Hence, budgets are also allocated accordingly for the entire year.

More important point is something else 😯 …the objective with which the “Regular calendar BTL” was defined to what it is today is a complete different ball-game. Initial days, company/brand used to have those “Regular calendar BTL” to debrief important developments in the company to the stakeholders. Hence, product-launches, new technology updates, important policy changes etc. were the main agenda for the “Regular calendar BTL”.

With time, company/brand found this route of “Regular calendar BTL” a highly effective tool to communicate the right point to important stakeholders. Furthermore, since it was direct face-to-face, hence chances of misinterpretations of message by the stakeholders were also very less. As competition intensified, started the rat-race…. now companies started to do more of the “Regular calendar BTL” to stay competitive.

But, the updates/developments in the company/brand which was communicated through this medium, didn’t grow as rapidly as the number of BTL’s. Result, the company/brand had lesser-lesser-lesser things to communicate through those BTL’s…. but…. they kept on increasing the numbers of the “Regular calendar BTL” to stay ahead of the competition. Now, they had to find some reason apart from sharing updates/developments to keep going with the BTL….so they found one…” Relationship Building” ……few gave it some other name “Networking” ...😁

The prime objective of “Regular Calendar BTL”

Prime Objective of Regular Calendar BTL was to share updates... But today it's only relationship building

The prime objective of “Regular Calendar BTL”, based on which it was conceptualized, was for the company/brand to share important updates with the relevant stakeholder. Over a period “Relationship Building”/ “Networking” has gained more importance over the main objective.

Why am I laughing???...because the 95% of the company representative who participate in those “Regular Calendar BTL” are the ones who interact the maximum with those stakeholders of the BTL throughout the year….I really don’t understand if I am not able to “Build Relationship” /“Network” with them through-out the year, how do I achieve the same in few Meets??😛😲

I am not saying “Relationship building” / “Networking” can’t be one of the objectives, I am only saying it can’t be the only/main objective.

Challenges in Regular Calendar BTL for brands

Understand it from the stakeholder’s perspective…say a dealer/retailer. Earlier, there were very few Dealer Meets, so he would wait for it to get updates from the company about new developments, prepare for it to clear his/her questions with the company/brand. Now, the same retailer receives 2/3 invitations for “Retailer Meet” in one month…sometimes it’s 7/8 also 😱 ...because all competing brand/company are calling him/her for the meet as he/she is a key retailer in the market.

Every meet is the same old bla…bla….bla presentation by the company….with very little newness/new things to tell. To make it more fun-filled for the dealer…. brands…. again, to stay competitive…. have introduced other peripheral things like dj/dance/cocktails etc.

For the retailer the “Regular Calendar BTL” is primarily an evening with music & drinks & few boring /monotonous presentations…with very little/no value-add in terms of business gains.

Hence, now the retailer decides which meet to go & which ones to say no….so he/she smartly manages the entire situation so that he/she go to @least one meet of every big brand, to maintain his relationship with the company/brand…. the result….

Companies/brands now must persuade/sometimes plead key retailers to attend the retailer meet, although the spends in those meets are continuously going up with each passing day.

So, in a nut shell, the numbers of “Regular Calendar BTL” going up steadily and along with the cost to conduct such meets. The value it delivers is diminishing continuously with the target audience slowly but continuously loosing interest in those meets. Hence, it’s more of a retention strategy than a growth strategy

“Regular Calendar BTL” are fast becoming a hygiene factor in the industry with less & less business value for its stakeholders. Hence “Regular Calendar BTL”as a tool is fast moving towards a “Retention Strategy” than a “Growth Strategy”.

Ok, so what’s the solution...??.... should we stop doing it...!!No we shouldn’t. Why...???...because it still is a very effective tool to communicate with your stakeholder. Then what should we do??...We need to look @ adding other methods of BTL keeping the final objective same...!!😜

How to make BTL more effective tool to communicate?

In any “Regular Calendar BTL” meet, the profile of stakeholders varies hugely, and hence their requirements/expectations from the business. For example, retailers of different sizes & profiles are present in a retailer meet even if we do separate meets for A grade retailers. (generally, A grade refers to the best-retailers among the overall dealers a company/brand deal with). One of the big reasons for the decreasing value-addition of the meets is company/brand does a “fit-for-all” meet, hence many participants lose their interest in those meets.

Wait a sec…. are we trying to say that we do retailer meet as per individual retailer requirements? Yes, that’s what I am trying to say. @least if not individual retailer requirement, then meets catering to a group of retailers with similar requirements...!!.... How is it possible…how do we do it??

Companies/ brands have already categorized retailers into A/B/C categories, I am just going a couple of steps deeper into it. For every category, for example A grade retailers, further sub-divide into smaller groups based on their profile & where the company wants to see them within a given time-period, may be within a year. Once the grouping is done, identify all those things that the retailer needs & enlist all that the company wants to share with them.

Since the proposition is generally different, in terms of what the company expects from different sets of retailers based on the classification of A/B/C, hence accordingly device online modules which addresses that group. This digitization will ensure the following:

Retailer can access it based on their convenience……no it’s not endless time that the retailer gets to access…it’s well defined time-period by the company, with incentives to start off. If the content is something which the retailer relates to, it’s a matter of time it becomes a habit… 😃. Keep it interactive, as ownership increases…&…most importantly plz plz plz plz…. incorporate the good inputs which comes from the retailer or any participant and give credits for the same to the concerned stakeholder. It’s just a matter of time when invaluable inputs start pouring in….as self-esteem is the biggest esteem of human-kind 👍
This should be the part of the regular BTL calendar…. with face-to-face interactions only few times where senior management also participates and not just only those company representatives where 90% of the group deal maximum times with the retailer on a day-to-day basis.

Digitization of Campaign BTL

A large chunk of the regular BTL module can be digitized which will make the entire marketing and sales effort simple to implement and apt for the retailer, thus increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the regular BTL calendar output.

An extrapolation of the same module can also be used for “new retailers” and “existing ones” to move up the categories of A/B/C, as all retailers would like to be in the grade A of the company. The pre-requisite for this is a clearly defined road-map…which is transparent….or @lest transparent to maximum extent….where the retailer knows how they move across the ladder to category A. Retailer here is just an example, it can be easily applied to any stakeholder like consumer, distributor etc who are the target audience for any regular BTL.

Whatever we discussed till now can be extrapolated to maximum of the different types of stakeholders including consumers. The consumers in cases of regular calendar BTL are addressed through the trade only for example service camps for automobiles or wet tasting in case of product launches for fmcg. The point here to note is, cases like this has to be face-to-face hence needn’t be tempered. But in the case of Campaign BTL the story can be different.

Certain cases of consumer regular BTL like service camps for automobiles and wet testing for product launches in case of FMCG need to continue with the offline mode as followed now.

Campaign BTL

In case of campaign BTL, current digitization is primarily in the case of campaign promotion, registration, feedback etc. A lot of the activities which are performed in the actual event can be digitized which the consumer or stakeholder needs to complete online. This helps two ways……1^st more engaging things can be done offline and 2^nd this action-oriented module pre-offline campaign acts as a good promotion tools which is more engaging as consumers must act on it instead of pain vanilla promotion 😊. Let’s take a simple example of a product launch where the brand plans to do an RWA on a Sunday. Maximum of the games/ contests etc that are done offline in the BTL can be part of the registration process for the consumers to complete and come for the offline event. For example, in the offline case, you may like the consumers to have a look @ the product feature and performance. Move it online…. let them guess and start taking part in the campaign way before the campaign actually hit offline. This way the number of consumers will also increase and added features in the online part like incentive on getting one more consumer will only add to the overall numbers. Then in the offline version, simulate the situation the consumer would go through in the actual purchase process. That will make the campaign BTL more effective and contribute directly to revenue. 👍. Which part to be digitized needs deliberation form the team and there are no general rules for the same. The rule is, digitation will defiantly help in increasing the campaign BTL far more effective.

Campaign BTL digitization can move from mere promotion, registration and feedback to interaction online. A lot of current offline engagement with consumers can be done online as pre-cursor to the offline part. The offline should ideally be left to a real time simulation of the actual buying process of the consumers.

BTL will continue to stay as it’s an integral part of brand-stakeholder interaction. Like all components of business is changing rapidly, it’s high time for the brands to relook at their BTL strategy to stay relevant to their most important group…. the stakeholders of the brand. Hope to see you soon in any BTL…the new-age BTL.😝👌👍

C😄😄L if you have read 👆

Will be C😄😄😄LER if you comment👇

Will be C😄😄😄😄LEST if you

Trade Based Brand Equity - (TBBE)

2019-12-06T19:21:00.000+05:30

Trade Based Brand Equity - Its much more than Sales + Trade Marketing

Let me tell you a scenario we all know…. still I want to tell you….plz hear me😋, as I have faced this multiple number times in my life till date..!! I am the sales manager or trade marketing manager of a brand A. There is a distributor/retailer/customer (in case of B2B) in one market who we know very well. I being the local sales person visit him once every week. I call him twice a week. I have never missed wishing him on his birthday. I also ensure I send a cake to his house on his anniversary and simultaneously call up his wife to wish her also. I know his children by name. During my last anniversary, I invited him with his family for dinner which he obliged. To my pleasant surprise, during his child’s birthday, he called me up to invite my child to his home. I personally went to buy the gift for the birthday. Whenever my senior’s in the company or Head-office marketing team/senior management visit my territory, I do ensure that they meet this distributor/retailer/customer. I have personally vouched for his presence in Pan-India meets and have been successful couple of times. In a nut-shell I have a very strong relationship with him. 👍

But…..but…..but……he doesn’t do business with brand A, rather he buys competition brands…..or he does business with brand A, but the SOB(Share-of-Business) remains almost the same…on the contrary other competing brands are increasing their share in his business 😳

What do you think is going wrong?? Relationship management is one of the key areas of business management, which seems to be perfectly well here….so what’s wrong 😟?? It’s Because….the sales manager/trade marketing manager has a strong PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP but less BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP…..!!.....wait a sec…are we saying a personal relation is not required??.....NO, I am not saying that…a personal relation is very much required….in-fact it’s the start-point of the relationship…..but then it has to translate into a profound business-relation…..ideally both should co-exist….this leads us to the main question…..what is a business relation..??😟. Before we try to arrive @ the answer for this, let’s take a quick detour about “Importance of Trade Brand”, which will further help us to arrive @ the business-relation answer.

Watch the summary snapshot

Importance of Trade Brand?

Importance of Trade Marketing - Its the route-to-market and connect for a company with the consumer

1^st for a brand to sale in distribution-based business…Trade is the Route to Market…so called RTM

Furthermore, as we reach nearer to the consumer, the numbers of traders go up rapidly….so for example…one lubricant company/brand catering to 500 distributors who sales to 35000 retailers…who cater to 1L mechanics…. who in turn try to serve 20 Cr vehicle owners.?!!!

There can be more/less number of levels involved based on business-types , say for example tire companies till very recent used to serve directly through Retailers, with no distributors in between & continue to do so in some of the product lines, whereas there in certain FMCG brands who have 5 layers of channel (traders) to reach out to the final consumer.

2^nd the connect between the end consumer & the brand/product/service is through the trade…..which means the traders are the sales team which sales it to the end consumer….😳…

This means what they say/how they say….becomes important in the consumer purchase….!!...well…now that’s’ important…..the Retailer (Point-of-sale) is the interface between the consumer & the trade brand…!!

Hence, Trade Management becomes a highly important part of the business…one where substantial investment in terms of resources is made by the company…. hence the importance of Trade Brand (Read:Consumer Brand or Trade Brand) becomes paramount for company’s success.

Apart from reaching to the consumers, the trade is important for the company due the following reasons also:

They are generally local & hence have better understanding of the local market & way the market in that locality operates
Since they are near to the consumer, they provide prompt & better service to the customer for ex: handling complains, quicker supply etc.
They can provide credit in the market & also collect the same
Localized campaigns in line with the market demands can be done by them keeping in mind the local sentiments (for ex: campaign in Kolkata during Durga puja, in Ahmedabad during Navaratri, in Mumbai during Ganesh puja etc)
They are the eyes/ears of the company for all developments that happen locally, including competition activities

Personal relation should translate to business relation

Now let’s come back to the “Business-Relationship” point. The output of this “Business-Relationship” is an equity which helps the company/brand and the trade to seamlessly operate together to deliver the best possible solution to the customer. This means if the output is favorable, the customer experience is memorable, but if “business-relationship” is not cohesive, it may result in customer dis-satisfaction, customer-loss and even closure of the business in that market/with that customer 😳. This output in one word is referred to as “Trade Based Brand Equity” or “TBBE”.

Let’s try to arrive @ what it exactly means by “TBBE” instead of straight-forward answer.

Since there is a word called “Relationship” in business-relationship, hence it must be interactive i.e. to say a 2-way process between the stakeholders i.e. the company/brand & trade. This means there needs to an “contribution-expectation” management between the 2 i.e. both needs to contribute to meet the expectation of the other, which finally results in the right output for their customer…. i.e. the end-consumer 👍

Now, for the expectations that the company has from the trade, the onus is again on the company to deal with trade in such a way that it delivers aligned to the company’s goals😜…for expectation of trade from the company, the company needs to meet up by its contribution…

So in a nut-shell, the company needs to contribute in such a way that both its expectation and expectation of the trade is fulfilled.👍

What is the Trade’s objective in joining hands with the company???

Most important point-of-interest for a trade is to grow his business alias sales alias ROI

The company’s has multiple objectives it plans to achieve from the Trade, the question is what is the trade’s objective in joining hands with the company?

Once we know the Trade’s objective, steps to ensure that the objectives are met, will help in growing the Trade Brand.

Trader is FINALLY looking for a business, by selling the company’s brand to the consumers & making monies in terms of margin and Turn-over discount. Kindly mind my word, he is looking for a business and hence not personal consumption(although he way use it but that’s not the core objective), therefore the way he will behave is very different from the way the consumer (user/final buyer of the product) will behave, hence the way to make a Trade brand will be tactically different from making a consumer brand.

If one asks around what is the most important thing that a trader is looking @...trust me, you will get a fixed set of answers. They are generally…low buying price, higher credit period, more schemes/discounts, better service, more company support in terms of branding, campaigns, more products, more ATL like TVC etc. To tell you maximum of these are tools like branding, campaigns, ATL to increase the footfalls/sales/business of the trade. Others like low buying price, higher credit period, more schemes/discounts etc is for reduced investment. Now, trade is going to make investment (more or less), if & only if he/she earns from that investment, which again means increased footfalls/sales/business of the trade.😊

Hence, the solo expectation of the trader is to GROW his/her business by partnering with the company/brand. Hence, to enhance “TBBE” the company needs to contribute to meet this expectation of the trade partner.

Wait a sec…. I think we are missing something 😯. While choosing an airline, have you ever considered safety as a factor??...i mean will you ever fly an airline where it may crash!!….even u get the ticket @ cheap price….or even free…..or may-be they pay you if you fly with them😂. Which means safety is assured…. similarly, in case of the trader, he/she is making an investment in the company/brand, so losing money is not an option. This means he/she is not going to invest in cases where he/she may lose money, which can happen if the company/brand is not established...i.e. to say it has chances of closing…. or it mayn’t be that serious towards that product line…so it closes.

Hence, new/unknown brands or company/brands who are yet to make the required investment in India, find it difficult to get the right trade partner.😄

Hence, the fundamental hygiene factor for a trader is the seriousness with which the company/brand is doing business in the market. The seriousness needs to be clearly visible in terms of the investment the company/brand has made/about to make & their way of working in the market. It’s a very important start-point for TBBE & more importantly it stays through & through during the entire relationship period between the company/brand & the trade.

So, given the hygiene factor of “seriousness of the company/brand” is in place, let’s go back to the main motto of the trader…. ways of growth for the trader.

How can a retailer grow his business?

Since you are a brick-mortar store, under all reasonable assumptions, you can’t grow the physical area of the store and hence your business.....so now you are being a retailer, let’s look @ the ways you can grow your business….

Increase in number of customers in your shop
Sale the product @ the highest possible price
Sale more premium products/futuristic products or sale a range of products to one customer instead of one/two products.
Buy the product @ the best rate from the company
Get the product/service in right quantity in right time from the company
All other support from the company/brand to keep the retailer’s commitment in the market

Increase in number of customers in your shop

Well, that’s the age-old cliché…. right…number of customers go up….so does your business…. well it’s the age-old cliché & the best way also…. most sustainable & definitely the most difficult… 😃

Now for a Retailer, who physically can’t increase the size of his shop (that’s the easiest way, so we keep that out), to increase the number of customers (called footfalls), the retailer/company/brand needs to lure the customers to the store….so the million dollar question is….how to lure…😄.

Let’s look it from the other side…. we all are consumers…. think what’s that makes us go to a shop:

We don’t have to search for the shop—Proper Retailer Branding (Signage, Pillar Branding etc.)
It’s neat & clean, well maintained- Proper Retailer Branding (inside branding, racks for stacking etc.)
The staff is well groomed & behaved- Proper Retailer Branding (Merchandise items, T-shirts etc. for shop boys)
Explains the product correctly whenever asked by the consumer—Retailer Training on Product & Company
They don’t make you wait @ the shop for long—Retailer training of managing customers
Gives you original products (no duplicates/fake)—Certifications from Brand/Company
Doesn’t overcharge—Retailer wise plan where the right selling price (Retail price/MOP) (Read MOP MIRAGE) is arrived to maximize profit & sale.
Doesn’t change price based on consumers (consumers then feel cheated even if they get the best price because they can’t believe that it’s the best prize they got)- Retailer wise plan where the right selling price (Retail price/MOP) is arrived to maximize profit & sale
Brings in an element of delight sometimes - Small give ways like company branded pens, key-chains, another token give-away for the consumer

Sale the product @ the highest possible price

That’s the dream….right….if you are a retailer….make the highest margin per sale….!!...The problem is the same brand/product is also sold by the near-by retailer….customers start feeling cheated when you charge more for the same product….the Market Operating Price- MOP, (Read: The MOP Mirage) is determined by the market….so how can you being a retailer charge more than the market….it’s impossible…..is it?? 😟 …. are you sure….?

Well the MOP is average price…. which means…few retailers charges slightly more & few slightly less…. let’s look @ the retailers who charge slightly more…. how the brand/company helps/can help the retailer to do so….

To answer this, lets again move to be a consumer…. when are we ready to pay slightly more…? KNOWINGLY...!!...mind my words please…. Knowingly paying more….

We knowingly pay more when we feel that other services the retailers provide over-compensates the extra money, he charges….so what are those other services…lets list down… (apart from the ones listed in the earlier point)

He is cordial while dealing with you’-- Retailer training of managing customers
He keeps his promises, like he says that any defective item will be replaced @ no question asked policy-- Retailer training of managing customers
He is there to supply you in wee hours…sudden requirements of anything he arranges it for you- Retailer training of managing customers
His products are generally not defective
He doesn’t try to sale you anything, but always tries to understand your problem & suggest solution- Retailer Training on Sales techniques
There have been cases, where his recommendation to opt for a brand/product has reduced your expense- Retailer Training on Product & Company

Sale more premium products/futuristic products from the range of products your sale

Generally, it’s been observed that Retailers have a substantial amount of captive customer among its overall customer base, the percentage of this captive customer base varies from somewhere around (35/40%) for retailers located @ highways to 90%+ for retailers located within residential areas…!! Hence, broadly the retailer is quite familiar with many his customers…. which is an opportunity for both the retailer & the company/brand to up-sell/sell premium products/try out futuristic products…. /cross-sale (sale related products to the product the consumer is buying)

I have seen this missing largely from the sales team effort of the company…to understand the consumers who buy from the retailers….the retailers in India is generally not so educated to do that exercise by his/her own….so the final result is a big opportunity like new product trials (futuristic products), making a premium product base …..is lost out where all the 3 parities will be highly satisfied…

1^st the consumer…because he is getting a better product…
2^nd the Retailer….as he is making more margin & with increased consumer loyalty…as premium consumers tend to be more loyal…
3^rd the company/brand….as they make more money…. increases the stake of the retailer in the brand (with increased earning & investment by the retailer) …. & test new products/concepts etc…which make them stay ahead of the competition….

Buy the product @ the best rate from the company

Maximum of the focus of the Retailer & the Sales team is on this….a surrogate of this is called discount….so you track any discussion between the retailer & the company sales person….there are very high chances that they would discuss scheme in their discussion….if not the entire discussion is ONLY on scheme……😳😰😯

Well, to start off…. the industry has gone across to define different synonyms of discount….

Discount—A reduction in buying rate of the product
Scheme—Discount on a certain purchase value/volume/product which is time bound
Turn-Over-Discount—Generally “Scheme Extended over all products for a longer time” against a target of value/volume or both
Spot/Flash offer/Todays special etc.—Scheme for a very short period (1-7) days

Finally, all this reduce the buying price of the product to the retailer…😃

Is It important??...YES, IT IS…Rather Its Mandatory…it’s to be competitive & also a carrot for higher push sales…but the problem is…. generally, it’s the only point/major point that’s acted upon...!!

Hence, Trade marketing is always considered as Push Marketing (You push the products to the consumer with a reason) …. whereas Trade Marketing, as discussed in the earlier points, can also be Pull Marketing (The consumer come and ask for the product). The Pull Marketing job is left to the Consumer Marketing.

Here the company sales team has a big role to play, mainly to access the retailer’s customer base & his potential to sale…. else…its results in excess stock building @ retailer end which results in lower profitability for the retailer & decreased sales in months following the scheme month…

Let’s take an example to understand this….say a retailer sales 3 brands…A (100 units), B (50 Units) & C (30 Units) per month…which means he sales (A+B+C=180 Units) per month….& let’s assume he carries a stock of 15 days (i.e. stock equivalent to 15 days of Sale), which is 90 Units, brand-wise in proportion to the sale ratio. Sale of 180 Units/month translates to 180 customers who buy from his shop every month (assuming every customer buy 1 unit) and those customers have preference of different brand A, B & C as per the brand-wise sale number discussed earlier. Now, during scheme, if Brand A sales the retailer 120 Units instead of 90 Units (which is around 33% increase), the retailer is left with 2 options:

Sale (120-90) = 30 Units more of Brand A to customers of Brand B & Brand C, which will keep his sale to same level of 180 Units/Month. This doesn’t increase the business of the retailer but increase the business of the Brand A through the retailer. Hence, the retailer waits for more lucrative scheme from other brands (B/C), so the final result…it becomes a Game of Schemes….One month Brand A gives more scheme, retailer buys more of brand A & less of brand B/C….Other month Brand B/C gives more scheme so the retailer buys more of B/C & less of brand A, so over a period of time the increase in sales becomes nullified & the overall sales remains the same…!!...

To lure new customers to the store, to increase his overall business from 180 Units/month to @lest (180+30) =210 Units/month (because every new customer will not land up buying brand A). This is where the retailer is really interested as it grows its overall business. The question is, from where will one get the new customers??.....It’s the same customer who will (under most circumstances) buying from some other store..!!....So it’s primarily poaching customers of other retailers …for which Brands do Campaign in front/inside the retailer’s store….gives gifts to customer etc. …to lure him….

The irony is brands do campaign/gifts etc. @ many stores in one market…. which means this idea can’t increase the overall consumer base of a retailer for a longer period. Hence, there seems a disconnect between the primary objective of the retailer & the brand/company…😵.

Brand is looking to take share from competitive brands, so do campaigns/give gifts @ as many stores so that the customer converts from competitive brands to that brand….with/without the overall growth of the retailer…..on the contrary, the objective of the retailer is to increase his business, which (by his experience) can’t easily come from increase number of customers (as brands will do campaign @ multiple store in the same market). So, the best way for him is to increase his margin in the same sale, one way is more discount…. hence the discussion generally remains centered to discount & not on growth...!! 😃

One way out for this, which only a handful of brands does, is to understand retailer’s customer base (many times the retailer himself is also not clear about his customer base) & plan retailer-wise the schemes, which grows his business…. both by increase margin/sale as well as from new customers. The sales/Trade marketing team needs to work parallelly on tertiary along with secondary, if not only on tertiary.

Product/Service support in Right Quantity & Right time

The company plans to focus on a brand/product/service, objective is to quickly mop up sales & increase market share in that category. Hence, comes the big M&S plan…360 degree approach, with tightly knitted IMC(Integrated marketing campaign) with apt sales support both in terms of schemes & on-ground activation. The sales team has been told to work on tertiary to ensure liquidation, which will be supported by the big ATL. Hence, the sales team along with trade marketing goes for demand generation by working in tertiary along with the retailer & thus arriving @ the corresponding secondary orders👋👍.All set, the first round of orders were very encouraging…within a week comes the 2^nd big order @ pan-India level, as the trade is now motivated by the initial liquidation level.

Suddenly, the indent is rationed to half…!!.... the other half to be supplied after a week 😳😲. Plant can’t generate the required supply…or…. the product is ready (in case of product-based businesses) but logistics can transport it within the given time 😵. Or maybe, the shop-floor supervisor, unaware of how big this campaign was, changed the production batch to some other product, which has a turnaround time of 5 days...!!...So wait for next 5 days till the remaining supply comes 😇.

Proper induction to all the other departments who are directly related to trade, goes a long way in building TBBE. The induction needs to be in both classroom & on-market training & should involve all key-stakeholders of other functions which includes both senior personnel & people who will directly handle day-to-day activities. Furthermore, this induction needs to be regular aligned to the training calendar

From the discussions till now, the Trade Based Brand Equity (TBBE) needs to aptly play on the

3B’s --- Business, Branding, Bonding

3B's of TBBE

3B's of TBBE - Business - Branding - Bonding

Key Take-away- Business

Business caters to all those points which were directly related to commercial, product, service etc. As discussed, companies need to work on the tertiary & not on the secondary…i.e. to say it needs to aim @ increasing sale of trade & not focus on its sale to the trade. The first step towards that is to make the start point aligned to this goal.

Job role, sales policy, KRA/KPI of sales/trade marketing & all other functions which directly deals with trade, more tertiary oriented.

Furthermore, all allied resources to be directly related to tertiary, then the entire focus of the system moves to “liquidation @ secondary” & not “sales @ secondary”.

“Sales-enablement-tools”, which currently is primarily used for tracking & measurement of trade data, to be made commercial oriented with major/if not all incentive to trade (in terms of schemes/discounts, turn-over-discount etc.) to be based on tertiary and not on secondary/primary.

Key Take-away- Branding

I have seen a clear-cut discrimination in organization when they are doing branding@ trade to branding @ consumer. I really fail to understand why??...Till the time your sellers (trade) where the customer buys the product is not well-branded, how do you expect to make your brand to make a lasting impact on your consumer. This doesn’t mean investing the same in both cases, but the broad approach /seriousness needs to be the same, else customer will buy your brand @ think they have bought a competition brand 😨😁

A proper on-ground-visibility strategy needs to in place for a duration of minimum 2/3 years, with complete detailing of resource allocation i.e. 3M – Manhour-Monies-Machine.

On-ground branding started with the basic concept of “brick-mortar”, where consumers need to reach out to the trade to buy. Well, that still exists, but with digital being so effective, the companies/brands are missing the opportunity to reach out to the consumer with the retailer brand…. because he/she is the local guy from where the consumer will buy. Trust me, it would really motivate the trade to perform better even in worst cases, the campaigns don’t give very encouraging results. 👍

Companies/brands need to use digital optimally to increase the brand-presence of the retailer locally, which not only drives traffic to the trade but also motivates them to perform better.

Key Take-aways- Bonding

When chips are down, you come to know your real friends 😃 …age old cliché…right…but it’s holds good till now & will probably be true eternally. This is the element of bonding…. which is “business & beyond” when it comes to trade. Bonding of trade partners ensures you don’t sink in your tough times as they will continue partnering you. Hence, the concept of “Loyal Retailers”. The trade-loyalty-programs run by companies is a step towards that, but it’s not enough. Sales/Trade marketing teams do take EQ (Emotional Quotient) i.e. moving to personal space (like anniversary, birthday etc.) of the trade, but that’s not enough. Brands need to move a step ahead and help the retailer bond with its customers. This where bonding will also add value to the retailers. M&S plan needs to add this element of Bonding along with Business & Branding to integrate it seamlessly in regular business model.

Companies /brands to have Bonding factor @ both levels i.e. first @ trade & second the customers of trade, which needs to be part of the annual M&S plan with clearly defined actions & deliverable

The 3 B’s are an integral part of TBBE & hence the trade becomes the interface between the company/brand and the consumer in true sense of terms.

If all the 3 B’s are well planned & executed, then Both Trade marketing & Consumer Marketing will play the role of “Push & Pull” …the contribution of “Push” will be more for Trade marketing & “Pull” more for Consumer marketing…how much is the contribution will depend on the industry type & competition landscape.

The trade that we talked about is in business with the company/brand, which means that scope of relationship doesn’t restrict to product/service but extends across to all other dimensions of business like marketing, sales, delivery, finance (like timely payment), service, customer complaint support, product replacement, company & brand image etc. etc... which can be addressed keeping the 3B’s!!

Hence although the front-face for improvement of “Trade-Based-Brand-Equity” is the sales & the trade marketing team but the responsibility is on the combined effort of all the functions which has a direct relation with the trade. After-all, to have a robust- trade network is one of the biggest assets and a sure shot competitive-advantage for the company. 👍

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The MOP Mirage II HOW TO MANAGE Market-Operating-Price..!!

2019-11-27T19:22:00.002+05:30

Let me ask you a million….no….billion….no….trillion dollar question…yes….trillion dollar is probably right 😲 What should be the right (exact) price of your product?

What should be the right (exact) price of your product?

Well….let me also give the answer😜…it’s not possible to arrive @ the exact right price of the product 😃

The MOP Mirage - How to manage the Market-Operating-Price

There is lot of science to arrive @ the right margin….but…It’s not possible to arrive @ exact or right price of a product. Any science you apply…any model you use….any art you may know…any predictive analysis is done….it’s just not possible….@least as of now..!! And it’s true irrespective of business types…B2B or B2C or Channel driven…Offline & Online channels…..everywhere…exact right price is like chasing one’s shadow 😳😃. But product or service price is one of the most important element of the business as it directly impacts business profits apart from a host of other things which is linked to it like positioning, consumer & trade or channel profile, brand image etc…etc…

It's impossible to have the exact right price of your product

Although there are many reasons for this challenge….the easiest to understand is when one does one’s regular routine i.e. to become a consumer…..which we all are in every case except in the business we are in. If we take any product or service…literally any (irrespective of business types or industries or business models). Ask any 10 consumers about the price of the product or service, you will most probably get @least 4 or 5 different price-points, in some cases may be 6 or 7…&…in some even 10 different price-points 😳😆. Now this is for 10 consumers, think about entire India….1.2 billion consumers (@least theoretically every citizen is a consumer) ……gosh….how many versions of price-points one will have 😵😯 …so it’s NOT POSSIBLE TO HAVE THE RIGHT PRICE. 👍

Watch the Summary Video

Product price to customer quoted price variation ratio

Let’s go a step further….let’s take 3 cases….one low-ticket item….say soap (approx. MRP of INR 50) ….one slightly expensive item say….a calculator (MRP of INR 700) ….& a high-ticket item say an air conditioner (priced @ INR 50,000).

Now if we ask 10 consumers (like us) about the price of those 3 items, in all the three cases, the prices the consumers will say will vary from each other, with very few hitting the exact price 😲 ..furthermore….the following trends will be most probably visible:

In case of soap, chances are the number of different price-points the consumers say will be less, which means more number of consumers will say the same price point (mind it, it still may not be the same as the actual price). Furthermore, the difference between the price-points will be less.

In case of calculator, the number of different price-points the consumers say will be more than soap, which means less number of consumers will say the same price point (again, it still may not be the same as the actual price) as compared to soap. Furthermore, the difference between the price-points will be more than soap

In the last case of air conditioner, chances are the number of different price-points the consumers say will be more than calculator, which shows lesser number of consumers will say the same price point (which still may not be the same as the actual price) as compared to calculator. Furthermore, the difference between the price-points will be more than calculator

Do we see any trend….yes we do….the lower the ticket price, less is the price variance the consumers say from the actual price & more consumers align within the same price or price-band. The higher the ticket price, more is the price variance the consumers say from the actual price & less consumers align within the same price or price-band. This is generally true across industries or business types or business models. 😊

Ticket value - customer quoted price ratio

So, what does this conclude to… 😧 ….It concludes that the company can’t have the right price for all consumers….which means the price the company A or ‘Brand-A’ sets will always not suite a certain group of consumers. So, what do these consumers do…..they either buy some other brand or try to get the a discount on the price of company A or ‘Brand-A’ which means there is one more price point which exists apart from the MRP….which is called the Market-Operating-Price (MOP)

What is MOP?

The Market-Operating-Price (MOP) also referred to as Retail Price or Consumer Price is the actual price @ which the consumer buys the product. Hence, by definition the maximum value of MOP can be equal to MRP. So, whenever we buy @ discount from an offline retailer, the MOP is in play. In-fact the MOP concept have got BIGGER with the advent of something…..to the extent MOP is now almost applicable on all product categories….can u guess what?? 😃 …Yes u guessed it right….it’s E-COMMERCE

Do you remember last time….sorry….one time (just one time) ….u have bought a product @ MRP online… 😁😂 ….MOP is of the core pillar of existence of online sales…..hence MOP is very important parameter when it comes down to consumer pricing 👍

The reason behind MOP concept

Consumers or Buyers are always in look-out of buying any product or service @ the lowest price possible, which varies as per consumer, which is one of the fundamental reason for the MOP concept

Importance of MOP

MOP stands as the bridge between Trade ‘Brand and Consumer Brand (Read: ConsumerBrand or Trade Brand)

Let’s take 3 brands operating in the same industry for certain period. A (Established brand), B (known brand but not as big as A) & C (Not so known brand)

Brand-Price Mapping

To summarize, In a particular industry generally:

Bigger Brands/Established brands have higher MRP, Higher MOP, Higher Retailer Landing, Lower Margin & Lower Scheme
Mid-sized Brands have similar MRP, lower MOP, similar Dealer Landing Price, similar margins & higher scheme than the Established brands.
Not so known brands in the industry have Lower MRP, Lower MOP, Lower Dealer landing price, higher margins & higher schemes than the established & mid-sized brands

So, MOP is important….ok….but…Does company price their product as per MOP? Well…..many do….many don’t.. 😜

Is it possible to price one’s product as per MOP?

Actually…it’s very difficult as MOP also changes from market-to-market….but then what is more important is….MOP can be made a reference point while pricing….&….MOP can be controlled to some extent. Are we trying to say…MOP….I mean what the consumers pay….can be controlled by the company or brand….Yes….it can be …to the extent which at-least ensures the MOP doesn’t go down over a period of time.

Wait a sec….MOP going down 😳

MOP fluctuations?

Before answering the question, lets understand if there is any other player in the MOP. The other stakeholder in any business is the entity from where the consumer buys, so we are talking about the seller now. Who is this seller?…well it can be either the company or the channel (distributors or retailer or agents in case of offline, market-places or affiliates in case of online or TV shopping) …i.e. to say the POS (point-of-sale). So does the seller also plays a role in the MOP….wait a sec….why should he play a role….finally MOP means reduced selling price….which means reduced profits…why on earth a seller try to sale a product @ a reduced profit 😳 ……..well….to tell you….they do 😃 …..let’s understand why they do.

Why & how does MOP go up or down in Offline business?

In an offline-channel driven business, consumers like us (who is always looking for discounts without compromising on product quality or type….buys the product from the retailer or shopkeeper. Well, generally that product or brand (say ‘Brand-A’) is available with many retailers or shopkeepers in any area. This means, we as a consumer can go to any of the shops, where the ‘Brand-A’ is available & buy it. This fact of availability of the same product @ many shops or retailers in any particular area from where the consumer can buy the product is a big concern for the retailer. Why?….Because, the retailer may lose a customer if the customer choose to go to some other shop & buy the ‘Brand-A’.

Now, since the product or brand remains the same across the retailers, hence, to stop the customer from moving to other shops, the retailer needs to do something add on…!! What is the easiest or fastest to do……GIVE DISCOUNTS 😊 …so we as consumer buy the product from that retailer as we get the same product or brand @ a lower price….. which also means….different consumers get the product or brand @ different price….based on the negotiation he or she does with the retailer….right…..that’s what actually happens 👍…..that’s the MOP concept…!!.....Yippppeeee 😁

Why & how does MOP go up or down in Online business?

It’s very simple to answer it….for example you as a buyer want to buy a mobile phone…..do you stop checking the price of the mobile phone @ only 1 or 2 sites…..or keep on checking multiple sites to get the best deal….we do check multiple sites…right..!!.....So here also the same principle applies, different market-places like amazon or flipkart etc keep on reducing price (passing discounts) to stay price-competitive…😃

Relation of Discount to MOP?

Are we trying to say the retailer reduces his or her margin to give the discount 😵…well to say yes…but to some-extent….in maximum of the cases the discount comes from the either of the following 2 sources or both:

This discount is funded by the company or brand 😲 in the form of SCHEMES to the retailer which the retailer passes on case-to-case basis to the consumer😉
Company or brands keep the possible margin so high for the retailer that he or she can easily pass on the discount….How can that be done 😲 ….well keep the MRP very high 😜 ……so the retailer can swiftly pass on some of the huge margin to the consumer without it pinching him much….so both are happy….the retailer & the consumer..!!

Ok, now, based on this discussion till now, I have 2 fundamental questions here …..

Does it mean, higher the scheme the company gives to the retailer, lower the MOP??
If the brand or product being available @ multiple retailers is triggering this process, why doesn’t the company restrict supplying of the product to some retailers only? This will not reduce the margins…..so one will earn more in the same sale..!!

The answer to this 2 questions leads to the subject matter of this article “THE MOP MIRAGE” 😃

MOP- Mirage

Let’s try to understand the “Market Operating Price-MOP” cycle in detail:

Let’s take an offline example as till now that’s where the bulk of sales happens in India. There are many retailers who are selling many brands of the same product category in the market…say mobile.

Now, let’s take one brand in the mobile handset category (say ‘Brand-A’) to understand how the MOP cycle works. Now, @ a trade level (in this case retailer level), ‘Brand-A’ is competing with other mobile brands to occupy more counter share (among all mobile brand handsets, more ‘Brand-A’ is sold from one retailer) and the universe share (more retailers selling ‘Brand-A’) in the market. To increase sales, ‘Brand-A’ passes on scheme (extra margin) to the retailer. Generally, this extra scheme is passed against a sales target for the retailer (the retailer has to sale a particular number of ‘Brand-A’, mutually agreed between the sales team of ‘Brand-A’ & the retailer). So, if the retailer sales a certain quantity of ‘Brand-A’ (say 100 units or month), now to avail the extra money, he has to sales more than 100 numbers, say 120 is the target.

The point to note here is that the retailer sales 100 units or month on an average for ‘Brand-A’ because, out of his consumer base (people like us), 100 consumers prefer to buy ‘Brand-A’. Now, to sale 20 units more of ‘Brand-A’, he has to convert consumers who are buying other brands of mobile handset to ‘Brand-A’. Furthermore, the scheme is not restricted to that only retailer in the market, it’s given to many of them although the scheme value may change. Now, starts the race 😀 …suddenly a lot of retailers are trying to sale ‘Brand-A’, with the consumer-base slightly higher than the average base (higher because few consumers of competition brands were converted to ‘Brand-A’). So, they pass discounts to the market on ‘Brand-A’ to get that one extra customer over the nearby retailer….which means the buying price of ‘Brand-A’ goes down for the consumer which is reduction in MOP for ‘Brand-A’.

Due to this fierce competition among the retailers in the market with ‘Brand-A’, the margin the retailer starts decreasing as the retailer has to pass on his margin to the customer to make that all important sale & retain the customer or take customer from the nearby retailer. To compensate the same, the company passes on more scheme (margin) to the retailer & the cycle continues. Net-net result, the MOP of the ‘Brand-A’ comes down i.e. the consumer starts buying ‘Brand-A’ @ a lower price….and over a period of time….this new price (lower price)…becomes a price @ which ‘Brand-A’ starts selling…..so effectively ‘Brand-A’ has become a cheaper brand.

Now, it’s very difficult for ‘Brand-A’ to again sale@ the price @ which it used to sale, i.e. to regain its earlier higher MOP, as consumers we don’t generally buy a product @ a higher price which we have bought cheaper once or twice. If this cycle lasts for a long period of time, consumers start perceiving ‘Brand-A’ as a cheaper brand….a direct hit of the brand-image & brand positioning of ‘Brand-A’ 😳

If the ‘Brand-A’ now stops giving scheme or reduces the scheme value drastically, with the already shrinking retailer margin, the retailer starts to reduce sale of ‘Brand-A’, as he or she doesn’t want to make an effort to sale a product where margins are low. Result, overall sale of ‘Brand-A’ goes down, effectively meaning reduction in market-share😲

The MOP Mirage concept

Hence, in nutshell, MOP Mirage is a market driven phenomenon where if the company gives scheme or increases distribution (increases the number of retailers who sale the brand) ---the MOP goes down, with Brand being perceived as a cheap brand. If the company reduces scheme or reduces distribution, the market-share (or sale) of the Brand comes down. This is what we call as “MOP MIRAGE”

Ok, now that we are on the same page with MOP mirage, let’s look @ the possible solutions to it..👍

How to maintain a healthy MOP?

To start off, let me tell you there is no clear-cut general solution to maintain or increase MOP, it’s highly dependent on the brand-health, market share and distribution-network strength…..in short to say brand-equity. Hence, both marketing and sales team have to act in tandem on a common plan with a defined goal which is measurable and time-bound.

MOP can be maintained by the combined effect of three tools namely:

Product price & channel margin
Distribution network strength
Marketing campaigns

The 3 important MOP stabilizers

Pricing & Channel margin

Let’s go through them one-by-one👍

It starts from here..!!

Many companies or brands see price and margin in the same platform, which makes them see both these things together and in isolation to the market conditions. Yes, margin can be seen in isolation, but price is a market-application, hence one can’t see price in isolation. In the market, MOP is reflected directly by the retail price or consumer price and also in a subtle way by the market-share as it shows the consumer acceptance of the brand @ a particular price-point……their buying price(MOP). Hence, it’s also important to take into account those two factors while pricing.

Let’s take an example to understand this…..there is a premium ‘Brand-A’, which means consumers need to pay more than the average market price to buy ‘Brand-A’. Well, this very statement is incomplete without stating the market-share of ‘Brand-A’ @ that premium-price-point(MOP). Else, consider this, I sale my product @ premium price(MOP)….. but I sale only few units (negligible market-share)

MOP directly affects the margin of POS both offline (Retailer Selling price- Net retailer landing price) & online business (% of selling price). If the retail level margin, which is driven by MOP is low, then generally the following things happens

First….with reduced margin, the retailer’s interest to promote your brand goes down, which results in dip in sales…second….to compensate, the sales team pours in discount which again triggers the MOP MIRAGE😜

While pricing a product or service, first the brand needs to estimate the MOP @ that proposed price. That MOP should be the criteria to arrive @ the corresponding market-share & channel margin(as per marketing and sales strategy) and not the original price of the product. This will align MOP as per the company plans and help in stabilizing it in the market

Distribution/Network Strength (counter share- universe share & quality of network)

Let’s have a quick look @ the distribution point

Distribution/Network Strength is generally defined by counter share- universe share & quality of network.
First Quality of Network…...generally the definition is majorly restricted to:

Payment terms- Value/days of credit/non-payment
Profile of Retailer/whole seller/trader etc-

Consumer profile whom retailer retails or counter profile where the retailer wholesale
Product portfolio the retailer sales

While those needs to be considered, another equally important factor (which is not often considered), is the MOP (price @ which the POS is retailing the brand to consumer). Brands need to monitor it closely, as a couple of retailers giving huge discounts in one market will start the MOP MIRAGE. Many established brands faced a similar situation in online space, suddenly some online portal starts selling the brand @ ridiculously low price 😲…&..those brands are still not out of the woods completely..!! Ironically, even if the company or distributor doesn’t supply, those retailers manage to get the product from the market (buy it from other retailers or distributors)….they are one of the key culprits for infiltration, but consistent effort over a period of time eliminates them or @least reduces their notoriety

To maintain steady MOP in the market, Poor Quality network who reduce MOP for sale needs to be identified, warned & if required eliminated from the network

Now let’s come to the 2^nd part of Network strength…….counter share- universe share. First the counter-share, if one increases the counter-share, the MOP remains stable & in some cases the retailer tries to increase it ….😲 Why?…simply because…higher counter-share means the brand is present in the store in high volume…….which means the retailer has invested highly in the brand, so the retailer is very serious with the brand. Furthermore, the maximum of the retailer earning will come from that ‘Brand-A’s it present in maximum @ the store😊…so he or she is very reluctant to reduce the selling price(MOP). One point needs mention here, the increase in counter share has to sustainable & not for some period of time which can be easily achieved with increased schemes or discounts😜

Increase in counter share helps maintain the MOP

The universe-share is probably the most tricky to assess….as brands or companies need to be present across lot of counters or online platforms to increase availability and thus increase sales along with number of consumers (as increased availability gives access to more number of new consumers to try the brand). But parallel, this also increase the chances of MOP sliding down. One way to look @ it is the brand strength. Generally bigger brands give less margins & scheme in the market, hence the retailer doesn’t have big monies to pass in the market as then the sale will result in a loss for the retailer, so the MOP does to a large extent stays stable. But for brands who are not those big-brothers yet, carpet-bombing i.e. placing products @ all retailers may trigger off the MOP MIRAGE

Selective increase of number of retailers instead of carpet bombing helps to maintain MOP

Marketing Campaigns

Although there are lot of ways to position the brand, but definitely without ambiguity one of the main brand positioning platform is “price positioning”. It’s because the consumers finally PAY for the product against a PERCEIVED VALUE & ask any consumer…literally any…. across any business type…. price will be among the top 3 parameters…if not the most important parameter...!! Furthermore, it’s also ensures the margin keeps on flowing for the company😜

Unfortunately, there are rarely marketing campaigns with MOP as an objective 😩. Both consumer-marketing & trade-marketing campaigns aimed to build value proposition, RTB (reason-to-believe), consideration etc are definitely a step towards that, but it’s not enough. There has to a dedicated marketing campaigns with an objective to improve or at-least maintain MOP. Furthermore, as research says 80% of great ideas fail because of poor execution, so direct stakeholders of brand…the marketing & sales team needs to be trained on the entire campaign strategy & corresponding execution which are designed keeping MOP as an objective

To ensure the MOP is maintained in the market, Companies need to have marketing campaigns with objective as MOP as a part of the marketing calendar along with pre-requisite training to marketing & sales team on the same

When a consumer buys a product or service from a company or brand……he or she pays a price(MOP) in return of a value(product or service), hence MOP stands as important as the product or service…brands need to include it in their strategy & brand-plans👍

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First 50 days in new sales role/function

2019-11-18T12:00:00.000+05:30

The first 50 days is an opportunity for the sales person to establish the base for him/her to become the star sales performer over a period of time

Watch the summary of this article

Importance of Sales function & Sales team in any organization

There is an old saying…..everybody is a salesperson because they SALE their point-of-view to get their job done…..convince their way to what they want….NO….ITS NOT SALES….Sales is much bigger than that and have for more cascading effect. Such is the effect of sales function that corporate leaders have gone ahead & requested employees from all departments in the organization to show traits of sales team..👍😵

If we look @ the universe of Marketing & Sales personnel in Indian Market, a whooping more than 90% are in sales. If we go down to the management institutes across India…(there are roughly around 4500 in numbers)…..among those who major on Marketing….more than 95% land-up in sales job…..well…..to tell you……if one is not among the top few ranked management colleges…..chances are students who major in other function like Finance….HR…..also land up in sales role…!!

In any organization, sales is one of the biggest departments in terms of the number of employees. The spectrum is so huge, an housewife to Head-Sales, all work in sales…..from work-from-home…to…part-time….to….working round-the-clock….sales is everywhere. The same vast range is also visible in the compensation in sales…which varies from few thousands of rupees to millions of rupees😧 Similarly, the number of opportunities that exist in sales outweighs a lot of the other functions in business. Look across any day of yours…literally any…..maximum chances are you may have bumped in into a sales rep of some company/store etc...😝…you may/mayn’t know.…that’s different…but they are everywhere..!!😜

Here we are talking about a group of people who are the actual torch-bearer of Marketing & Sales just by sheer number of people who work in sales role. They are generally the face of the company in front of the customer & are the brandambassador in true sense of terms. The genre of sales team are the ones who knows the customer the best….they are the darling for any company as they get the much important revenue (which pays for the entire party….😜….&…also get the maximum flakes when things are not working right for the company😃. They start from scratch every-day/every-month/every-year….it’s one of those rare functions who have a routine schedule but which is highly dynamic with a very fast turn-around-time & super-quick decision making process. They are one of the best negotiators in business & generally very thorough with commercials. The variations in sales are so much that there is an old saying….Nothing is assured in sales…..except the determination & dedication of the salesman 👍

Why does a sales person Fail?

Why do the Sales person fails sometimes?

Still when you look around, many in sales fail…..in-fact….there are lot of instances when a successful sales rep in one geography miserably failed in the other territory within the same organization with the same set of products😲😮. There are also several instances….when a star sales person in an area fails with a particular product….his/her replacement in the same area does a commendable job with the same product😯. To add to it, a sales rep returns to his territory, where he had done exceedingly well previously, only to fail miserably in his/her 2^nd innings in the same region. All those cases clearly shows the concerned sales rep had the sales skill, else he/she won’t have succeeded even once. So one thing is for sure, sales-skill is not the only factor to determine the success in sales.

Sales-skill is a necessary condition but not the sufficient condition for success in sales

Sales skills is just a necessary condition and not the sufficient one!!!

If one goes deeper, the initial few days in sales make a substantial difference in the way the sales stint of a sales rep shapes up in the territory/organization…&…one thing which majority of the sales-team will agree, in sales once the ball starts rolling….it does roll for some time 😉…means…once the sales starts picking up….there is no looking-back for a period of time….which is generally true across all forms of sales across industries. It’s the initial ground-work a sales rep does contributes the maximum in determining the initial success as a sales representative.

Although there are lot of articles, books, research paper on Sales Management/Sales Techniques etc.…… I have come across very few which talks about those initial days of sales…..how to begin your stint in a new sales role. It may be your first job…or you are already in sales role but moving to a new assignment….it may be B2B/e-commerce/offline channel business/direct selling….the fundamentals of the ground-work to be done in the initial few days remain the same😄. This article tries to explore those points…….the first 50 days in sales job.

Business-Situation understanding

How many times have we heard this…..sales team need discounts/schemes/reduced price/higher credit period….etc.…etc.…many-many-many times right…..to the extent it’s almost synonymous to sales i.e. sales means discounts😳. Well, now the question is…..is it wrong to ask for it??....the sales-team is not keeping the money to himself/herself thus increasing his/her bank balance😅….then why is he/she asking for it….moreover why the management is reluctant to consider the case😮.

In maximum of the cases, it’s the difference in the understanding of the business-situation which is creating this divide. Business-situation as in, the business/brand/product in its current stage or keeping future in mind. No way I am insisting for the sales team to develop an overall business understanding, it’s not their job, nor will that understanding generate results @least equal to the effort. Business-situation relates to all aspects of business (divisions to put it simple) which directly relates to sales.

Business-situation understanding is the first thing in the to-do list in the first 50 days of sales role.

To take a simple example, the input cost (say raw material cost) has gone up….companies generally don’t instantaneously pass on the incremental cost to the customer on form of price increase……rather they do absorb it for some time. This time the sales-team asks for incremental discounts…..already with a thin profit margin the management most probably is going to say no 👍…or for example…the transportation cost to any particular location has gone up substantially….so company/brand in already taking a hit on margins…..any added margin reduction (in form of scheme/discount) doesn’t make business sense….so most-probably the request for incremental discount will be put-down. If knowing the business-situation helps this case to a large extent…the question is why doesn’t the sales team generally knows it??...well….its both the parties to blame….the management & the sales team. The sales team generally is reluctant to know anything else sales😵..&…in many cases the management is reluctant to share the details saying it’s confidential😜

So what’s the solution……first the management….majority of the confidential information can be shared if one is clear about what to share & how to share….weekly/monthly sales meeting (this is as common a phenomenon in sales as meeting customers) can always be used as a sound-board to share information relevant to sales-team &…….. most importantly as a company/brand if one says they partner/trust their customers….it is to reflect equally for the team which manages those customers👍 The sales team needs to understand….specially the front-line….business understanding comes even before the sales/customer understanding….as finally sales is a part of the business. A holistic business-situation understanding helps in lot of things like…to align the sales effort in terms of scheme/discounts etc. so as to say one can plan better…..furthermore better understanding helps to be more knowledgeable & educated in front of their customers…in terms of the market understanding/movement…competition behavior…etc.….& then…& only then it’s solution-sales else it’s as always push-sales.

Business-situation understanding is the first thing in the to-do list in the first 50 days of sales role

Product Strategy understanding

A product is doing-well….in case of offline channel business….the retailers are doing well…&….a group of end-customer is regularly buying from the retailers…..in case of B2B business….a set base of customers are formed who are happy…..in online sales….you have already identified a group of consumers who are constantly visiting your web-page, continuously engaging with your online feeds, giving positive brand-mentions & buying a product/group of product on a regular basis.👌

Suddenly….one-fine day…you receive an email from Marketing team/Head-office…..that particular product is to be withdrawn from a certain date…or even worst….that particular product is already withdrawn….so stop promoting😯😮. Wait a sec…more than 10% of your current sales comes from that product & it’s one of the fastest growing product in your profile….it’s one of your best-bet for this year’s target…!!...it’s just so unfair….right….WRONG… 😈…. it’s not unfair….as it’s a business requirement…….probably you as a sales-person missed out on something. You were not clear about the product/brand objective.

Knowing a product & knowing the product objective is a completely different thing. This is an inherent problem I have seen across sales teams (primarily front-line, who matters the most), they know the product but rarely know the objective behind it.

Knowing product & Knowing product objectives are two different things

To give a simple real-life example, you want to travel from destination A to destination B & you have taken rail-ways as a strategy to do it…..so goal is transportation….strategy is railways…..so being in sales you master the railways👍…which is the right thing to do…..you don’t stop there …go ahead & educate your customers about how is railways superior…how is it better from other modes of transport…(you created your own USP….which maximum in sales do 😁😜but you didn’t bother to know the objective….tomorrow company changes strategy from railways to airways ….goal is still the same😄. Result….you are screwed😢….now you need to go to the same customer…&….contradict what you have been saying till now😵

Product is just an example….it extends to other all elements of business-situation. Another simple example may be delivery of goods to customers….few companies do delivered load…few subsidized….few charge the customers…..sometimes even on to-pay basis…..point to note is sales team exist in all those business & they are selling..!!....which means there are different objectives why those business are following different models. Ohhh….. I forgot the reason the sales team says…..that’s the work of Head-office/bosses….. I don’t have time…see I am soooo busy….so many customers to handle….so many issues…product not available/no discounts…finance/accounts have credit blocked the customer….😛my only submission is…..all those points are to increase/@least retain sales…right…..knowing the objective also does the same purpose…..so better know it…..for your own benefit.😀

In maximum of the companies, the input from sales team regarding new products is highly valued👍…also true is…in those companies only…. the maximum number of new product ideas from sales team is rejected😯. Ask any sales person, they will say that the company is not bothered about new products…. I have proposed so many…my market/customer needs this- this….competitor has launched that-that…the list is endless. In majority of the cases this happens because the sale person is keeping only the product in mind & not the objective. The day the sales team also considers the objective, the number of request will go down….the acceptance rate for the new product ideas will shoot up & most-importantly the sales guy will be able to better plan ways to handle his market/customer with current products😊

Value of Sales Reports

If a sales person understands the objective behind all company actions around him which directly affects the sales, he will be less surprised & won’t lose face in front of customers.

Let me see how lucky u have been😨……well….did you get a sea-shell by sea-shore which has diamond in it😩…..well….don’t be sad….because you need to be more lucky to come across a sales-person who is happy making sales-report(😆😇. Does the sales person doesn’t know the value of sales report…..in maximum of the cases he does… …but he/she knows the benefit “theoretically”. It’s like I know smoking is harmful to health & still I smoke😉.

Value of sales reports is theoretical for a sales guy

The importance of data is generally based on 2 factors…1st the volume of data…&…2^nd the dynamicity of the data. More the volume & more the dynamicity of data….the more important is the predictive analysis to derive trends. Hence, sales data is of paramount importance. One live example is e/m-commerce…..one of the success pillars of selling in this platform is data😊. So is future with big-data & AI. Data in case of e/m-commerce is generated itself--because of tracking & also the consumer inputs the data instead of the sales-person. But other channels, it’s generally the sales-person who has to track & input the data!!

Why a sales person doesn't like to prepare sales reports?

Generally sales person doesn’t enjoy making sales-report because of 2 reasons…..first he/she doesn’t like making sales report….so rarely made one thoroughly…. so the sales-report was not good enuf….so hasn’t got the full benefit of it…so he/she doesn’t like making sales report. It’s like the old chicken-and-egg situation…which came first.😄

2^nd reason is the level of complexity company/brand has included in the sales report & the number of different types of report……many times it looks it’s like a “sales”manager designation needs to change to “sales-&-sales-reporting” manager😇. Company/brand….first told the sales team to input data, it didn’t meet their expectation…..then put sales enablement tool for the sales team…it still did not work effectively…then linked the sales enablement tool to sales…..still results were not as expected….then gave sales team incentive for data generation….no…still not there…..then went to channel & installed software….got some numbers not enuf……then went to point-of-sale to generate data….well….it’s still not 100% there I believe😵😇

Less complex reporting formats can encourage sales team to comply better

The answer to this riddle is simple…..sales team(specially front-line sales team who is primarily responsible for data generation) did not have a buy-in…they felt it as a no-value add exercise to their sales numbers😜. My little submission to company/brand, plz look@ the basic reporting format of any online/e/m-commerce sales, the data points are less and the analysis of the data is more. Get the basic data from sales-team…you may always add-on with time/practice/habit/buy-in & plz get the analysis done separately….elementary level software is good-enuf as a start-point….ohhh….most important…then plz share that analyzed data with the sales-team, with a scope for them to do their analysis also..!!

Importance of historical data

Let’s take a simple example to understand the importance of sales report….customer has come up with a question/problem-statement which the sales guy needs to respond. In maximum of the cases, the same problem statement/similar problem statement has been previously asked by some other customer @ some point-of-time in history….it has to be…because customers/maximum of them @ least(😝 generally don’t create problems out-of-thin-air. Think you are the sales-guy sitting in front of your customer who has asked you that unexpected question…..now think somebody comes up to you with a sales report which has couple of cases in the past where the customer has asked the same/similar question…..with the reply the sales-guy @ that point of time has given & the corresponding customer response to that reply. Wooooowwwwww…..your problem is 50% solved..!!...

Study of past sales data in first 50 days of sales stint can be very helpful for a sales person

In the first 50 days of sales role, the sales person needs to thoroughly study the past sales-data of his/her market/customer & if required, make new sales-format for him/her & the team (@local level) which should be the starting point of all discussion with the team & the customer, in future

Many of us have gone through this…..a new person has joined your business/department…..first few days how does one form the impression about the new joinee😦…well different people have different ways to look @ it & different parameters to form an impression….but one parameter is generally common for everybody……the sincerity/hard-work the new joinee shows up in the initial days👍

The sales person who joins a new role is also like that new joinee that we talked about. You may have years of sales experience under your belt & been a star sales performer in all your previous sales stint….it DOESN’T MATTER. Most probably you will come across those set of customers/market who have been in that business far more number of years than you have been….or have been associated with the company with far more number of years than you have been….the initial days it’s your sincerity/hard work that pays…..plz remember that hard-work/sincerity may/mayn’t show up in results & in most of the cases it won’t show up in the result. But it will do what is more important than the results in those initial days….It will gain the much needed confidence/respect/trust of the customers/market/partner who will be the most important people for you in days to come.

Visible hardwork - help in relationship building

It’s a common saying….relationships are one of the most important thing in sales & it comes with years of association…true….but it starts with those initial days. I have come across many good sales people who make this fundamental mistake, they want to make the change from day 1. Well, to tell you it’s not possible….YOU CAN'T BRING THE CHANGE FROM DAY 1…because the people through whom/partnering whom you are to bring that big change needs to align to you….your thought process….else over a period of time it will be hostilities/mis-trust/complaints & non-cooperation from them.

Visible hardwork in first 50 days in sales is critical in building the base for a long term relationship in market

The sales person in first 50 days needs to be sincere/hard-working which is visible to his/her customers/partners/market to gain the confidence/respect/trust which forms the base of the relationship management in days to come

Lets come to the last point……which maximum of the sales team does in their first 50 days of sales role….visit customer/market, understand competition, start talking to other stakeholders in the company like supply chain, finance/accounts, marketing etc.. & understand product/commercials👍.Well, it’s very important….& needs to be done with highest level of seriousness…...but it’s one of the points that needs to be addressed in the first 50 days..!!

1st 50 days are an opportunity for the sales person to establish the base for him/her to become the star sales performer over a period of time

The first 50 days is an opportunity for the sales person to establish the base for him/her to become the star sales performer over a period of time. If not used properly, this first 50 days will haunt during his/her tenure where he/she would need to put much more efforts to overcome the negativities generated in the first 50 days.

Rest…welcome to one of the most HAPPENING…REWARDING..&…definitely ROCKING role in business…..Sales..👏👏

C😄😄L if you have read 👆

Will be C😄😄😄LER if you comment👇

Will be C😄😄😄😄LEST if you

4 Key Aspects of Agency Liasoning/Life Cycle - Selection- On-boarding - Management & Renewal/Termination

2019-11-11T13:32:00.001+05:30

Agencies are Partners... Off-course!

AGENCIES ARE PARTNERS…OFF COURSE… Any doubts???

Summary Snapshot of Agency Liasoning

The campaign is a big success..!!.....cheers…all measurement parameters have exceedingly done well…..we have over-achieved the targets…woh…..great..👏👌…..the marketing team is flooded with praises…..the brand/campaign/communication/product manager is today trying to talk to everybody….people he also doesn’t generally talk to..😜…..&…..trying to talk about how HE MADE THE CAMPAIGN successful…..

The Head of Marketing is more level headed….he praises the entire team…..Marketing/Sales/Supply chain etc. etc.….& says it’s a combined effort of the team…..what a leader….😉……suddenly somebody (non-marketing) drops a question….."I think the agency made good creatives"…..the Head of Marketing is quick to reply …Yes…Yes …they did….we monitored them @ every step of this campaign…😊….

@ the agency side the account manager is keeping a smile on his face through-out….as it’s HE WHO MADE the campaign successful…the A/C MGMT DIRECTOR along with the CREATIVE HEAD walks into the cabin of the CEO of the agency, heads held high, this is another success story for the Agency…..kudos….👍….The CEO talks about the next ABBY award may be…😝….comes out & addresses the entire team of the agency about this latest success story….suddenly a trainee throws a question….”the marketing of this brand has always been strong”…..immediately the A/C Director points out…"Yes…it is….the people here have worked day-night to make this campaign a success"….😊

In 3 months, comes the next big campaign….gosh….something went terribly wrong…..the campaign was completely misinterpreted by the consumers…..😧…..the results were far below the target….in-fact some customers moved to competition….bad mentions in many social media platforms….marketing budget wasted….😯…the Head of Marketing along with the brand/campaign/communication/product manager is called by senior management & given the peace-of-their mind 😥…& asked to produce a detailed report for the reasons for failure & corresponding measures in next 24 hrs.…!!.....The agency was immediately called @ the office….the A/C Mgmt. Director, the Creative Head along with the account manager of the agency is in the meeting with the marketing team of the client….well…needless to say…better stay-off the that meeting room😂….result….one starts @ a sour-note for the next big campaign😲

This divide exists in maximum of the cases…. although both the parties…i.e.…the client & the agency are very clear about the final objective of enhancing the brand equity/sales target…. the problem lies in the WAY TO ACHIEVE the objective and not the final objective…!!

Just a quick detour….agencies here refer to the Marketing & Sales agency which the company partners/or supposed to partner 😆….the domain of the agency can be complete 360 from creative, media, activation, PR, Market Research, Digital, Sponsorship etc...etc. in marketing to channel (franchise/distributor etc) appointment, sales tool enablement etc.…etc.. in sales. There can be further sub-division of work say for example…. digital can be sub-divided into performance marketing, SEO, social media marketing, website development, app development etc.…where there can be different agencies who can be on-boarded. Generally, two model of association are followed: either it’s on retainer... (generally yearly contract) or project-based agreements.

Now let’s come back to our original discussion, if the WAY is the main factor…. let’s explore the WAY part further…let’s start from the start…. I mean when the client (company/brand) decides to have an agency on-board...😊

So, the brand decides to have an agency on board…. majority of the cases it then calls for an agency pitch (agencies are invited to come & present on a BRIEF which is given by the brand).

Agency Pitch & Selection ..... The "DIVIDE" starts her...

The DIVIDE STARTS from here…. 😳 …YES…it does…!!

Agency Pitch & Selection—The Beginning…!!

In the pitch, generally an evaluation matrix is made by the client…&…surprisingly majority of the times it’s not shared with the agency…😨…..which means the agency comes to the pitch with their understanding of what parameters & the corresponding contribution of the each parameter, on which they will be judged……it’s like I am giving an exam without knowing which question has how many marks…😄….

To make matters worse….very surprisingly….neither the parameters nor the contribution-per-parameter changes as per brand/company requirement….for ex…in the parameters/contribution-per-parameter of an well-established brand/company is almost same as that of recently launched brand/company in the same industry….or…..for a given company the parameter/contribution-per-parameter remains the same for an established brand to a newly launched brand (this is especially true for large companies who have different agencies for different group-of-brands).

If the Business/Marketing/Sales strategy is different based on business/brand life-cycle…how-come the same difference is not reflected in agency evaluation parameters…😮……so the result is….generally few agencies always get selected….😵&….those are generally the big ones..!!...or at most the mid-sized ones…..which is a clear mis-match of the partnership……between the agency & the client…!!

Furthermore…to add fuel-to-fire…..generally agencies have some excellent presenters…..who are seen mainly during pitches…..😲….&….larger agencies have bigger group of those awesome presenters…..so they get selected @ maximum number of pitches….😃….wait…it doesn’t end here….in pitches you get to meet the top-heads of the agency….the creative head/head-client servicing/sometimes the CEO also(for mid & small sized agency)……once the deal is sealed….many times they just vanish…..😆…. I mean…. the client sometimes needs to plan to see those guys again….😱…. the result….

Few important points of the discussion/commitment stay in the books only….as the team which manages the account is many times not present/very poorly represented in the agency pitch...!!
In some cases, the review on the Strategy/Road-Map doesn’t stay so focused as planned initially & it really starts showing up, if the Marketing/Sales initiatives doesn’t deliver expected results.

One recent genre…..a new group of agency has come-up who is trying to position itself as “WE DON’T PARTICIPATE IN PITCHES”…..although this positioning platform is not yet cluttered & reflects confidence…..&….it’s generally few industry renowned names who lead those agencies…..who claim to have a small number of clients & thus do better servicing & attention to the clients.…all good….but then….a gentle reminder to them….consumers prefer to buy the product after interacting with it…😊

There is a constant divide about how to measure the agency performance…. companies/brands have moved into a measurement matrix where there are 2 components…one fixed (retainer value paid monthly/quarterly) ….2^nd a performance matrix, mutually agreed between the client & the agency, although it’s primarily made by the company/brand.

The question now comes, what should be the parameters in the performance matrix, on what scale it should be measured & what’s a good score 😦. There is no correct answer to this, as the campaigns itself are so varied in nature, hence having only parameter matrix which “Fits-For-All” won’t work. So, what’s the solution??😵 ….

I suggest keeping the performance matrix for the agency a mix of certain hygiene agency deliverable like TAT etc…& keep the remaining things open for campaign-based measurement. One needs to clearly define the FLAGSHIP/BIG campaigns for the year, which is generally already done as a part of the yearly marketing plan. When one defines the measurement parameters campaign wise, then the role clarity in terms of what the agency has to offer for that campaign is also well documented which makes life easier for everybody. 😂 …. all to be shared with the agency before the sign-off & with their buy-in.

One last point regarding agency pitches--- the number of agencies called for the pitches. Although there is no science to it…. but there can be some…what I call as… Method-to-Madness. I have seen companies calling more agencies for the pitch to get some ideas…. which brands later re-work & implement. 😲. One needs to put a cap to the various buckets from where they are generally called…. (like past-experience of working with them, agencies with experience in same/similar fields, recommendations, agencies who have done remarkable work in recent past etc.…etc..,) to have quality time spent with every agency in the pitch.

Agency Pitch & Selection --- Food for thought

Agency Pitch & Selection process

The shortlisting of the agencies to be called for pitch should have some Method-to-Madness with some initial profile mapping done from the client side before inviting the agency for the pitch
Evaluation parameter/contribution-per-parameter for agency selection needs to be tailor made as per marketing/sales requirement for a certain period…say for 3 years…if not 5 years
The evaluation matrix needs to be shared with the agencies well before the pitch along with the brief
The team from the agency side which handles the client account should be present during the pitch
The agency performance measurement matrix, once they are on-board, needs to be feezed during sign-off (just after the sales pitch), which should be more campaign based, with clearly defined deliverables campaign-wise, with the buy-in from the agency.

Agency-On-boarding—First 45 days

So now we have agency on board…oolllaaa….👍….everybody is very happy…the client…..the agency……&…now starts a series of meetings between the client & the agency….main objective…..debrief agency on the actual status of the brand/competition etc.…etc.… & way forward…!!

I have a simple question here…. when somebody joins in marketing/sales team…. what is the initial visible action for the new joinee…? He/she is told to SPENT TIME WITH THE CUSTOMER/MARKET…? In case of ecommerce business….he/she is told to again UNDERSTAND THE CONSUMER PROFILE/CHANNEL NUIANCES in that product category…(like own web, marketplaces, affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, performance parameter benchmarking etc. etc.)……then why is this not true for the agency😯….why does the agency not do a comprehensive market visit/consumer understanding & make a report….based on which any further discussion happens

Inducing Agency post Selection... An important step

Generally, the reason is…. the company feels they know everything about their market/consumer…. &..a 3^rd eye won’t add much value & the agency feels they have enough technical knowledge (because they handle brands across industries or may have handled one of the competition of client’s brand in the past)….so give them a marketing challenge they will be able to come out with a solution.😧…so net-net result….the agency starts working on the brand without being themselves directly updated with the current (and so future also) consumer/market trends…😊. This generally starts showing when campaigns proposed by agency goes for MORE ITERATIONS…&…so FIRE-FIGHTING CONTINUES…. 😇 …it doesn’t end here dear…. many-times the agency is not clear about the product architecture of the client 😳...& both the partners…. the client & the agency is equally responsible for it...!!

Many of the retainer agencies (specially the marketing- creative/communication/PR etc.) are also responsible for internal communication….&…in maximum of the cases….they don’t know the key internal stakeholders😲…which is their customer in internal communication😅…..so internal communication is made just based on the brief & not taking care of the target-group’s taste, who is sitting right there..!!...NO…it’s not agencies fault alone….it’s both…client & agency...both.

Agency On-Boarding--- Food for thought

Agency On Boarding Steps

A comprehensive Induction program for the agency needs to be signed-off along with the retainer which has a detailed plan for the agency market visit/consumer understanding, product understanding, meeting other key departments/stakeholders, plant visits (if applicable).
The output is a report from the agency on their understanding which should be the starting point for the discussion between the agency & the company/brand for future

Agency Management

Agency management

This is the place where the divide gets visible…. this is the place where it’s a make or break...!! Generally, if things discussed earlier are taken care-off….it should be @least a good start…. but having said that…. even a good start doesn’t promise a good future….😃.

Key Mantras for successful partnership

First things first, I have heard a lot of marketers saying they have the biggest names as their agency partners……well it does reflect some amount of credibility…but the fact that matters the most is……which is the team in the agency which is handling your account……among all those factors discussed till now…..it’s probably one of the most important factor that defines the success of the partnership. If you get the right team (@lest in terms of agility & responsiveness), even a not so known agency can deliver you output @ par/if not more than the big agencies…ok….THEN WHY DON’T WE FREEZE THE TEAM FIRST…..😮……two reasons….

Firstly companies/brand don’t demand it during the agreement sign-off……2^nd reason….even when they do……the agency gives a reason it’s a part of their Staffing policy…..so they can’t commit…😉. Having said that, few big clients (in terms of billing value) do have a say in that team, @lest for the key positions like account manager/creative guys.

Furthermore, it’s equally important to know which are the other accounts the team is handling, the team which is managing your account…..else be prepared for surprises like…..I can start your job only after I finish the job of that client….or…..this iteration I can revert only after so many days as I have also to complete the assignment of that client etc...etc😇

Company/Brand should have a fair idea of the team from the agency who will manage their accounts & the number of other accounts the same team will be handling

All customers are same & equal…. many businesses used to claim so……surprisingly few continue to do so….is it…. are all customers being equal….😆…..NO ITS IS NOT…..IT NEVER WAS….businesses value customers by the amount of business (sales/margin/sustainability) they generate with the exception of few strategic accounts where the final aim is again to generate more business…may be directly from that customer…or some other related customer 😊. You as a business also do the same.

The agency is also a company with no exception to the said rule…. they also value bigger accounts (higher billing/higher margin/better sustainability) compared to other customer. In their case, the strategic account is that big brand where they can do a one-off campaign (where they have earned nothing) & put the brand name in their client’s list😉…..what’s the gain….the gain is its easier to crack new customers as prospective customers value those agencies who have handled big brands.😊.

This means, if you aren’t one of the tops few billing customers for the agency, chances are high, you won’t be their top-priority list in terms of servicing...!!😰. Now, you can’t increase your marketing/sales spends just to be in the top-priority list of the agency….so the solution is to look for that profile of agency which matches your company/brand profile & spends…. many company/brands make the mistake here & the result is a foul partnership.

Think you are a start-up & you have one of the top 5 agency on-board…. your business needs deliverable within 2 hours…. that agency, handling large brands, have deliverable timeline of 24 hours…. it’s a disaster then…never will there be an alignment between the two.

Many clients do sign a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) with the agency…few have exclusivity clause (agency can’t work with client’s competition brand while working with them….etc...etc.)……so agencies have found a way-out….they have formed so called their sister-concern to cater to the competition 😬…the logic is….the teams are completely different….only the senior-most management is the same…..but…..it’s the senior-most management that matters😝….NO…no-way I am trying to say it’s a malpractice…..i am only trying to emphasize a thread-bear analysis both by client & the agency together when such scenarios exists….which is almost NOT DONE now in maximum cases.

The company/brand should match its profile, spends & then have agencies with similar profile as partners

Creative Head….Wow…😍💗💚…..irrespective of the agency type……he/she is one to watch out for…..woooo……lots & lots of accolades/awards….&….with that lots of amazing work to show…..awesome👍…wait a sec……where is he/she……I mean where…..do you see him/her……I remember he was there for the pitch…….then for the TVC……then for the 2^nd TVC……then again for the 3^rd TVC😂……this genre…CREATIVE HEAD….is also required apart from the big ticket campaign like TVC..!!....but the point is he/she is generally not there apart from the big ticket item…😳…many times ITERATIONS end when the creative head gets himself/herself involved….but by then the time is lost..!!....Agencies do follow a “man-hour” pricing model, where they include the time of the senior management from agency side(like creative head)….but that is not enuf…is what my experience says…!!The problem increases with the agency size….

Both company/brand & the agency needs to have a clear plan of involvement of senior management like CREATIVE head right @ the beginning of the contract…with a clear mandate on projects/regular involvement of them

Last point regarding agency management, there is this species called BRIEF(a format in which the company/brand briefs the agency about the upcoming campaign to design), which gets all the flaks if the campaign is not successful….but nobody remembers it after a successful campaign😱…..

I have a simple request…..in case of dispute/disagreement about the BRIEF was right/brief has gone through too many changes etc...etc. for continuous iterations/campaign failure…..go back to that brief where both the company & the agency together delivered a successful campaign within timelines….please rewind how you did….what you did…..& follow it again this time with adaptations as required…..maximum chances are you will cross-the-bridge together 👍

Non-renewal of contract/Agency Termination

Well, let’s take life easy…it happens lot of times….it has happened with you also….so breathe….both company/agency…..like there is a product-life-cycle….similarly there is an agency life-cycle…..so partners need to/will change over a period of time….to form new partners…..both for the company as well as the agency. This very spirit helps to match company/brand profile when selecting an agency…as the brand/agency moves in the life-cycle…it’s time to bid adieu & move to the next partner….if both of them have evolved in similar way during this time….the partnership continues…👍….hence, it needs to be done amicably.

In-fact with number of agencies increasing with growing marketing/sales focus of brands and new channels quickly developing…like digital…the future will have agencies who will be expert in particular part of the company/brand/product-life cycle….signs of the same are already there…for example agencies claiming to be meant for start-ups..!!..😃….Agencies are integral part of the brand/product life-cycle & the client’s marketing team, right match always ensure partnership….welcome on-board

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Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning (Part 2- Sales)

2019-11-06T09:12:00.001+05:30

Welcome to the 2^nd part of STP……please read my previous article“STP is only in Marketing-Part-1”, as this article is a continuation of the same.

In the previous article, we have discussed in detail about Segmentation-Targeting- Positioning in Marketing……in this article we would deep-dive into the other function where STP as a construct is applied.

The other function where STP is used very frequently is SALES..😲👏

STP in Sales

To have a better understanding of how the STP in Marketing moves vis-s-vis STP in sales, we will divide businesses into 3 types namely:

Distribution based business (offline & online)

B2B business (offline & online)

B2C business (offline & online)

Distribution based business (offline & online)

For STP in marketing for Distribution based business, plz refer to the article-- “STP is only in Marketing-Part-1”

We will first discuss the offline model--distribution based business and then move to the online model-distribution based business.

In the offline distribution model, to keep it simple & short we take 2 channel layer….the distributor & the retailer……first layer is the distributor (company bills to the distributor)….2^nd layer is the retailer (distributor bills it to the retailer).

One of the key role of the sales team in those type of business is to appoint & manage the distributors. Ask any one from the sales team, they will say it’s one of the most important job. Do the sales team follow any STP for distributor appointment…..is it the same as the one done by the marketing team of the same company……the answer is NO….it’s not the same..😱wait a second….are we trying to say…the same company….selling the same product……has different STP done by marketing…..&…..different one done by Sales…😲😲……Yes…

Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning in Offline Sales

The STP done by the marketing team & STP done by the sales team is different for the same company in distribution based offline business…😱😨...But why…I mean……doesn’t that have adverse effect on the business……NO..…it doesn’t have…

Watch the summary snapshot

3 Factor Framework

Main reason for different STP--

Customers are different — The primary customers for marketing are end -consumers whereas the primary customers for Sales are Trade/Channel partners.
Customer’s objective of Using the product are different --- The end consumer—Marketing’s primary customer uses the product for personal use, whereas the Trade/Channel partners—Sales’s primary customer uses the product for his/her business generation
Channel---For Marketing its through traditional media & digital by which it connects with its customers, for sales it’s primarily face-to-face interaction with its customers. There are certain exceptions like exhibitions/seminars/meets where both the Marketing & Sales team connect together with the customer/consumer, but those are limited numbers compared to day-to-day interactions.

This 3 Factor Framework will work in maximum of the cases to answer this riddle of how the STP in Marketing & STP in sales will move vis-à-vis each other...👍

The obvious question is…..How is the STP done in Sales….!!..

Primary Channel - Segmentation

Segmentation for the primary channel (the channel partner whom the company bills directly...in this case the distributor)

3 parameters of Segmentation for a Primary Channel

Segmentation is done primarily based on generally 3 parameters:

Is he from the same industry
Is he from related industry
Is he willing to grow or have funds to invest….the industry experience has less importance here (it’s a more recent phenomena)

Say for example , if its lubricant industry…the segments will be in 3 buckets…1^st is he from lubricant industry…2^nd..allied industry…which primarily means auto-ancillary in this case like tires, battery, spare-part, automobile etc.…3^rd from any industry like paint, cement etc. till the time he is willing to grow & have funds to invest.

Primary Channel - Targeting

Targeting for the primary channel (the channel partner whom the company bills directly...in this case the distributor

Targeting for a Primary Channel

Once the prospective distributors are identified based on the segmentation, targeting is primarily based on demographics , behavioral , psycho graphic, business parameters and self-evaluation parameter like:

Demographic—Income (including credit in market & investment), Education, Age etc.
Psycho graphic—Type of personality he/she has as a business owner (like is he open to experiment, does he frequently get into the comfort zone etc.), value-system he has etc.
Behavioral---Loyalty status (how loyal he has been with the other business/brands he has been operating with, benefit desired (what is the type of benefit, primarily non-commercial he is looking for etc.)
Business Parameter- Current network strength (His customers- Dealers—Types, Numbers, Relationship with them etc.…etc.), Other businesses he/she is in, Reputation in the market etc, commercial terms etc.
Self-Evaluation—This is probably one of the most important parameter…here the overall understanding of the sales person😜 & his corresponding rating of the all the previous points discussed earlier comes into practice (be rest assured the data required for the points discussed above like demographic, behavioral etc. is always not there & even if its there is always not available)

Primary Channel - Positioning

Positioning for the primary channel (the channel partner whom the company bills directly...in this case the distributor)

Positioning for a Primary Channel

This is predominantly the sales skill 👍….the sales guy positions the company to the prospect based on the requirement of the prospect…(although the sales person may/mayn’t have a formal corporate presentation with him/her) he/she highlights those benefits (within the company defined benefits) which are more relevant to the prospect….for example…for a prospect located in remote area the benefit highlighted can be service (delivered load—product delivered directly to distributors’ warehouse from company (plant/depo)….whereas for a distributor based in metro city the benefit can be added margin which will take care of the higher operating cost @ metro’s….its a real showdown of the sales-skill of the salesperson👏😊

The frequency @ which STP is done @ the primary level is continuous but moderate as companies don’t generally make major changes to the primary network frequently

Now lets have a quick look @ the STP done @ secondary level (retailer/dealer who is billed by the distributor)

Secondary Channel - Segmentation

Segmentation for the secondary channel (retailer/dealer who is billed by the distributor)

Segmentation for a Secondary Channel

This is done generally both by the company sales team and the distributor/distributor sales team. The segmentation is done primarily keeping in mind the profile of business the retailer is in…for example…taking the same example of the lubricant business….the segments will be lubricant retailers…&…allied industry retailers like tires, batteries, spare-parts etc. One recent development has been to reach out to retailers who cater to the same consumer profile….say in case of lubricant business….reach out to those retailers who has some offering for the vehicle….so the list now enlarges to car accessory retailers, car paint shops etc.

Secondary Channel- Targeting

Targeting for the secondary channel (retailer/dealer who is billed by the distributor)

This is the most exhaustive exercise which the sales team does/supposed to do😉 to ensure higher success rate

Targeting for a Secondary Channel

Although, its dependent on the business type & market, but broadly the elements discussed here remains the same. The targeting parameters are enlisted below for a quick glimpse: (it’s generally an excel sheet/software)

Potential of the retailer (overall business he does- Your product+ competition product put together)
Knowledge of competition product—(Brand wise)- (Product-wise)-(SKU-wise) in terms of:

Volume & Value
Price (buying price & selling price)
Schemes
Average credit (days & value) Campaigns
Any other service/offering which is important for retailer’s business

Secondary Channel- Positioning

Positioning for the secondary channel (retailer/dealer who is billed by the distributor)

Positioning for a Secondary Channel

The positioning is decided along with targeting…but generally the sales pitch for the same is made by the distributor sales representative (DSR). Given the background of the DSR, its highly imperative that the sales team does the entire targeting & positioning part religiously, in fact it’s probably one of the key difference between higher sales & lower sales of the same brand in nearby markets…😊👍

The key points covered in it are:

Retailer wise plan for increasing share of your business/crack new retailer
Brand wise)- (Product-wise)-(SKU-wise) price you want to offer
Target volume/value of business with that price
Proposed scheme
Campaign/branding you want to offer to the retailer
Any other service which needs mention

Once this is done, the rest is primarily based on 2 factors:

Business relationship of the sales person with the retailer
The sales skill of the sales-person

The frequency @ which STP is done @ the secondary level is continuous but high as market dynamics keeps on changing & even a new scheme may change retailer buying behavior

Its time now to have a quick snapshot of the online business of distribution-based industries. We again go back to the 3 Factor Framework to identify how the STP in Marketing will move as compared to STP in sales:

Customer: They are same, as both marketing & selling is done both online.
Customer’s Objective: It’s also same as the customer remains the same person.
Channel: In maximum cases it’s the same, although there are examples when there are offline-sales team to connect face-to-face to the consumer. In majority of the cases, the actual sale (transaction) still happens online & the one ground sales person is responsible for the sales pitch.

Hence, in case of distribution based business—online,, the STP done by the marketing & STP done by sales team remains almost the same. (which is in-line with the STP for other-businesses we discussed in the article “STP is only in Marketing-Part-1”

B2B Business (offline & online)

We start with B2B Business-offline..👍

Customer—Yes, they are same for both Marketing & Sales

Customer’s objective of using the product—Yes, it’s the same

Channel- Its not the same. For Marketing its through traditional media & digital by which it connects with its customers, for sales it’s primarily face-to-face interaction with its customers. There are certain exceptions like exhibitions/seminars/meets where both the Marketing & Sales team connect together with the customer/consumer, but those are limited numbers compared to day-to-day interactions.

For STP in marketing for B2B business, plz refer to the article--“STP is only in Marketing-Part-1”

Is the Sales STP different from Marketing STP in this case also…😧😮😯…..Yes…it is…but the difference is not as big as the one in case of offline distribution based business….why so…..let’s look @ the 3 Factors Framework again to answer it

So, in case of B2B--Offline sales, the STP done by Marketing & Sales team is similar with certain differences

Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning for B2B Sales

Segmentation in B2B Sales

This generally involves identification of the industries in which the product of the company finds application….for example….if you have are an adhesive making company…your target segments in B2B space will include those industries where adhesives finds application…like…book making industries, wood making industries etc.…similarly if you are into hotel business…probably all industries may fall under your segment….as both Room-Nights & Banquets are required by all industries

Targeting in B2B Sales

Once the segmentation is done, targeting in B2B sales generally involves identifying customers in those segments and categorizing the customers into A/B/C sometimes D😆😇 generally based on:

The potential

Conversion status (which part of the conversion funnel is the customer in…for ex…initial- only one call made, or higher stage like few calls have been made along with demo, hot pursuit—in final stages of techno commercial discussion etc. etc.)

Strategic importance (like in a current customer I have 90% SOB(Share-of-Business), but in a new project of the customer which will cater to only 2% of overall volume a tough competition of mine may make in-roads, I would take that 2% as serious as the current 90% as competition may slowly start getting into the 90% , once it gets into my customer with that 2% share because of the new project)

Convenience (geography, presence of sales & service team of the company etc. etc.)

Any other factor which may be of importance to the business for current/future requirements

Positioning in B2B Sales

There is certain overlap with targeting & few may like to call it more targeting than positioning, but nomenclature doesn’t change the action…😆😄😝…

This is the most important part where the B2B sales person spends the maximum time…its also called Sales plan in some cases…& its reviewed regularly..!!

Its generally done in excel/software, where the key points that are captured target wise i.e. (A/B/C customer group- wise) are:

Customer Potential- (Volume/Value) of business along with competition share

Pricing of competition (wherever available) along with product details

Credit details of the competition

Other details like billing mode, shipment type etc

Company contact details—Contact person (name/ph number/email id), any other person who is involved in the buying process (decision making process)…his/her credentials

Any upcoming project of the company

Proposed product with proposed commercial terms

What will the positioning--- what value will be shown to the customer (within the defined benefits as per the company policy)

Remarks which captures the current status in the conversion funnel & future plan with timeline.

Any other details which is relevant for conversion

The frequency @ which the targeting/positioning/sales plan is done by B2B sales team is very high as it continuous update based on the status development of the prospect in the conversion funnel

B2C business (offline & online)

For STP in marketing for B2C business, plz refer to the article--“STP is only in Marketing-Part-1”

This is a case of direct-to-consumer business…..one big example of this is majority of the start-ups that we see around….like food-tech, edu-tech, e-mobility etc are examples of this B2C online business model…😀👍.&…Insurance agents are a big example of B2C offline sales. Lets quickly jump to the 3 Factor Framework to identify how the STP in Marketing will move as compared to STP in sales

Customer: They are same, as both marketing & selling is done both online

Customer’s Objective: It’s also same as the customer remains the same person

Channel: In maximum cases it’s the same, although there are examples when there are offline-sales team to connect face-to-face to the consumer. In case of B2C offline model, the actual sale (transaction) still happens offline & in case of B2C online model maximum of the cases, the sale happens online & the sale team on-ground is responsible for sales pitch & facilitation, in some cases

Hence, in case of B2C (online & offline) business, the STP done by the marketing & STP done by sales team remains almost the same

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Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning (Part 1- Marketing)

2019-10-25T07:10:00.000+05:30

Segmentation…. Targeting…. Positioning…. woooh…. that’s the Bible of Marketing…. fundamentals/basics/must know etc. etc…the synonyms are endless….😆

Segmentation…. Targeting…. Positioning…. that’s the Bible of Marketing

Segmentation…Targeting…Positioning… Bible of Marketing

Well, to tell you…. yes, it is…. 👍 but then there is one more department which is closely related to Marketing…. that does that STP as frequently as the marketers sitting @ HO do… 😧. What we study in MBA books during our management courses ……maximum of us generally forget by the time we are around 5 years old in the industry….like how many of us still remember… sales is a part of marketing….how many organizations recruit as per that….how may careers progress as per that….to say it’s very less…..😄Similarly, many of us also have forgotten about STP is not the only child of marketing...!!...even worst…. majority of the management books & courses don’t focus on this topic…. although in industry its practiced almost regularly… 😨😇….

To keep it simple & easy to understand, let’s just briefly touch upon STP in marketing (there is already enough written on it) & then move on to the STP in the other function. To gain a better understanding of the overall STP in marketing, we divide the businesses into 2 types….1st B2B business (both online & offline) ….2nd…other businesses… (both offline & online)..which includes distribution based channel business, business directly with consumer. We start with other businesses first & then come to B2B for a quicker & crisper approach 👍

So, its other businesses except B2B first…… (both offline & online) ….

Segmentation on a Blind Date!!

Have you ever been to a blind date...??😜…..Yes…👍…No 😔…..its ok in both cases….👍…...in a blind date you meet a person whom you have not seen before (either in person or pic)….but may/mayn’t have spoken to him/her….say for ex….over phone. So effectively, you don’t know how the person looks & you plan to meet that person-...so what many of us do….ask for a description of the person…(in terms of height, skin color, hair color, what he/she is wearing etc. etc.) & sometimes also tell the person to stand by a landmark(say below this bridge…or…@ this restaurant….or….near to the booking office @ airport/railway station etc. etc.)

Have you ever wondered what we are doing…!!.... we are trying a identify a person by his/her profile (physical characteristic like height, dress etc. & location bridge, restaurant etc.). Why are we doing this….?. because there are many other people around.…among which we must identify our blind-date….so we develop a profile of the blind-date to identify him/her.

This is like segmentation in marketing. You identify that profile of people (who can be your customers) from group of entire population of the world…!! Ok, now you did profile up your blind-date based on clothes, looks , height, hair color, location etc. etc.….how do you profile in marketing for segmentation….it’s by customer needs…..as the basic premise is….one will buy a product only when one needs it….(need may not be so intense a word as it sounds….I may just abruptly buy a chocolate without wanting to eat it….but I bought because I just felt so….so feeling is the need here!!..👍

Although there are many models to do the segmentation, the one I find simplest & easiest to understand is:

Feature - Benefit of product

Feature- Benefit - Need

Feature of a product--- Gives a Benefit to the consumer; It’s a benefit because it serves a need- Those needs are the segments

One 'Feature' may give rise to multiple 'Benefits'

Multiple 'Features' may give rise to one'Benefit'

One 'Benefit' may satisfy multiple 'Needs'

Multiple 'Benefits' may serve one 'Need'

Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning

For Eg: A bottle of water - People may buy water to drink water, to wash their hand's & face to relieve from heat, to wash utensils etc..). The bottle is used for storage (bigger SKUs like 25 lts.).

Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning

The basic premise is products have features to provide a benefit to the consumer, which will be benefit if & only if it serves some need, those needs are the segments for the product. Which effectively means…. that person who is not in the segmentation for your products, potentially won’t ever buy your product. For ex: a person who doesn’t have hairs wont land up buying a comb or say a person whose legs are amputed won’t probably buy shoes.

Infact, this is the tool (simplistic representation) used for Product Design & development by R&D/Design (in reverse way)....when the marketing/consumer insight/sales comes up with the need/benefit required (latent or visible consumer demand) and the R&D/Design correspondingly comes up with the required feature/product to serve the benefit/need😃

Does that above format help you to segment??...the answer is NO… 😱…why…because there are still many people who fall in that bracket…like there will be huge number of people who has short-sightedness/long-sightedness. So, after the initial format of grouping user types (as per the format described above), the next stage of segmentation in marketing is to further profile it in groups which are smaller & can be tracked...!!

Segmentation

So comes the concept which we study in all management books like geographic, demographic, psycho graphic & behavioral.

The division of geographic, demographics, behavioral, psycho graphics is known to everybody…but the question is…how to we use them…!!...I mean…I know the sub-parameters which are relevant for my target audience, like income, age, sex, education, lifestyle elements etc etc…...but then what next…..😲. To keep it short, we take a small example which will clarify the process & similar steps needs to be repeated……!!

Let’s say, you are a lifestyle brand…...with one product being ladies’ purse……premium & stylish product…...which you target to young- working woman who is based out of metro & tier 1 cities in India. Let’s try to do the process …. for simplicity & to keep in brief…. let’s consider only 2 parameters out of the four…. the same process will be repeated for the other parameters also…

So, let’s write down the sub-parameters & also list few elements in it (it’s indicative for understanding) …

Geographic- Location

Demographics- Education, Age, Income

As a 1^st step, identify the most important sub-parameter (let’s say Demographics in this case) ….once it’s done lets identify the 2 most important elements out of the list….let’s assume that to be Income & Age….we are now ready to draw our first matrix…..😃

Income/Age	Less than 20 years	(20-35) years	(35-50) years
Upto 10L/annum
(10L-30L)/annum
30L+/annum

The division of the “Income” & “Age” elements is based on business requirements— Consumer Research Data

As per my product/brand profile, I choose to target say those 2 segments….

Women within (20-35) years who earn between (10-30) L/annum
Women with annual income of more than 30L/annum who are between (35-50) years of age

Now let’s integrate it with the remaining 3^rd element of the Demographics parameter…. i.e. Education

(Income+Age)/Education	Undergraduate	Graduate	Post-Graduate
(20-25) yrs+(10-30) L
(35-50) yrs+ 30L+

The division of the “Education” is based on business requirements— Consumer Research Data

Women (20-25) years of age, earning (10-30) L, who is a Graduate
Women (35-50) years of age, earning 30L+, who is a post-graduate

We are through with “Demographics” as a sub-parameter. The process is then to identify the next important parameter out of the remaining 3 parameters (Geographic, behavioural, psychographic). If we assume “Geographic” is the next important, then club “Geographic” with the output of “Demographic” (the sub parameter for is location for geographic)

Demographic/Location	Metro	Tier 1 city
(20-25) yrs+(10-30) L
(35-50) yrs+ 30L+

The division of the “Location” is based on business requirements— Consumer Research Data

So, the output is

Women, (20-25) years age, earning between (10-30) L/annum who stay in Metro city in India
Women, (35-50) years age, earning more than 30L/annum who stay in Tier 1 city in India

Ohhh….we have seen something like this somewhere…..ohh…..we have seen it @ social media targeting…..😉….Yes….you are right 👍…the point is this type of targeting existed long back with the input data coming from Market Research….now the data comes from social media …like….Facebook…..etc.….!!.... with more in-depth detailing of the parameters!!.... but earlier it was not followed that religiously…well its primarily because: It was very expensive to get data from market Research every time……now with social media like Facebook…the data is easily available with low cost…

The accuracy of the data from research was a point of concern……well…it’s like…u spend substantial amount of monies in research to get a data which you are not so sure about the percentage of accuracy😲 …..&….u use that data (as input data) to get a result (STP) ….based on which you will take a decision & spend even more money as marketing campaign..😵….so it was not followed that well…having said that….even social media data is not 100% correct (please remember the data is generated based on the details provided by user and (@least as of now)…beyond a point those social media sites can’t get into verification process because of “privacy issues”)….but…with 3 billion users…it’s a safer bet 👍

Research is based on statistical simulation which by default… (in-built structure) will have some approximation…. whereas the social media data is individual consumer data which increases the percentage of accuracy 😃

One can go to profiling the segments for targeting to the extent that is required by the business, what is important to understand here is too much detailing mayn’t always be required & it comes with added cost in terms of resources & manpower.

Ok, so now we have the list of segments which we can target…. now based on business requirements which is primarily 3 things…sustained profits, future growth possibilities & company strategy one identifies the segment to target…. 👍

Targeting

The targeting is generally based on 3 approaches (mass targeting, niche & differentiated targeting…or combinations of the same) with the 3C’s framework (Customer, Company, Competition) as base….

(we all know this as a part of management books….so I am not getting into it further)

Positioning

Now, you have the target segments…. the positioning is primarily done in terms of perceptual map…. (again, it’s well documented in management books ….so I am not further dwelling into it).

Now, let’s have a quick look @ B2B….does all the steps discussed till now make sense for B2B…??....YES…but not in its entirety…..in B2B the difference comes with the parameters of segmentation….because in this case, the profiling is not of the end consumer…but….of a business (since your customer is another business)….hence the parameters change…😃…for example… sub-parameters like age, sex, income etc. doesn’t make sense for a business right…😂….so parameters like geographic, demographics are generally taken in more holistic sense without further sub-division….for example…in geographic it can be whether the customer is local, multinational, transnational, in demographics…its translates into which sector the customer operates, what is the current size of the customer organization…in behavioral…. decision makers of the customers (who are again consumers) ...are used.

Million dollar question…now I am done with the STP…where do I use it as a marketer..??.😵

STP is primarily used for communication & elements relating to it…like basic construct of ATL/BTL, media, creative, copy etc. etc.…..communication to the end consumer…!!....with the objective to create a positive perception about your brand/product with the end consumer.

Ok, now by STP you are able to communicate with your end consumers and built a positive perception about your brand/product…..👍…is that sufficient enuf for the business to survive….I mean….”communication with the end consumer” & “creation of the positive perception”….is all that’s required for the business to do with the consumers…..the answer is NO…it’s the necessary condition but not the sufficient one….hence the name of the article….STP IS BIBLE OF MARKETING…IS THAT ALL..?? 😀….

There is another aspect of STP which I will cover in Part II. To understand the other form of STP we will use this discussion so far…but divide the business in 3 types

Offline- Channel driven business
Offline & Online- B2B Business
Online- B2C Business & Offline- Direct Sales

I hope you enjoyed reading my perspective on STP…let’s explore more in Part-II...😃😄

Summary Snapshot of Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning

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Training Distributor Sales Representative (DSR)

2019-10-20T13:40:00.000+05:30

Training Distributor Sales Representative (DSR)

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Training of Distributor Sales Representative (DSR)

When I was studying in school (that’s long long back…. NO..I am not OLD…Like every other thing in the world grows.…My age is also growing…😂😂, salesman was the word generally used for sales team. Somehow, in maximum of cases, they didn’t carry a pretty picture, they were thought to be carrying a bag & roaming from door-to-door…. street-to-street, in hot blazing sun…. Every time they tried to convince a customer, they were thought to PUSH….as if they were trying to sale @ any cost. Since then, sales as a function have evolved in leaps & bound…. with the modern sales guys representing a smart & dynamic group, ready to explore, experiment & win…. it’s no longer push-sales …. rather it’s solution sales/@least moving to solution sales… 😜 But if somebody is to identify one group who still carry that baggage (@least to some extent) of the earlier sales-man image…. which group is that…? YES…. you got it write…. It’s the Distributor Sales Representative (DSR)/Distributor Sales Associate (DSA).

The interesting part is that, in industries where DSR/DSA exists…. they generally contribute to more than 80% of the overall number of sales persons in the that industry 😳 & is responsible for 100% of the Distributor sales. 😲…& in many cases…collection also… 😮

All this means, the team who actually do the large part of channel sales & many times corresponding collection (i.e. DSR/DSA)….is the one who has the least amount of sales skill…..and a not-so-good image (the image of my school days sales-man)..😳!!....wait a sec….what are you saying…..is it so?? YES..IT IS SO…..doesn’t the company/distributor know about it……YES THEY KNOW….why don’t they do something about it……YES THEY DO….!!.......THEY TRAIN DSR/DSA….😝…..@least I hope everybody is very clear & in the same page with me….

Wait a sec….whose responsibility is it….who is accountable for the training of DSR/DSA…..???😧….ask the company …they will say both the company & the distributor…..but in closed doors of the company the discussion is something different…..well its our job…but first responsibility is of the distributor…..else why is the distributor required..😉…..now go & ask the distributor….he will most probably say….I do train those people….for comprehensive training company should pay..😜….ohhhhh….I missed one big reason …..DSR/DSA quickly switch jobs…so you train them…&…post that they leave with the training to a higher paid job…..so solution is …have training but limited training.. 😇…output….we have a group of DSR/DSA…..who are not well trained….so they don’t meet their sales target….worst….they don’t move to other job…because they don’t get it…..so they stay….net net result….a group of FRONTLINE SALES person…who are there with you & they can’t meet their sales target…cheers…😁

Let me add the nail to the coffin..😳…majority of the cases the DSR has to do dual reporting……NO….not matrix reporting structure (in matrix one never reports to 2 different person for the same function….but there is generally a clear cut earmarked reporting line….say for ex: I may report functionally to somebody & business-wise to somebody else in matrix structure). The DSR generally takes direction from both the distributor & the company sales rep…. like company sales rep. saying “SALES – SALES – SALES…..” & distributor saying “COLLECTION – COLLECTION – COLLECTION …” 😃…In maximum of the cases direction comes from both Distributor & the company sales representative on the same topic…say for sales, retailers, campaign etc. etc…which in maximum cases is different… 😵…. &…. manage/@lest try to manage both the egos...!! 😄

Over the years, there is @least one common thread across all successful sales stories in distribution-based businesses…. the company sales person/Distributor has got a motivated, trained & efficient set of DSR/DSA…. it’s IMPOSSIBLE to have sustainable growth without the DSR/DSA being the real torch-bearer…just impossible...!!

It’s IMPOSSIBLE to have sustainable growth without the DSR/DSA being the real torch-bearer…just impossible...

As a solution to all discussed, DSR/DSA training in current situation across majority of the companies/distributors in Sales & Collection Training and Product Training…. cheers...!!😊

TRAINING of (DSR/DSA) …is much more than regular training…given their current situation & where they should be....as per the high stakes on them…!!.... else entire channel will suffer…. right from company to distributor….to retailer…&…. finally, the consumer…. YES…the consumer also...!!

Just one point to note here…. this article will also find use for the third party (off-role) employees whose role involves the following (may be a mix of the enlisted also):

Sales to retailers
Market/on-ground activations
Collection from retailers

Now, we are here to discuss DSR/DSA Training….I have a proposal….let’s take a reverse approach....let’s see who is a Distributor Sales Representative…what he does….&….accordingly come up with his training plan….what say…😄👍…then obviously one of the core objective of any training --- “improve efficiency & effectiveness”….will be taken care 😊…&…also “enhancement of role” if any can also be addressed…!!

So we are here to generate a training module for the DSR……ok…so let’s start the way a training module is generally made…😃….so we need to profile him first (in terms of him as a person as well as his job role)…&…then explore the probable areas of training..😃

Let…. set…go….!!

Who is a Distributor Sales Representative (DSR)/Distributor Sales Associate (DSA)?

Distributor Sales Representative/Associate is sales person of the distributor (Read: https://www.ayan-biswas.com/2019/09/distributor-training.html)on the payrolls of the distributorship/third-party (the compensation may be shared with the company or completely borne by the distributor/company). Apart from sales, his role may also include collection from the retailers/campaign @ retailers

Profile of DSR/DSA

They are not highly qualified… (the range generally varies from 10^th fail to graduate)

They are the localities…

They aspire to be in the company rolls... a part of the company sales team...

The experience in sales varies as much as from (2-25) years.

Salary range varies from INR 5000/month in tier3 cities/rural…lower experience ...to INR 50000/month for metro city... with higher years of experience.

Their daily allowance varies from INR (50-250) based on the city they operate in.

For a large majority of them, the mode of transport is 2-wheeler (mainly bikes and bi-cycles), although few travels by public transport & a handful have cars...

They sent their child to school & desire that someday they will work with established company in senior positions

Maximum of their spouse in home maker

They generally work 6 days/week with Sunday being a holiday

They are the frontline sales/collection guys for the retailer and/or activation guys in the market

Majority of them carry smart phone…. many have television, fridge in their house…with few affording air conditioners also

Majority of them frequently switch jobs, mainly moving to allied industry distributors & sometimes within the same industry to competition brand distributors, primarily within the same city,

Most Important…They know the Retailer, shop boys…i.e. their market…. the best…

How does a typical day of those guys look like…? (the description may vary in some cases based on the industry type & the geographical area the DSR needs to cover, but broadly it addresses the major

Arrive @ office (distributorship) between (8-930) am

Take the data (sales & collection of the customers in his beat for that day) from accounts

Attend the morning meeting

Move into the market as per the sales beat (sales beat is the route the DSR follows in which he meets customers, his retailers. Sales beat is generally planned, like on Tuesday the DSR will go through this route, similarly for other days of the week)

Start meeting retailers, where he collects order--- (sales, if its new & existing retailer) and money, if its existing retailer

Enters data in the Sales Tool (Lot companies have moved /are moving into sales enablement tools…thanx to digitalization of sales process)

Generally, have late lunch (after 3pm), many don’t have that also

Does campaign as per plan (may be as simple as an Umbrella campaign outside the retailer store or in-store promotion)

Between (9-10) pm his day gets over, may/may not go back to office- Meets between (7-30) retailers based on the industry type & city, for ex: Lubricant industry, upto 7/8 counters, for tobacco 30/40 counters, both for one part of a large market like Mumbai

Given their background & their role... maximum of their training is of Sales & Product training…the point is …is that enuf…!!😉

The ones highlighted are the key areas of his job & deliverable, so let’s look @ it in more dept to arrive @ the areas where he would need training:

Key areas of (DSR/DSA) training

Take the data (sales & collection of the customers in his beat for that day) from accounts

Product-wise sales across customer/markets—how the product is moving week on week
Value wise movement across customers/markets
Credit in terms of both value/number of days—corresponding collection status Movement of high margin products/new products – customer wise
Campaign results in terms of off-take from the counter/market, where the campaign was conducted…. etc

Being in sales, they finally deal in numbers as their key deliverable…but…do they understand numbers...??😲 ...No... they don’t. Hence, they don’t understand the analysis of the same also….😳!!..Wait a sec…are we looking for an analyst here…or a front line sales person…more importantly given their background and education level, will it be possible for them to understand & learn analysis, which leads us to this fundamental question…how much analysis do they need to know, there is already a company official (the sales executive in company payrolls earmarked for the distributor to support in analysis). Well the answer is YES…they need to understand analysis to the extent that helps them to read their basic sales & collection data…. which then helps in 2 things namely…

First…they can understand their market (retailers) better…which helps in better performance Second…. they analyze the data (sales & collection) …. for the discussion in the morning meetings…which becomes very fruitful & output driven….

So, what’s the analysis they need…. the need to analyze data (sales & collection) @ its basic level, they need to know how to calculate the following like (indicative list):

Training for DSR should include Basic sales formula & excel training

What is needed to train them on this…basically a short session on sales formulas & excel..!!...Will they be able to understand it…😶…I share my experience as a trainer…I earlier also was of a similar opinion that they need but can’t be trained easily..&…guess what...I WAS WRONG…ever since my FIRST attempt to educate them on those fundamentals…there has been no looking back…they can learn & relate it to far faster than one can imagine…so great…here we are..

Training for DSR should include Basic sales formula & excel training

Attend the morning meeting

We all have been attending meetings…can you tell two most important criteria for one to drive his/her point through it??...Well first…sound logic backed up with data & second …right presentation of the same…!! Ask any sales team…the unanimous choice of one area of improvement for the DSR will be…their presentation skill…surprisingly very few organizations do something about it…although majority of them know about it…If the DSR is the primary sales person for you in the market…how would you enhance your TBBE (Trade Based Brand Equity), if the torch bearer needs substantial improvement in their presentation skills…I would go a step ahead…on soft-skills…I have seen huge improvement in relationship marketing with the DSR’s who have better Soft-Skills…relationships across both the sides of the funnel…one side of the funnel…with the market (retailers etc) to the other side of the funnel…distributor & the company sales official..& both are equally important..!!

Furthermore, not to forget it will help him to manage his dual reporting better….👍…which is highly required for smooth functioning @ grass-root level

Training for DSR should include Basics of Soft-Skill that are required for Sales

Start meeting retailers, where he collects order (sales, if its new & existing retailer) and money, if its existing retailer

Majority of the current training program/modules address this point of the DSR, which is also probably the main part of his day to day activities. The training is primarily made with an objective to educate the DSR with sales skills and product knowledge. The mediums of training are varied from classroom training, video-based training, role plays, case studies (one DSR presenting his success story to a group of DSR’s from other markets etc).

Here I want to reiterate the following key guidelines:

As a consumer, we have gone with the retailer recommendation many times…dropping our choice of brand…sometimes landing up buying a premium product than what we planned😊….hence the retailer needs to be educated on the product/USP/benefits etc.…we all know….we all act also accordingly…so there are retailer meets/dealer apps etc.…etc.…👍….but unfortunately that’s not enuf…. it’s important that the retailer is continuously & systematically bombarded with the same...& not only on few meets & on the digital tools (which stays @ the mercy of the retailer to see). This can ONLY BE DONE BY THE DSR/DSA, as he is the only person who visits the retailer on a regular basis….so the DSR/DSA needs to include that in the sales pitch…. which is only possible if he is trained on it?

Hence, training on basics of positioning/RTB should be a part of sales/marketing/product training of the DSR.

Training on basics of positioning/RTB should be a part of sales/marketing/product training of the DSR

Except a handful of companies, I am yet to come across the company which explains their advertisement (TVC, Rdio, OOH , Social Media Campaigns etc) to the channel…I really don’t understand why they don’t…if it’s for the end consumers…those end consumers lands up in the retail to buy….where many times different retailer creates their own story of the advertisement based on their understanding/interpretation of the same) to consumers….That’s like walking directly into the Grave..!!....Now take that….a consumer hopps 5 shops in same/adjacent market to get the best deal out of a product…& learns about 3 different explanation of the same advertisement…!!...& …we are also same time parallelly taking about brand image/identity/positioning etc etc…😵surprised)!!...On the hind side

It can be used by the retailer to proactively sale the product

The Retailer will be one more mouth-piece for the brand @ end-consumer level, if nothing he can talk about…. say a face book campaign….to the consumer who will visit your page...may be like it…subscribe…& buy next time...& we spent millions to get them…right…!!

DSR Training about the TVC

The DSR needs to repeatedly hammer the retailer with the advertisement, so that he starts saying it to the end consumer…All this will happen only if the DSR is equipped with the same ..unlike …just informing him in the DSR meet…this is our new TVC..& play it on a big screen with lots of meaning-less claps to follow…😈!!

DSR should be shared details (reason for ad, purpose of it, what is the ad trying to say, to whom is it targeted, how to use this as a sales tool etc, on the current advertisements (at least mass media) of the company

I was privileged to have great bosses in my career….I learnt more than my years of experience from them…..one very important thing that I learnt is…..both EFFORT & RESULT matter….and as one goes up the hierarchy…..RESULTS become more important than EFFORTS… (else think this…the MD of a company talks about how much effort he puts….although results don’t show….😄. One needs to have the same perspective for the DSR/DSA…..he/she should be evaluated both on effort/result….the irony is…the smaller the company…more they focus on result….&….they keep on staying smaller..!!..Efforts for the DSR may be number of counter he visited, number of campaigns he conducted, whether he fills up the daily sales report etc. etc.…. results ...we all know right...😆, collection days/value, number of new counters cracked, sales numbers etc. etc.

Comprehensive beginner level personality development/grooming/image building training needs to be conducted for DSR/DSA…. financials can always be worked with the distributor...!!

Whenever we talk of the DSR/DSA… maximum times the image that comes to our mind is the we discussed earlier…. (the image of sales-person during my school days). Its high time….companies start grooming exercise & image building exercise with the DSR…don’t worry…I am not suggesting to make them a flimstar…😅….but one that makes them presentable…more professional..!!...I really wonder this….companies spends substantial amount of money in training their sales team…with an highly active HR (Hopefully…😄 and an agile trade marketing/sales (again hopefully…😝)…why don’t they care to spent a small amount on DSR personality development…😳….given finally on-ground…..the DSR/DSA is the representative of the brand..!!..& best part….it’s a visible differentiation @ trade level…..as very few companies (in fact negligible few) does it…so your DSR clearly stands out in front of the retailer/end consumer in case of campaigns…!! (giving T-shirts/Caps ...other merchandise items don’t solve it plz…. its required…but not enough…let’s not take the easier route out…. 👍

Ok, I had a good discussion…. &…hopefully same with you…so we conduct DSR training like we discussed…& spent…. huge amounts….NO…never…. NEVER DO THAT…😳

In this digital age (primarily since 2010), social media is catering to more than 3 billion consumers in the world...!!.... What’s your DSR/DSA strength…!! 😜….except few face-to-face meetings…&…may be the one-off with the senior company official…where only selected DSR can meet…..my suggestion is to make it completely online…(selection parameters can be decided….say effort , result & training performance….like that…based on your requirements..)…..This will take care of the biggest hurdle in DSR training….the time of the DSR….online modules which needs to be completed in a given time-frame, which the DSR can access as per his convenience…will definitely enhance the efficiency & effectiveness of the training programs..!!...👍

Online will also help to design course material as per DSR (yes….it can be done…plz check it….or @lest for a group of DSR)….make it regular with reporting… (NO….not big reports…sometimes only Image helps…😊which is measurable….based on which a part of the incentive can be decided…& trust me…..you will get distributor support in maximum of the cases with a contribution from him …..may be over a period of time..👍

All we discussed will help in what???...DSR/DSA being more professional & performing….YES…..it will….but there are other benefits that comes with it….Your Distributor automatically in more aligned, New distributor appointment becomes easier with this proposal, Your retailers are more happy…which translates to in your consumer advocacy…Ur DSR/DSA retention rate goes up substantially with DSR from competition willing to join & very-very important point….the company sales person is more liquidation manager than dumping manager.😃

DSR Training & Digitization

Summary Snapshot - Training Distributor Sales Representative (DSR)/Distributor Sales Associate (DSA)

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Starting Point of Brand Management

2019-10-12T17:45:00.000+05:30

Start Point of Brand Management

Brand is probably one of the key success matrices for any business, it’s also one of the most loosely used term in business landscape, with different people narrating a different meaning @ different situation… 🤯🤣. What we must remember---

Brand is always a perception for the consumer but a well-defined concept for the marketer

Have you seen a lion… Goat… Snake… peacock… Fish… Spider… Dinosaur 😁 it doesn’t matter whether you have seen them or not...? What it matters is you can tell about them to almost perfection without even interacting with them…And the description won’t vary between you, me, him, she, everybody or anybody in the world… That’s a Brand... Animals are the biggest brands since time immortal and they will continue to be so forever

Animals are the biggest brands on earth

This article therefore covers the basics of brand management… to be more specific, it covers the starting point of brand management. Mind it, I have kept two very closely related terms - Brand Management & Product Management separate. Hence the article doesn’t get into detailing of the Product management. For the same read first100 days of Product Marketing Management

Although the basics of brand manager is same across all business formats like B2C, B2B, B2B2C,C2C, and distribution based business, both offline & online sales channel, but the importance of various sub parameters of basics changes as per the format. This articles explores the basics—for format wise & sales channel wise ( offline & online) discussions, kindly refer to other articles of my blog (www.ayan-biswas.com)

The article talks about brand management in general & doesn’t get into details of Tradebrand and consumer brand or the relative importance of both

What is Brand Management??...Well if one starts studying ….it will take may be few years to read everything… 😳. &…by that time few new ones will crop up…😂, let’s keep it simple...& easy to understand...

You as a company make pen…so does my company….now think about a 3^rd person…how he tells somebody else about our pens…he has to earmark the pens made by your company & mine in some different ways…else he won’t be able to say about our pens…as both of us makes pens…that earmarking…which may be your/my name….address….color...logo etc...is brand

What is Brand?

So, a brand can be a name, color, logo etc which makes people understand which company has made the product…

How does it help ??...it helps the buyer/government/any stakeholder to identify the company which has made the product....

Since as a part of Indian government regulation, you need to have @least a name for your business, it means all we see around is a brand...😨 …. yes…. they are…. 👍….@least theoretically…. all are brands. Names are used by companies @ generally 2 ways….

Corporate v/s product brand

Types of Brand

1st company name…which is called a Corporate Brand…2nd product name… (products which we buy & use) …. it’s called Product Brand

Which means when the company deals directly with the stakeholder (for eg. Customers), Corporate brand finds more use…. For eg. L&T as a company (corporate brand) taking up a turnkey infra project for govt. of India (customer)

When the product from the company deals directly with the stakeholder (for eg. customer), Product brand finds more use. For eg. Maggie (product brand) which we buy.

Hence, generally, if it’s B2B business, corporate brand will be more discussed (siemens, Accenture etc.) whereas if its consumer business, product brand will be more in focus (Lux, pepsodent etc.). There are some exceptions to this, for eg. In BFSI sector, real state etc. in the retail product division also, consumer like you and me generally refer to corporate brand instead of product brand. For eg. When we as a consumer buy an insurance, we don’t remember the product name but remember the insurance company name or when we buy a house, we tend to remember the builder’s name which a corporate brand is.😉😃

Having said that, both Corporate & Product Brand finds use in all business, but the contribution varies as per the business type😃

A good/well-known brand (for good reasons…haha) finds usefulness not only in the marketing & sales side by attracting more loyal consumer base but also across all other dimension in which the business functions like…

You get good vendors if you’re a known brand
You attract better employees if you are known brand
It’s easier to deal with government authorities & other legislative bodies if your brand is known.
Better partner’s and alliances with allied companies are easier to form with a known brand
https://www.ayan-biswas.com/2019/11/4-key-aspects-of-agency-liasoninglife.html
You are far more accepted in your industry forums, industry bodies etc.
For any major legislative decision changes in the industry, you may be consulted

There can be a separate discussion on each of the above tangent but as of now, we are going to restrict our discussion to general brand management corresponding to marketing.

So, what is brand management all about…. well...its managing the brand...i.e. the name/logo/color …any form by which consumers can identify the brand…may be a sound…remember...olla la la ulae oo ulla la la ae oo..yes…that’s kingfisher…it can also be a pneumonic…like fidodiddo…all those name, logo color, sound etc etc of the brand is called Brand Element or Elements of the Brand.

What is meant by managing those elements…? let’s try to write down some of the points of managing the brand

Ensure consumers know about the brand—if they don’t know, how will they search/ask for your brand and correspondingly the product, then they won’t buy it
Ensure whenever consumers see the brand, they recognize the brand--- if they don’t, again they will not buy
The consumers maintain such a supreme opinion about the brand, that anything your brand does, which may/mayn’t be related to business, they think the brand does a good job--apart from your current products ( say pens) any other business that you may bring get in the future ( say pencils), the consumers will feel it will be superior offer.
Whenever consumers see any brand element, they think about the brand
Consumers never feel you charge more than what you offer, but always feel they gain more compared to what they pay to buy your brand

Brand Awareness

Consumers know about the brand, in technical terms, it is known as “Brand Awareness”

Brand Awareness

It means, the consumers know there is a brand named say Maruti, Lux, SBI, Amazon etc... Why is this important…because in maximum of the cases…consumers like us…you & me…tend to buy (spent our money) on known brands…why??...because unknown brands we are not so sure whether it will serve the purpose of buying that product. For ex: One would always tend to but a cricket bat of SS instead of a cricket bat from Ayan & Co ( no…I am not into cricket bat production/marketing…it’s just for an example..wink wink), because one is not sure how much time will the bat of Ayan & Co last, whether the strokes will be good enuf…etc etc…

So, Brand Awareness is important…but…wait a second…is that enuf??...

Think about any industry…u would be aware about a lot of brands in that industry….but you don’t buy them all…!!...say in cars we know Maruti, Honda, Tata, Mahindra, Skoda …the list is large….but we don’t buy all…which means…brand awareness is a necessary condition but not the sufficient condition for a consumer to buy your brand…but the REVERSE is generally true….if the consumer is not aware about your brand…he/she will most probably never buy the brand…

Is that all??.... almost…except one point…. has it happened with you before??...I have heard this brand name/seen this logo…but can’t recollect what is it…!!

Brand Logo

Many times we confuse brand awareness with “Brand NAME/LOGO awareness” …

Brand name-logo-awareness

This means I know the name/logo of the brand but don’t know what is the category/product/service the brand is into…then the purpose is again defeated …as when you as a buyer plan to buy the product/service in the same category where the brand exists…u won’t consider the brand @all…because u don’t know that the brand operates in the same space where you are planning your purchase….so Brand NAME/LOGO awareness is not complete brand awareness…one needs to know the Brand Name or logo or color etc. along with the category in which the brand operates….this is more true…as there are millions of brands in this world…and no human being knows all of them..!!...

Brand Recall

Consumers see the brand, they recognize the Brand, In technical terms, its known as “Brand Recall”

Brand Recall

It means whenever the consumers come across any brand element (logo, name, color etc etc), they are able to quickly relate it to the brand in mind. Now think about a situation, a consumer is aware about a brand but @ the time of purchase he can’t relate the brand elements with the brand…ohhhhh…. then he/she is again not going to buy the brand…

Let’s spend some more time on Brand Recall…. think about a practical day-to-day life…you and your friend go a witness a movie on a Sunday, after a few days when you are discussing general topics with a group of friends the following things can happen:

When you all discuss movie as a topic, you start talking about the movie you witnessed with your friend--- This is Top of the Mind Recall (TOM). When the discussion started on movies, you just spoke about that particular movie all by yourself i.e. you recalled the movie as if it was there @ the top of your mind.
When you all discuss movie as a topic, one of the members of the group ask what you did last Sunday… you said you went to witness a movie & started talking about it—This is called Unaided Recall. You didn’t talk about the movie all by yourself like in previous case, but you started talking about it when your friend prompted, but after being prompted, you didn’t take any help from anybody, but talked about the movie by yourself.
When you all discuss movie as a topic, one of the members started talking about the movie you witnessed last Sunday. He talked about few points of the movie may be like the actors, few memorable scenes from it, then suddenly it stuck you that you have also witnessed the movie—This is called Aided Recall. Here, you were helped (aided) by one of your friends, then you remembered the movie.I hope you understand there is no point in discussing the situation where u don’t recall the movie @all, I mean forgot about it completely….

It’s obvious that brands want to be in the TOM, if not there then Unaided Recall & if nothing then @lest Aided Recall…

Brand Image

The consumers think your brand is superior, it’s technically called “Brand Image”

Brand Image

This is consumers perception about the brand. Think about your first love…how everything he/she did was right, how you always felt good about him/her…!! That’s a positive impression which shows you had a positive image about the other person…or how one generally tries to maintain positive image in front of teachers/bosses etc…a positive brand image is always a blessing for the brand….in good & more importantly in bad times….few popular food & beverages brands went through turbulent times in terms of complains about their products having harmful particles for human health, one of the big factors that pulled them out of the crisis was the positive brand image among its millions of consumers.

It’s important to note that many times a non-user of the brand also has opinion about the brand …for ex…very few buy Mercedes, but generally everybody has a positive image about the brand, similarly…not all Chinese products have poor quality…but the general image of Chinese brands in not so positive …

Brand Identity

Whenever consumers see any brand element, they think about the brand, technically it’s called “Brand Identity”

Brand Identity

This is an identification for the brand. The brand tries to create unique brand elements (name/logo/color/sound/mnemonic etc) so that there is a distinct identity in the minds of the consumers whenever they see the brand. The R within a circle/TM … that you see in lot of brand names, means the brand name is Registered/Trade Mark applied, which are efforts to protect the brand identity, because Registered/Trade Market name can’t be used in the same way by any other brand…

Apart from those detailed above there are 3 more terms one needs to be aware of:

Brand Positioning

This tells that value the brand offers to its customers…

Brand Positioning

There may be many car manufacturers selling car…but one of them may offer/claim to offer better Mileage… so Mileage is the positioning...

It’s very clear all brands don’t have a unique positioning…although all of them try to have a unique positioning….

Brands generally write the positioning statement along with the brand name but whether the brands have been able to correctly position themselves in consumer mind, depends on whether the consumers think like that about the brand…

For ex: I always wanted my friends to think that when I play cricket…I am the best batsman…so I should open….actually….I rarely opened….which shows my friends didn’t have the same opinion about my batting…so I couldn’t position myself correctly…although I always tried to say it whenever I got the opportunity… now the question is….why my friends felt like that…must be because my batting didn’t give them that confidence ( may be because of my scores, the way I batted etc etc), similarly consumers , in their mind, form opinions of the brand performance ( benefits , drawbacks of the brands etc), which is the actual positioning…although the brands may try to say a different thing in the positioning statement….needless to say…brands would like the consumers to feel the same as per the positioning of the brand.

Brand Association

Your brand operates in a particular business (say engine oil i.e. lubricant business) and has some attributes that it has to offer to its vehicle owners ( its customers) which is reflected in the positioning of the brand. Now those attributes can be tangible or intangible. For ex , you say your lubricants offers power to the vehicle…..so POWER…is the intangible attribute. So any other business/brand/activity which depicts power, which is not direct part of your business, you can tag on to your brand…..for example ……a wrestling competition is a depiction of power……so you sponsor a wrestling competition…..& try to tell the consumers that your brand is also powerful as the wrestlers..!!...this is an example of brand association. It is partnering brands/business/activities which resonates the same attributes of your brand within the same target audience

Why you need to do it….primarily to increase your reach ( as you will also communicate with the audience of the brand you associate with)….secondly…..associations help to talk about your brand in a subtle way..!!....Many times companies look only @ the similarity in Target group & try brand association as tool…it can be devastating. For ex: Your lubricant brand has a target audience between (25-40) years of age…. the same TG is also for a condom brand…..now think if both associate …..😱😲😝…hence a holistic approach is required to identify the right brand association.

Other proprietary brand assets: This primarily refers to things like trademarks, patents, channel relationship etc, which acts as defense against your competition getting into your customers.

All the brand elements mentioned above is consumer perception about the brand…. which means it varies from consumer to consumer for the same brand…. when you put all those together & try to say it one word….

Brand Equity

Term which puts together all the consumer perceptions…it called Brand Equity

Brand Equity

There are different tools & formulas available to measure the brand equity…. which means the same brand can have different values of brand equity when measured across different tools/formulas…. 😳😲…...hence brand equity is generally considered in relative terms than absolute terms. Having said that…. generally, a big brand will still have high brand equity measured across different tools. The basic purpose is to know whether the brand equity is low, medium or high…. instead of figuring out what’s the exact value of the brand equity….so all tools/formulas generally serve the purpose. 👍

Brand Value

When one sales/buys a brand…. then the financial value of the brand is considered….as finally its monies right😃. This financial value is known as Brand Value

Brand Value

Measurement of Brand

I always used to ask this question during my college days, ok…now that I have understood those terms ….how do I use them….😲….where do I use them,…😧….as I don’t come across a direct visible use of it….!! Majority of those terms are measurable (in numbers) …. yes, u heard it right…. measurable in terms of numbers…. & acts as an input for a decision/action. Hence, brand management is, in most cases, a measurable concept for the marketer & not “perception based” which many do believe…!! 😊. Maximum of those elements are measured by market research, which throws the required numbers.

“Brand Health” also sometimes known as “Brand tracks”/“Purchase Funnel”, “Ad Tracks” are measurement matrix generally used in industries to measure the different components of the brands which we discussed. Given the boom of digital, the matrix has evolved over a period.P&G & later Google added further changes to this model. Furthermore, the matrix does change little based on industry types, but broadly the parameters remain the same

Brand Purchase Funnel

Those are the stages a consumer goes through during the purchase process which is measured by the brand elements. To give an example, you may be a mobile handset manufacturer, where the research data shows something like this:

Awareness- 75% ---- (75% of your target audience is aware about your brand)
Consideration- 32%-- 32% of that (75%-consumers who are aware) may consider your brand while making a purchase
Purchase- 11%-- 11% of the (32%-consumers who consider) purchases your product
MOUB- 4%-- 4% of the (11% of consumers who purchase your brand) consumers MOST OFTEN buys your brand
Advocacy/Delight- 1% of the (4% of the MOUB consumers) talks positive about your brand/delighted))

“Measurement of Brand” as a topic needs more elaborate discussion, hence I shall cover it in separate article. Meanwhile, if you have any questions regarding the points discussed & “measurement of Brand”, don’t hesitate to write to me. 👍

There are a lot of other terminology in brands…. but those discussed here are good enuf to start understanding, communicating and working in brand management….!!..😉😝

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My last accident !!(My Road Trips)

2019-10-04T12:07:00.000+05:30

My roadtrip... My last Accident

Mishaps doesn't end with Accident but starts with it!

Road Trip in India is an evolving & fast catching up concept, with lots of youngsters joining the bandwagon. I @ personal level have started embarking on road trips in India more than 15 years ago. This article talks about the turning point in my perception of road trip & how to go about it. To all my fellow Road trippers, mishaps doesn’t end with an accident but starts with it…!!

Morning 10am. Four people in the car, an elderly person 72 years of age (my father), a baby girl of 5 years (my daughter), my wife (sorry, can’t tell her age…😜) & the driver (yours truly). My wife was sitting in the front seat next to driver’s seat (i.e. my seat) with father & daughter in the middle row, the car is Mahindra XUV 500. We were driving from Angul (Orissa) to Kolkata. We have started driving an hour back. It was narrow single lane road running through the villages of Orrisa. There were few 2 wheelers (primarily bikes & bicycles), few auto-rickshaws & handful of cars in the road. The maximum movement in the road was due to pedestrians🤯. I was driving @ around 60Km/hr. & in next 100 meters there was a small speed breaker. There were 3 more vehicles @ that time around our car. The opposite side was a tempo approaching & on the same side on the left of the car was a scooter, two persons in it. Ahead of me was another car approx. 10 meters in front. Suddenly, one biker from the opposite side (it came from an inside lane of the other side, completely invisible to naked eye), just somehow missed hitting the tempo & came right in front of me in speed...!!!

As a human instinct , I turned the steering on the other side(left side, the road-side adjacent to us) & pressed the brakes….next I know the car was jumping on the construction slabs kept on the road side & it was moving on in spite of me trying level best to stop…then it went inside the grass…among the trees just adjacent to the huts of the villagers….it skidded further…then hit something with a loud sound..!!...& the car tilted around 30 degree to the left..!!

It hit a pole...the first thing that dawned on me…..is every passenger in the car alive….wait a sec….those passengers are my core family members….my father, daughter, wife…that moment is probably the worst moment in my life till date….I was scared to turn around…in fearing the worst

Then I heard my daughter’s voice…she started crying…. i immediately turned back to see my daughter lying in between the seats & my father thrown to the other side of the middle row seat (that’s almost 1 meter in the XUV). My wife, who was sitting beside the driver’s seat (where I was sitting) called out for help…. she has fallen between the seat & the dashboard…all were in bad shape…but still I was relieved….as all were alive

All of them were wounded with cut marks & scratches…. we took almost 5 minutes to get all of us back in place in the car. I realized the car is not idling (in start position) & tried to restart the car, but that was not to happen. Then my daughter called out for me pointing outside the car, I looked outside to see a group of locals (around 50 of them) have surrounded the car. They looked aggressive & were shouting, I didn’t take notice earlier as was more concerned with the passenger’s well-being & the window-pane was rolled up. Then it stuck me, have I hit somebody….is the person dead…!!

We were quickly surrounded by a group of villagers even before we could disembark out of the car….& definitely they were not so polite..!!...Given the position of the car ( as you can see in the pic), it was very difficult to come out of the car….as the left side doors were completely damaged & locked due to the impact…so we all could somehow crawl to come out from the left side….the side where the villagers have gathered. So, we came out to land directly face-to-face to the villagers.

Just a quick prelude to this accident, we left Mumbai 2 days back for a Road-Trip from Mumbai to Kolkata, nearly 2100 Km. We had covered 1700 kms already & Angul was a detour to meet one of our relatives on the way. Mind what I said, 1700 Kms in 2 days, that’s approx. 850 Kms per day...!!... 😨😵😲 and the D-Day was the 3^rd day in a row of our travel

How good am I as a driver??...well that’s for the passengers to answer..😃..to add few numbers here…I have been driving for last 26 years ( in fact it’s the 2^nd license I got from RTO, after first one lived its life…😄, have driven for approx. 10 Lakh Kms….across not less than 100 cities ….primarily India ( the terrain is across urban to rural, covering major variations in road types) & few abroad ( last one is from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur)…driven @least 50 models of cars…(thanks to the local sales team, whenever I travel to any location for market visits as a part of business trips, used to drive the car of the local reps)…

To sum-up...26 years of driving.10 L Km..100 Cities…50 different car models...!!👏👌…good numbers for a common man…I would say…!!

Till now it was the physical incidence..!! it was bearable….trust me it was….compared to the mental torture..!!...I vividly remember few moments before the impact….i was thinking about the 2 passengers sitting in the middle seat…one a 72 year old senior citizen & the other a 5 year old child…also equally scared about running into somebody in the bush…as the visibility seconds before the impact was practically zero..!!

Well, to tell you it was the beginning of a very nervous and in many instances dangerous next 12 hours…!!

As we disembarked from the car, I realized I haven’t hit any human…there was an enormous relief. The villagers, primarily middle-aged males, surrounded us. The leaders of the group encircled me and started to speak in harsh local language. My mother tongue being Bengali, I could decipher partly the local Oriya language, they were threatening me to beat up if I don’t pay them. Wait a sec…pay them for what….!!. I kept on asking them the same question…. pay you for what...??...They kept on demanding money.

During this time, I noticed few of the other villagers, trying to open the car. I rushed to stop them, when one of the leaders got hold of the collar of my t-shirt…. i was shocked😰😨 My father & wife jumped in to stop the villager who has holding me by collar, few other locals also came in quickly & pushed the villager back…. he then left my collar. By this time, there were almost a couple of hundred people who have gathered, all spectators, few clicking photos & shooting videos of the car & us…. but nobody came forward to help…just nobody. We four were stranded in the middle of hundreds of very hostile locals.

I rechecked whether the car was locked & took my family to the nearest road-side tea stall, on the other side of the road, few meters away from the place of accident. The leaders of the villagers followed us, but much of the crowd stayed near the car, peeping inside, trying to open the car.

We all had some water & freshened up, when It struck me that I should call up my relative for help (whose house @ Angul we were coming from). After debriefing my relative, I asked for the number of local police station from the shop owner of the tea-stall, but he didn’t have it. It was clear to me, the best way out from this ordeal was to get help from the local police station. I was feeling slightly better now, having spoken to my relative over phone & was expecting him to be with us in an hour’s time. This time, my wife pointed out blood dripping from my leg & hand…I was hurt…didn’t realize it because of the situation. It was deep cut @ hand and a very long scratch in the leg. We had the first-aid in the car, but I didn’t want to go there as it was still surrounded by those locals.

This is the time, when one gentleman, came up to us & spoke in Hindi…. the guy looked local (Sunny- named changed to maintain privacy) …. around 25 years of age and better dressed than the villagers. He had the first-aid with him. He offered me the first aid. It was around 12noon by that time, 2 hours post-accident. Suddenly, we saw the local police van approaching, somebody was kind enuf to intimate the police.

The police quickly made us sit in the van & took us to the police station. The way they did it, swiftly and silently, made my feeling stronger that we were not so safe out there in the accident spot. Sunny followed us in his bike. It was a small police station, with one lock-up @ the backyard. As we entered, one cop took me away from my family (literally dragged) and made me sit just outside the lock-up….!! Till date never in my life I have seen a prison so close…it was scary…. trust me it was. Things started to run in my mind…. what if I am put in prison…? what will happen to the family…what will happen to me…...my car…all sorts…& all negative thoughts.

After some time, the head of the station called me. As I went inside his cabin, first thing he asked “Why did you drive while you were drunk?”…..I was taken-aback😮before I could reply came the 2^nd question “How many people did you kill by your car?”….now I was speechless…..I re-grouped & answered him in as little words as possible” Sir, I am not drunk. No human was hit in the accident, the car hit a pole. I have my family who were also travelling with me in the same car”. I think the last point about the family helped, he immediately called out for my family, took a glance @ them & then told the constable to go through the process & release me.

My relative along with his friends have arrived by then. Sunny was also there constantly interacting with the police to make the process smoother. We checked up to see the nearest #MahindraServiceStation to be approx. 150 Km away...!😨😱 @ Cuttack. We had an #RSA (Road Side Assistance) with #Mahindra signed up. I called up the call center of the RSA, only to know that the RSA service was also located @ Cuttak.150 Km from the accident spot😩. After a few calls (it took almost couple of hours over phone, speaking to people @ various levels @ call center, service station & Mahindra), to my pleasant surprise… they agreed to send the pick-up vehicle all the way from Cuttack & drop it back @ Mahindra service station @ Cuttack…( i.e. 300 Kms up & down)…this was the first positive actual incidence since the accident in the morning…..I was relieved…that things are falling back in place…..but that was not to be.

The process took its own time @ police station & approx. 6pm (that’s around 6 hours @ police station), things got over. We decided to go back to the accident site expecting the localities to have gone by then & also anticipating the toeing vehicle to arrive @ the accident spot.

We drove in #Kaushik’s car to the spot while Sunny followed us in his bike. It was dusk with around 10 villagers sparsely spread around the car, it looked no harm to me. We parked Kaushik’s car around 200 meters away from the accident spot & walked across the road to my car. Everything seemed ok. We decided to have a quick grab, as none of us had eaten till that time of the day, while waiting for the toeing vehicle to arrive.

In next 45 min, approx. 7pm the toeing vehicle was there. Four of us, myself, Kaushik & his friend &Sunny went back near to my car. The toeing vehicle took 15 min to be in right position to pull the car up. We all were witnessing the process.

Suddenly, from somewhere (I even don’t know from where), a group of around 15 people came running….in that darkness (as it was the road was not well lit), I could identify them as the same leadership group of villagers that was there in the morning. They directly came & surrounded me...!!...5 guys encircled me & remaining 10 guys were busy ensuring no other person can intervene…. Kaushik tried hard to push in but all in vain…!! Those 5 guys who surrounded me were drunk…. I could smell it…. One had a rod in hand…. the other 2 hold my both hands. I was clear it’s not for an easy ending here.

Suddenly one of them started speaking in broken Hindi. 😵. In a nut shell this is what he had to say…U can’t run away before paying…..don’t be smart enuf to come in the darkness & take the car away….pay before you take the car….don’t take help of police…..we won’t let the car out from here….what u thought….we have left….no we didn’t….we knew u will come only during night to take your car….so pay now….INR 10K….suddenly one hit me….one tight slap & a punch on face.

Before I could react…. I heard Kaushik shouting…. I AM READY TO PAY…...!!

Immediately, everybody left me & surrounded Kaushik. He was smart enuf to tell them, he will discuss IF & ONLY IF I can leave….to my surprise they all agreed instantaneously. So, I was deported from the accident spot to the place where Kaushik’s car was parked by, approx. 200 meters on the other side of the road.

I was worried…worried….as those villagers were drunk…. I had my family & friends to think about…. & …. worst is every time the villagers saw me…. they went aggressive…which effectively meant…I was of no use to handle the situation. I left it to destiny & sit down in the car. 😫

Post this I became a far-away spectator, witnessed all Kaushik, his friend Sunny going through the difficult task to manage those drunk villagers….I am still ashamed about it & would continue to do so for a long time to come.,…as I couldn’t contribute in anyway…although it’s me finally….who did the accident….. Starting from the accident happened…!

Four of us-myself, father, wife & daughter sat in Kaushik’s car in a pensive mood, nobody uttered a single word. Then Sunny came back to tell us they negotiated with the villagers for INR 4000. Now everything was under control. In next 45 min my car was on the “flat-bed toeing van” ready to travel 150 km back to Cuttack. We left along with car & reached back to Kaushik’s house by around 10pm @ night.

I just thanked god for things finally to end. It haunted me for few months to follow, although I started driving after 15 days once my wounds healed. Getting back to wheels was more to tell myself that I continue to be a good driver & get the confidence back. We got our car back after 2 months.

Thanks all who helped...

I would again thank #KaushikDey, his friend & Sunny, without them, god knows what would have happened. Special thanks to the #Mahindra Service centre manager Mr. S..eer B….(name confidentiality maintained) who helped us right from getting the insurance claimed, proper repair of the vehicle and getting it transferred to Mumbai. It was an amazing gesture from the entire team of #Mahindra of cuttack service centre while I could only sit and watch remotely from Mumbai. And last but not the least, the RSA of #Mahindra – I know we had an #RSA (Road Side Assistance) with #Mahindra signed up but trust me this was probably the one of the better RSAs I have availed till now (I shall be coming up with another article on my experiences with RSA service)

Road Trips--- Revised Version

Before I embarked on the next Road trip post the accident (Mumbai- Hyderabad), I first did sit down & thought through what went wrong in the last one & how could the entire things could have been made better. I have tried to summarize it below:

Defensive Driving: This concept is widely used globally & is making in-roads among drivers in India also. In fact, few corporates also do follow it as a part of their HSEQ (Health, Safety, Environment, Quality) policy.

Drive for (1.5-2) hours & then take a break of (15-20) min. Follow this without fail, even if you feel you can continue driving after 2 hours. Research shows, the rate @ which the fatigue sets in to the driver, increases exponentially with increased hours of continuous driving…. Which effectively means the fatigue for first 2 hours of driving will be far less than last 2 hours…!!.... We road trippers feel it, but rarely take precautionary measure. Keeping in mind the accident that happened, one reason can be also the long hours of drive for continuous 2 days prior to the accident.
Safe distance from the vehicle in front: What is the safe distance & how do we know??...to keep it simple & understandable….take any stationary object on road….say one pole…just after the vehicle in front of you have crossed the pole…start counting 1001, 1002…your vehicle shouldn’t cross that pole before you have counted those 2 numbers. In case of wet roads, the count should be 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004. It’s impossible for you to hit the vehicle in front if you follow this…as by this process….the speeds are relative speeds between the vehicles & not the absolute speed 👍…probably the accident could have been averted had I maintained safe-distance with the car ahead, as I would have seen the bike coming before & would have got more time to react….may be could have stopped my car.

I changed my driving time in road trips. Unlike earlier, when I used to start after breakfast & drive late till night, I made a habit to start early morning after sunrise, have breakfast in between & stop driving with sunset. This gave me time for proper sleep @ night & also made the entire trip more fun filled.

I ensured we always have some snacks in the car. We Road trippers generally do it, but there is also a habit to “lets pick up from the next stop”😆😉…. there is no “next-stop”, pick it up from that-particular-stop. We probably won’t have starved on the accident day, had there been some snacks in the car.

I learnt all the traffic signs all over again…&..trust me…once I tried to learn….I came to know more than half I didn’t know..😮😯..those traffic signs are far more useful in highway drives(road trips) than city drive….the accident day…the bike came from an inside lane….what I didn’t understand was the signboard just before that said that there is a lane that connects ahead….I would have definitely reduced my speed had I knew to read that signage.

Last & not the least--- Drive with less speed--- old cliché—right😜……wrong😠….it’s very true….speed is the single most biggest reason for accidents….had that day my speed been @ around 40km/hr.…..maybe I would have controlled the car….may be the accident could have been averted. I follow a simple equation….if I feel the conditions are good enough to drive @ 80km/ hr.…..I drive it @60km/hr.…..one more point ……which I believe many will agree….if you drive fast…u tend to wear out faster….because you need to brake regularly…&..need to concentrate more….a research done on Mumbai-Pune express way has thrown this data….if one drives as per the speed regulations...which is @ max 80Km/hr...vis-a-vis…one drives as if he/she is fleeing from a chasing dinosaur 😄, the difference in time is only 15 minutes to cover the entire expressway stretch..!!

Rest we Road-Trippers are “Born to Drive” ….

Keep driving👌👏 …hope to drive together for the next destination…. 👍 but as of now, if you have anything to comment, please fill in the below box and subscribe for all my upcoming articles

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First 100 days as Product Manager

2019-09-30T13:12:00.000+05:30

First 100 days of Product Management

Premiere view

First 100 days of Product Management

This article talks about the first 100 days of ground work that a Going-to-be-Product Manager needs to do before even thinking about the first plan…

It will definitely reduce the failure rates of the product manager.The discussions regarding the technicalities or operational aspects of product marketing or product management is covered in a different article by your's truly..!!

Here Product Management & Brand Management is kept separate & hence the article doesn’t get into detailing of the First 100 days of Brand Management

Although the basics of product marketing management is same across all business formats like B2C, B2B, B2B2C, C2C, and distribution-based business, both offline & online sales channel, but the importance of various sub parameters of basics changes as per the format. This article explores the basics—for format wise & sales channel wise (offline & online) discussions, kindly refer to other articles of my blog

Way back in 1800’s, when organizations were taking structure, #product was the king...!!Henry ford went on to say, “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants, as long as it is black."….

Product Dominance during Henry Ford's times

Such was the dominance of product…it used to be the core of the business which customers used to purchase. Over a period of time, as customer became the king, businesses started to make products as per their requirements…mind what I said…products…so products still remained equally important..!!...Today, with advent of online and subsequent omni-channel concept…customer satisfaction has moved beyond product…mind what I said again…beyond product…so product still stays the core…!! With the proliferation of service industry…the definition of product took a new look…now services (many of them) are also defined as product..!!....so product not only stayed a tangible element…but also moved to being intangible….u go for a haircut…based on the cut style…there is a certain amount of money you pay….oolllaaa😍😍……product is still there…..

In a nut shell, product has moved from being a “NECESSARY & SUFFICIENT” requirement as an offering to a consumer in late 1800’s ……to a “NECESSARY” requirement for today’s business…. but it still is Necessary & a very important part of the business offering

Product has moved from being a “NECESSARY & SUFFICIENT” requirement as an offering to a consumer in late 1800’s ……to a “NECESSARY

There are many definitions of product in marketing & business books…let’s look @ one understandable and most importantly implementable..!!….it’s the main offering to your customers among all other ancillary offering to make up the main offering…u sale computers with call center for complain…nobody will complain if they don’t buy your computer…so computer is the product…u are into hospitality where you give one spa free with stay…the proposition doesn’t start if somebody doesn’t stay....so room-night is the product….(would like to state that in most cases the second example is called service, call it if you like so, because the note in remaining section doesn’t change with nomenclature…!!)

I have been taking about product…but then the header of the article says Product Management…why use the term Management here…what’s the management part…is it really important or a fancy term to make the overall sound more professional, stylish etc etc..😜

Yes, it’s important…because it broadly tells you what to do with the product...!! else think about this…. you are given a product…say a soap…You know you have to market/sale it…now what…???...so you are there with a product and the objective with it…but how to attain the objective…the Management in product management broadly tells you how to get there…the objective… 😊

So, let’s try to answer few questions which will make us this better...

What is given to you?...A product…!!...Ok, what is that in the product…what is it made of, what does it do---- Recollect the things you have loved in your life as you were growing up…may be your first bicycle, your first computer, your first phone….then remember the way you made it an integral part of your life…the way you explored it…all things you did with it---- Result---Nobody on earth knew your bicycle, your computer, your phone better than you😘—similarly, you need to know your product like that--- You should be the best in the organization to know about your product---

Knowing the Product

A product manager should know the best in the organization the product/portfolio he handles, which also means he/she should Knowing the Product in & out (technically, physically, chemically, etc. etc...)

Product is like a baby for Product Manager

Why the company has made the product.... To sale it…ohhh😱😲….is it???.... No….to make money i.e. profit out of it… (Sales is the way for that)…how to make profit??. When one sales the product @ a price higher than the overall cost (overall cost= product cost+ marketing cost+ distribution cost+ inventory cost+ etc etc)---- You want to make your product/portfolio the star performer in the organization…right…which means your product should earn sustainable profit for the company, for which the product owner…which is You, should be thorough with all elements discussed in this paragraph--

Knowing the commercial aspects of product

A product manager needs to know the commercial aspects of the product…Sales, Margin, Price, Cost etc of the product so that he can work towards making it commercially viable

How to make product commercially viable?

Who do the company sale the product to make sales/margin etc??...obviously customers..!! everybody knows…Who is this customer..!!...a buyer…that’s understood…ok, lets again retrospect…remember your first love…there is a very high possibility that you knew the person the best among all people around that person…even sometime to the extent you could predict how the person is going to react to certain things and what is the next probable move of that person👏👏…that’s what you call knowing somebody..!!...Well the target should be that for your customers also….because @ the end of the day, they are the group who is going to buy (a sale & corresponding margin—star product, u remember , we talked about). But then, it’s not one person, it’s not possible to know the entire group of customers like the way one knows one person…agreed …very right…so let’s look @ what are the things you need to know about your customers…

Knowing the customers

A product manager needs to know the following about his customers

5W + H of Product

Why does he buy your product—Helps you to position your product etc.

When does he buy your product—Helps you to arrive @ promotions, helps in timing promotions

Where does he buys your product---Helps in ads placement (where to advertise), communication media & tool selection, product availability etc.

Who buys your product—Helps you in grouping customers based on geography, usage (industry types in B2B), income levels etc—Helps you in tailor made communications, helps in communication media & tool selection

What does he buy--- True reason for consumer purchase--- Identification of the benefit & corresponding need-- This helps you to make product extensions, New product developments etc

How does he buy--- Buying process/purchase funnel—Critical in marketing plan as you know when to do what in which sales channel (offline & online)

For product managers in an offline business where there is Trade involved as a part of RTM (Route to Market), he/she should know (5W+1H) for both the trade (direct customers) as well as the end consumer.

All things are now set, but then you need to reach to your customer with the product…right…or…he should reach you to buy the product…or may be both…else how to you make the all-important sale---It’s like you need to reach a destination & have different modes of transport available to reach to the destination (road, air, sea)…. similarly, you must reach your customer …. (like destination) & different modes are available offline/online/TV shopping/tele sales /direct sales etc. (like modes of transport). Say you have decided on the mode of transport , may be you choose 2 types….road and air…& finally decide to freeze on one….similarly you choose … offline & online medium to reach to your customers…Now on road you have car-on-rent, bus service, rail etc. …similarly in offline you have (distributor based sales, direct billing dealers , company owned showrooms etc.) & in online its (on website, marketplaces like amazon, flipkart etc.).Now as based on the types of mode of transport you select (like rent-a-car on road vis-à-vis a chartered flight on air mode), your expenses, time of travel, comfort of travel will vary…similarly here…based on the distribution model you choose (say distributor based offline business model vis-à-vis marketplaces like amazon, flipkart etc. online distribution model) your distribution expense, time-to-market, promotions etc. will also vary😊😊

Knowing the Distribution model

Hence, it’s very important for you as a product manager to know the distribution model (along with commercials of the same) & its implication for your product

Distribution Model & its implementation

Now days monopolistic economy is a history (in maximum cases), hence under most circumstances, your products will have competition around….it’s like fighting with somebody ….i am sure majority of us had @least one fight since childhood days…😉 ……few of us may have many fights😲 now remember that one fight…if you knew the opponent better….you would then know his weakness better….so you can then bash him @things he/she is weak😄😁. Similar is the case in business, you need to know your competitor’s weakness to hit them hard…. & also, their strength…. not be get hit yourself... 😇. But wait again, there is not one competitor like in the case of one-to-one fight & they have multiple strengths & weakness….so the solution is…...

Knowing the Competition

All those points that were discussed earlier which you need to know for your product, all those points you need to know for your competition also.

Know your competition product as good as your's

If we plot the movement of product/service in any organization, then all the business functions (doing different roles) contribute directly/indirectly to give shape to the final product….which means, to get the product in the right form (right features, right communication, right delivery, targeted sales etc etc) the product manager needs to align all those stakeholders. For the alignment, its important product manager needs to appreciate the roles of other stakeholders & the value they create for the product/service. For appreciation, the product manager needs to be in their shoes….no…I am not telling to do their job…. but to understand their job…..the challenges they face & subsequent deliverables. This can only happen if the product manager spends quality time with those stakeholders & continuously keep on interacting with them, which will not only improve efficiency & effectiveness of the entire system, but also increase ownership of all stakeholders of the product & thus enhance their alignment👍.

Relationship Management

So, the product manager needs to develop a healthy professional relationship with other stakeholders like R&D, Operations, design, Supply chain, Sales, Marketing/brand/communication, finance etc parallel to the other points that has been detailed earlier.

Product Management & cross functional roles

There are 2 types of business that you can join as a product manager—either it’s an existing business or a start-up. In case of existing business, it’s good to have the attitude of being innovative & disruptive….but equally important to know what’s that done in the past for the same product/category/related product category (if it’s a new product line)…I find this lacking in maximum of the product managers…they are reluctant to retrospect..!! 😨. The study of the previous efforts & their results will help you…the product manager…..as the DON’T’s NOT TO BE DONE are largely clear….which reduces the chances of failure….😃. For a start-up, it’s important to understand the eco-system before jumping the gun. It’s like…..it rains @ Mumbai during July every year….people get drenched so they carry an umbrella….i came to Mumbai….didn’t care to look @ history….went out & got drenched when it started raining…..& then blame the rains..!!😛

Knowing the History

It’s a perfect example of smart work for the product manager to look @ historical efforts in that product/category to reduce failure rates

Product Manager's learnings

Its advisable to start thinking about the first plan as a product manager after one is thorough with the above points….its good for the company & also for the product manager…..in no ways I am trying to say-- stop ideating during first 100 days😠..no..never stop ideating….rather write down the ideas that keep on popping up during this time…revisit it once you have developed a thorough understanding of the discussed points….welcome to product marketing management…👍😃👍

Summary Snapshot - First 100 days of Product Management

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Consumer Brand or Trade Brand?

2019-09-24T21:33:00.002+05:30

Consumer Brand or Trade Brand?

Consumer brand or Trade brand?

How do you decide whether to make your brand a consumer brand or a trade brand initially when you launch your new company?

Think that you are going to start a new company of yours…say the business of automobile batteries. I hope we all know we need batteries in vehicles…!!...so vehicle owner is the consumer.

You have done all the things that required to start the sales…the product is ready...the brand architecture is ready…the sales team is also ready…so is the e-commerce portal…the entire business plan is good to go…now on the D-Day you have to launch the brand both offline & online…

The question is do you spend money directly addressing vehicle owners and thus make a consumer brand or you spend money on the retailers (who further sells your product to the vehicle owners) or you spend on both the consumer and the retailer equally. That is to say you initially focus on making a consumer brand or a trade brand or a both. Let’s try to answer this channel wise- offline and online

Let’s start with offline. As this channel is a greater number of years in this business…so let’s start with the big brother!

So, in offline, you would need to ensure that your batteries reach to the vehicle owners when they need it. So how do we ensure that? We deploy one sales person per consumer i.e. the vehicle owner (or may be one sales person for a group of consumers) , who stays with them & gives them the battery whenever they want to replace their existing one….well currently in India there are 20 Crore vehicles on road…..so you need 20 crore sales people….spread across India….!!....it will ensure that unemployment is India is gone….😃😄……so it not realistic….so what you do….u search for people who sale batteries (trader) locally…(in a given locality/geography)…& start approaching them…make a commercial understanding with them….for the battery he sells you give him a certain margin…so it’s a win-win situation….he sells your batteries to make money…you grow the business by selling your batteries through him…& since he sales them locally…so your batteries reach to every/maximum of vehicle owner in the locality in which the trader operates….only point ….to cover up every/maximum vehicle owner across India…i.e…you need to get traders across India…

These traders are in business language called as Distributors/retailers/sub—retailers etc….based on @ which level of the distribution channel they exist…like distributors are the one who buys from you (the company) & sales it subsequently to retailers who sale it to the vehicle owner…or to sub-retailer who further sales it to the vehicle owner….the logic is completely based on how much vehicle owners needs to be reached…as every member (distributor/retailer/sub-retailer) etc. have a limited reach (they operate within a given geography, for bigger cities they operate within a part of the city). All those traders earn margin (money for the batteries they sale) & you grow your business by selling batteries through them. For margin structure for traders.

A food for thought here is…why would they accept your commercial offer..??...You are not the only one who is in the business of manufacturing & selling batteries…there are others also (your competitors)….so why should they consider your offer instead of your competitors….well they can accept offer from all the companies…true…in that case what makes them sale your brand more than the competition.

Trade Brand

Here comes the concept of TRADE BRAND. i.e. the brand among/for the traders…before we get into the details of the same, let’s just have a quick look into the other one…the consumer brand & then discusses both together….

It’s easier for us to understand the consumer brand….why…because all of us …in individual capacity….when we are buying anything is a consumer…..so to answer how does consumer think….what is a brand for a consumer…..the best is to ask how do you think when you go to buy something….why you prefer one brand over the other….definitely there are basics of both consumer brand & trade brand but consumer brand comes into picture when the end consumer deals with the brand.

So, trade brand is brand among/for traders…. Consumer brand is brand among/for consumers…

Ok, great so we have reached some place where we can start the discussion…

I already have a lot of questions in mind….

Why do we need two types of brands - consumer & trade?

Let’s try to keep in very simple & understandable….😉..

Why we need two types of brands i.e consumer and trade brand ?

There are 2 groups/profile of people here, first the trader, second the consumer…

For the trader, the brand is a part of his business, money earning opportunity, as a trader he is not looking @ using the brand for his requirement for example in the case of battery, he is not looking at using the battery for his own vehicle (although he may use, but that’s not the core purpose for him).

On the contrary, a consumer is looking to use the brand for his own use, say for example, if I am a consumer of your battery brand, I would look @ using the battery in my vehicle…I have nothing to do with the margin the trader is earning from the battery….

This fundamental difference in requirement & corresponding behavior needs the concept of 2 types of brand i.e. the Trade brand & the Consumer Brand…!!

Can consumer and trade brand co-exist ?

Let’s go back to the battery business & look @ both offline/online business model.

In offline business, you need traders to reach out to the vehicle owners. So, you need Trade Brand. The vehicle owners (consumers) should buy your product, hence you need Consumer Brand also.

So, in offline business, you need both Trade brand & Consumer brand.

In online model, you directly reach out to the consumers, through your own website & different marketplaces (like amazon, flipkart etc), so you need Consumer Brand only.

So, if it’s an offline business model, then one needs both Trade & Consumer brand and if it’s an online business model, then only Consumer brand.

Which one is more important between consumer and trade brand?

The question arises only in offline business, where both Trade & Consumer Brand co-exist.

Let’s go back to the battery business to answer the above question. When you start off with the battery business, you need to reach to the consumers via the trade channel as well as make the consumers aware about your newly launched brand. So, both trade brand and consumer brand needs focus.

To understand this in more detail, where the focus should be more, let’s take a practical business scenario in mind.

Offline Distribution

Think about a situation which has happened to a lot of us in practical life…we go to the shop to buy a product…the retailer introduces a new brand which caters to the same product category & suggests that we buy the new brand…we trust the retailer and land up buying the brand…(sometimes it’s more expensive than the brand we had in mind to purchase/we generally purchase)…why...because we buy a lot of other items also from the retailer or have been buying from the retailer since a long time…& hence we trust the retailer of not pushing us with a wrong recommendation, as we as a consumer believe, that retailer won’t put @ stake an existing customer for a new brand….i.e. to say…we would stop buying from the retailer if we find that his recommendation was not right…so he is going to make the right recommendation to us…

Consumer or Trade Brand?

A business is to make money by making profitable sale of the products. When a new brand is launched, generally the sale is low & with period, as more and more trade partners join hands and more consumers start believing in your offering, the sale and the profits increase. Hence, @ the beginning, generally businesses have lower marketing and sales budgets to operate with, as the overall profits of the business is also low due to lower sales. Hence, a business needs to decide where it would spend the budgets i.e. to say prioritize it spends. Given this condition lets again revisit the question and try to answer it.

Let’s for the time become a consumer…. think you are @ the retail shop…. When we as a consumer, go and buy a product from the retail store, in many cases the retailer influences our purchase decision about which brand to buy. Why we get influenced??Because we see the retailer in person, who has a shop (hence can’t run away by giving a false advice) and parallelly the company is not visible to us in person. The effect of this is felt even more for a newly launched brand, as the consumer trust on a newly launched brand is comparatively less than an established brand.

Now as a new battery company, given the limited budget, you may need to optimize you spends by

Either spend more on Trade & less on consumer to start-off & expect the retailer to do the recommendation for you @ Point-of-Sale (as you will pass on more benefits to the retailer by giving him higher margin than competition brands)

Spend more on consumer by communication/advertisement/consumer offer & expect the consumer to ask for the brand from the retailer.

The 2^nd option takes a long time with huge amount of spends…because the number of consumers are far more than the number of retailers….hence to convince a large number of consumers to come & ask for your brand takes time…..in-fact a lot of big brands are still chasing that dream…it’s probably the ultimate dream of a brand when the consumers start asking for the brand…!!

Hence, the company settles for option 1 generally…which is to focus on Trade Brand to start-off. So, what does the company actually do when we say that it focuses on trade brand…??...the objective is get the maximum out of the traders, so the company generally does the following for the traders to make it an good trade brand.

Higher margin/better commercial terms to trade

Improve supply of products to trade

Increase the number of traders the company operates with

Higher incentives to traders when they attain the company targets

Loyalty program for traders

The company focus on spending the budget primarily on trade and less on consumer and thus aims to make it a good Trade Brand, in the initial years of launch

Now, as the company keeps on growing, the sales keep on increasing…. which means more and more consumers start buying the brand. To further increase sales, the company would need the remaining consumers, who are currently not buying, to start buying the brand. Those are the consumers who are not easily getting convinced alone by the retailer recommendation. They might get convinced if the company also starts speaking to them apart from the retailer. Furthermore, the brand would also need to ensure the current consumer base does stay loyal to them. This is the time, when the brand starts spending more & more on Consumer brand…doing a lot more of ATL (TVC, Radio ads etc) & BTL (Consumer activation etc) …

So as the company reaches a certain volume of sales & margin, the focus slowly shifts to making it a Consumer Brand.

It’s important to note here, there is no defined time/sales number/margin after which the company starts focusing on consumer brand…it’s a gradual shift from focusing on Trade Brand to Consumer Brand with increased sales/market share/margins.

Another interesting point needs mention here….as the brand becomes bigger…it becomes easier for the trader to sale the brand…..as consumers are aware about the brand & most cases loyal to it...so ask for it @ the shop…or even if the retailer pushes…the consumer buys it without much resistance to purchase…as he is aware about the brand. This effectively means….it becomes easier for the retailer to sale the brand to the consumer when it’s an established brand compared to a new brand…

Hence bigger brands generally give less margin to the traders…&...spends more on end consumers…hence the focus is more on making it a Consumer Brand...!

Ok…after all this…I have a simple question…. 😳😲😯, is there a way to combine both Consumer & Trade brand in a SIMPLE & UNDERSTANDABLE way …& look @ both holistically…….are there symptoms by which one can identify how the brands are stacked in a particular industry…!!

Yes, the one connecting point…. the PRICE…😎😊 ….

How can Price help in identifying how the brands are stacked?

Let’s take 3 brands operating in the same industry for certain period. A (Established brand), B (known brand but not as big as A) & C (Not so known brand)

Brand-Price Mapping

To summarize, In a particular industry generally:

Bigger Brands/Established brands have higher MRP, Higher MOP, Higher Retailer Landing, Lower Margin & Lower Scheme

Mid-sized Brands have similar MRP, lower MOP, similar Dealer Landing Price, similar margins & higher scheme than the Established brands.

Not so known brands in the industry have Lower MRP, Lower MOP, Lower Dealer landing price, higher margins & higher schemes than the established & mid-sized brands

Well, look around in today’s scenario…you will find a lot of new brands & start-ups pumping huge amount of monies in Consumer brand building right from word go...!!.... ohhhh😵😵how come??....is whatever we discussed till now is obsolete…. No, it’s not. We discussed the approach that’s is largely followed.

If we look deeper into those companies, majority of start-ups follow the online business model—where it’s the Consumer Brand primarily that matters right from the start as the business is directly interacting with the consumers who are also buying directly from the company – company’s website/or through market-places.

There are few companies who launch the offline & online business models simultaneously & also spend substantially on consumer brand building…but then…one needs to remember the target for the consumer brand spends is mainly for the online business. Its because if we advertise to make consumers aware about the product and subsequently ask for it @ the retailer, the product should be available @ the retailer..!!...which means first the Trade Brand needs to be in place.

Yes, having said that, there are few exceptions…. some companies do have offline models & spend on consumer brands right from word go…but…those are Exception…& EXCEPTION PROVES THE RULE…😊!!

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Influencer Marketing...Is It New??...or old wine in new bottle..??..

2019-09-19T09:39:00.000+05:30

Influencer Marketing - Is it New??? or Old wine in new bottle??

Infuencer marketing…a new term…a new age-marketing strategy…with online/digital/social media…it’s something brands & marketers are running around to master…well all good & said…is it new?? Or old wine in new bottle?? Did it exist earlier? Or it didn’t? Or it existed & we didn’t know. Or it existed & we knew…but we didn’t care...!! Well, from a marketer’s stand point, the term “Influencer Marketing” seems like a marketing jargon but is it really that or something which is an integral part of human behavior…Let’s try to understand it in a simpler way

Who is an Influencer?

3 one-liner answers to 3 one-liner questions...!!

Who is an influencer??.... Well as the name suggests…its one who influences….
Whom do the influencer influence??.... Well it’s not told…so any human on earth…known/unknown
How does he/she influence??...Well its again not mentioned….so it may be anyway...!!

So, in a nut shell…any human influencing any other human for his/her intent/conduct/action is an influencer

Let’s start from the start...!!...I mean the beginning of our life…I am sure @lest few of the enlisted must have happened with all of us:

As a child, my parents did many things, which I tried to copy without they are telling me to do so
With my childhood friends, many times I wanted the same thing (toy, bicycle etc etc) which my friend had, without he is saying me to buy one like that…
I Loved Mowgli…that boy who was bought up in the forest…Jungle book…u remember…like him, tried to jump trees in my backyard many times only to hurt myself…
Tried to emulate that smart hunk in many ways during my school…silently & many time secretly...!!
First time…wow…what a feeling…Wanted to do all things for that beautiful girl in my class @ school…forget about telling me…she probably didn’t know I was trying to impress her every time
Really loved my math’s teacher…loved the way he moved…. spoke…behaved…all that knowledge he had.😲😲…I used to search opportunity to study math’s (don’t ask how much I scored…that’s not important..😃)..
Loved Sachin Tendulkar…. always tried to be like him in cricket field…. with/without a bat…
Tried many times to create an impression to my parents that I am studying…😝….
With friends in college, many times I tried to influence them…directly/indirectly to make them agree to my point of view…😊😜
Tried to copy the topper in college…his/her style of studying…so every time the topper changed so did my style of studying…. 😄….
Did everything to impress my girlfriend …. literally everything…hope she agrees…because things change as one moves from gf to wife…😓😓…
@ Work…goodness gracious…it’s all about creating impression & influencing the big BOSS…😨😰😱😲😳😪😴.....Its a different art all together😜
As a father, I get into different ways of creating an impression on my daughter for her to evolve as a better human being…

The List is endless….it will run into thousands if we try to pen down details of every incident of our life….in fact…it will be very difficult for us to take out a single day of our life when we haven’t influenced/tried to do so…&…also not got influenced…!!

Why is this so…because…Humans are social animals…& …. influencing/getting influenced directly/indirectly is one of the core bonds of being social…

Direct influence means somebody telling you to do something directly/almost directly…indirect influence means the person doesn’t tell you to do it directly…. you get influenced because you like it …or because of fear, although the person may/mayn’t have intention to influence you.

So “Influence” as a concept is integral to Humans, but we are talking marketing/business here…😳😲……sorry to have taken your time for it…. let’s look @ marketing/business now…

If “INFLUENCE” as a concept is integral to humans since primitive times, then it must be a part of basic human behavior…which in business/marketing terms we call as “consumer behavior”.

Type of Influencing behavior

Influencer Marketing- Direct Influence

Influencer marketing - Indirect Infleunce

Direct Influence- Where the influencer in direct/almost direct terms tells you what to do

Indirect Influence- Where the influencer doesn’t tell directly but may/mayn’t have the intent to influence the other person

Marketing as a business function came into being only approx. 100 years back, in 1903 when university of Pennisivlya came up with a basic course on marketing, followed by in 1905 where Harvard came up with a full-time course on marketing. But business, started way before that…sellers were local…so were buyers…so sellers used to identify people they know whom they used to sale their products…the buyers in terms discussed among them (primarily direct influence) & buy the product…

In late 1800’s (primarily 1860 onwards), when the concept of “mass-marketing” came in... (primarily because of MASS-PRODUCTION- machine production, MASS-DISTRIBUTION-use of mechanized transportation for distribution like rail, road etc, MASS-COMMUNICATION—proliferation of newspaper as a communication medium) …the direct influence started taking different forms.

Up came new technologies…automobiles…lights…phone…concrete…etc…&…so came with them a group of people who technically were sound enough to know them…repair them…maintain them…a group called EXPERTS…& they continue to do so in the modern world

When did u repair your car/bike yourself…well...? I may be asking too much…when did you service it last..😊…when did you build your own house like a mason…or you must have made the bed in which u sleep by yourself….or done the electrical wiring of your house by your own hand….or may be the house floor plan was done all by you….😵…u didn’t do majority of these by yourself…or may be none by you…don’t worry majority of us haven’t done any of those….why….because we don’t understand those…

So what we do in those case…ask the mechanic…the mason…the carpenter…the electrician ….interior designer…the architect...the painter….to do it for us…because we trust they know…&…we agree (in most cases) to their solutions….effectively they INFLUENCE us to do things which they say are right for the vehicle/furniture/house lay-out & design/electrical connection/paints etc….hence all those industries till today work on the concept of INFLUENCER MARKETING…like auto-ancillary (lubricants, tires, batteries, spare parts), Electricals, Building material industries (like tiles, adhesives, cements, paints, Real estate etc). Their primary business route is offline business & ask any of those companies in those industry …they will say the INFLUENCER is equally if not More important than the end consumer i.e. the buyer (like vehicle owner, house owner, furniture owner etc). They influence the brand choice both directly and indirectly…like a painter may tell you use this brand of paint…its better (direct influence) or a mechanic may tell you to trust him & not to worry on the brand of engine oil (lubricant) he has put in your car (indirect influence)…& in both cases…you trust him....so the companies in those industries have a higher budget to spend on influencers than end consumers (the buyers)…don’t be surprised…@ last…

Its primarily the influencer who is influencing the brand choice in maximum cases..!!

Well….what we discussed…was a particular type of influencers….what type are this??....They are the one who is directly linked to the business...&..earn money directly from you for the work they do for you...for ex: U pay the mechanic, the carpenter, the mason, the interior designer/architect, the painter, the electrician for the job they do for you…during this process they influence you to buy a particular brand….but can there be other type of influencer also…somebody who doesn’t @all has anything to do with your purchase but influence you to buy a particular brand….

Surprised…yes...there are…think about the sexy film star😍 you loved throughout your college days, the big sports person u followed (like Sachin Tendulkar in my case), the one known figure you endorsed…whenever they came across & talked about a particular brand…u were influenced which may/mayn’t result in a sale…that’s ok…but u were most probably influenced.

Yes ur right…the one called CELEBRITY ENDORESEMENT in marketing…..well don’t be surprised if I tell u the first celebrity endorsement happened way back in 1760….well before Marketing became a formal function..!!..Those celebrities had no direct correlation of we purchasing/not purchasing a product/brand…they just influenced us to purchase…

All sorts of business used INFLUENCER MARKETING since long times to generate consumer preferences….& hoped one more thing happened with it…the other marketing advertisement called WORD-OF-MOUTH (surrogate of Influencer marketing)…businesses used the basic “INFLUENCE” concept of consumer behavior of their target audience to reach out by INFLUENCER MARKETING & hoped corresponding WORD-OF-MOUTH will generate the cascading effect for higher brand advocacy and sales…

Influencer Marketing

Evolution of Influencer Marketing

The million -dollar question that comes now is…. if this is an age-old process…why so gaga about influencer marketing now…what has changed…!!

It started well before…but the impact is felt. since last 10 years approx.…. around 2010 onwards…well it is the same thing that has changed the way humans behave…communicate…the same thing has changed a lot in Influencer marketing also…the thing called INTERNET.

Why ???...What has internet got to do with it??...businesses now could directly INTERACT with their end consumers…mind my words…INTERACT…earlier businesses used to send messages through TV, Newspaper etc…but no/little interaction…

Now there are 4 things that’s happening parallelly, thanx to INTERNET…then digital…then…Social Media…:

Businesses know their consumers & vice-versa

They have started interacting: business & consumer

Consumers have started interacting with each other

Businesses have real time access to their competitors’ actions….

All in real time- transparent platform visible to everybody…cheers to consumerism...!!

Which means Influencers in modern era can be celebrities…or common man like us…anybody who has the capability of influencing others in the digital world…

So, it’s a situation, everybody knows everybody...&…their interactions are transparent & visible to everybody…ooohhhhmmmyyygggoddd……now what…!!

Think you are a soap company… (everybody/majority use some or the other soap I believe) …earlier your job was to cater to your trade… (5000 distributors…50 lakh odd retailers/whole sellers/traders etc …) ….who in turn was supposed to cater to 120 cr people

…if its India..!!!.....let’s make it a bit easier…By STP (Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning)…say your target audience is half of those…that’s 60 crores….you used to make some Above-the-line advertisement-ATL- TVC/Newspaper/Radio advertisements or some below-the line advertisement -BTL (ATL/BTL) to reach out to those 60 Million/majority of them…mind my words friends…u reached out to them as a company…now think of the REVERSE… all/majority of those 60 million can reach you directly….that too in an open forum.. where everybody (all 60 Million & your competition) can see….one thing is for sure…. the way you operate needs to change…if you want to survive as a company…. 😣😬

So, you as a soap company get ready to address all those 60 Crores directly..!!...wait…that’s a humongous task…I mean…60 Cr humans….with @lest 10 Cr different choices & versions….well….so it’s impossible….so what’s the alternative….search that few hundreds whom those 60 Cr/or majority of them believe…look for those guys region-wise, income-wise, gender-wise, education-wise etc etc..(Demographics) who can help you here… smaller number, manageable, less cost, easy to focus & get the output…those are the INFLUENCERS in modern age…!!

So the buzz about Influencer marketing in current digital/social media is real…a modernized version of the age old definitions…while the traditional ones continue to be influencers…. the new age influencers is the common man….

Summary Snapshot

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Distributor Training | Channel Training (Indian Context)

2019-09-18T10:45:00.000+05:30

Distributor Training.... It's only Sales Training... Right...?

Distributors are one of the most important cogs in offline distribution-based business for enhancement of both trade brand and sales. One of the key roles of sales team in those industries is distributorship management with distributors being the most discussed agenda in any sales meet. Ask any sales personnel in those industries, right from the head of sales to the front-line executive the discussion starts from distributors, end with distributors 😲 and in between it will be maximum distributors😉!😉!😉! The cascading effect can be felt @ logistics/dispatch level, where over a period…. they start knowing the distributors by name & remember their off-take (sales/month) by heart…. although they don’t deal with the distributors directly😮😮!!... (@ least in case where the supply is done through depos)

Who is a Distributor in Offline business?

Who is a distributor in Offline business?

Distributors are the ones who buys, stocks & subsequently markets and sales the company products to their customers (retailers/dealers) who either sales it to end consumers (like us) or further sales it to smaller retailer/dealers (a model called WHOLE SELLING), who subsequently sales it to end consumers like us. The company sales that is reflected in the balance sheet is the sale done to the distributors (as term referred to as PRIMARY SALES). Thus, distributors become a very important part of the entire business process and hence their #training is a tool to bring in the competitive advantage for the distributors & subsequently the company to grow.

My personal experience as well as information gathered after taking to many …. the training for distributors eventually lands up in sales training, primarily for 2 reasons:

Their final deliverable is sales numbers to the company.
They are managed by the sales team; whose final deliverable is the same.

Here one very important point to consider is, the distributorship (the firm of the distributor) employs almost all the function of the business which the company employs like sales team, finance and accounts, warehouse & dispatch team. In bigger distribution houses, they have HR, Training cells also. & ...

In some cases, the turnover of the distributorship (becoz it deals with multiple businesses) is more than the turnover of few companies it deals with😵😵!!

So, the sales team is one part of the distributorship organization…the one which generates the revenue for the firm.

A distributor on the contrary, is businessman who has a certain amount of funds with him to invest. He may operate across 1/2/3…or multiple businesses with few main objectives:

Concerns of Distributor

Disconnect between Company & Distributor expectations

Hence, there is a clear disconnect in the expectation when it comes to the deliverable from the #distributor training, both from the company standpoint as well as the distributor perspective

Clear disconnect between expectations of company & distributor

The company is looking training as a tool to increase sales, whereas the distributor is looking @ this opportunity as a platform where he/she can learn ways to improve the ROI and overall betterment of his/her distributorship. This mis-marry leads to confusion, dis-satisfaction among the key stake holders with the output nowhere near the expectations…sometimes its blamed on the training😩..😩

Improving sales is one of the key measures to improve the ROI & a sure way to make the distributorship more sustainable…but then. It’s one of the ways…not the only way.

So, it should be an integral part of distributor training & not the only topic to be trained

A comprehensive distributor training is one on the distributorship, on how to grow the overall business with a focus of enhanced sustainability of the distributorship and improved ROI from the business.

All this keeping in mind that the distributor or other employees of the distributorship may or may not be equally educated as per the company standards (the entire training program needs to be designed keeping this important parameter in mind)

Let’s look @ the possible elements to cover up a successful distributor training. As discussed, a distributor is with funds (finance) to invest.
The fund the distributor uses in the ways as schematically depicted.

Three pillars of distributorship

Training w.r.t the three pillars of distributorship

Staffing of the distributor

The manpower of the distributorship across various functions like sales, finance & accounts, warehouse & dispatch, back-office, office boys etc. Like any other business, the distributor is looking @ the outputs from his employees(DSR Training... Keep reading) as schematically depicted:

Inventory Management/Customer Management of the distributor

This is directly linked to the sale performance of the distributor. The distributor takes a keen interest in how to maximize profits within a given investment with the least amount of risks. The few key areas of discussion are schematically depicted:

Infrastructure Management of the distributor

Distributors does invest in infra based on their own requirements and as per the guidelines of the brand they trade. The level of the infrastructure and the value of investment varies widely based on the requirements and the distributor size. For example, there will be substantial number of distributors who will operate in billing software Tally, but one would also come across distributors who will operate their billing software in SAP. Key primary areas of training are:

Key areas of distributor training

But there is no “one size fit for all” concept here

I have come across companies planning #distributor training mainly based on convenience, like geography-wise, top/worst performing distributor training session etc. If we take the above stated points in mind, its aptly clear there is no “one size fit for all” concept, rather for maximum output from the training the grouping of distributor should be as per similarity in those parameters & their future business plan if not ideally training tailor made individual distributorship wise.

Digitization of distributor training

Digitization of distributor training content

Digitization of the distributor training content (@least partially if not complete) enhances the quality of output as depicted schematically:

Can be tailor made per distributor
Gives the distributor the time to go through it instead of 1/2 day of knowledge dumping
Can be updated with time
More effective with video, content, info graphics
Is more modular and improves accessibility
Can be extended to online quizzes & monitored @ a granular level with each distributor

Under no way this can be replacement of face-to-face interaction of the company officials (primarily the senior management) with the distributor

The personal touch brings in a lot of value in terms of emotions & sentiments which can’t be replaced & I strongly feel it should continue. In fact, the distributor meets is a parallel platform which a lot of company follows for the same

Digitization of the distributor training is complementary to the current face-to-face training programs which can be used in different ways based on the business and training objective at that point in time.

For ex: A part of the training can be digitized & only key questions/notes/topics can be discussed in the face-to-face training sessions which will reduce time, cost & make the entire program far more effective…not to forget distributors will be able to relax during those meets instead of the long hours classroom lectures which they are subjected to..!!...
In the cocktail dinners which generally follow those long training session…majority of the time one finds the distributor saying…it was good. but too long😴😴…Finally switching off is an integral part of being switched-on.

Distributors are the pillars of growth in which ever business they exist…hence their training should be part of the training strategy….ironically HR makes the training strategy/calendar for the organization and its employees…Marketing and Sales are left to deal with training of the distributors 😭😭…a practice which can change for good…it should be a combined effort of both the training cell & the direct stakeholder (in this case Sales & Marketing) to design training requirements of the target audience.

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Practical concepts - Marketing & Sales | Indian context

BTL Marketing: Must be offline, Are you sure

What is a “Line” doing in marketing...??

Line is required primarily to distinguish between the different “way marketing reached to consumers” & accordingly design the back-end of marketing campaigns & also accordingly pay the respective type of marketing agencies.

What’s ATL for one business may/mayn’t be ATL for another 😀

ATL/TTL/BTL are defined by business-types as “mass-consumer” definition is different for different business-type.

Why BTL has to be always offline?

Types of BTL?

Regular calendar BTL

The prime objective of “Regular Calendar BTL”

The prime objective of “Regular Calendar BTL”, based on which it was conceptualized, was for the company/brand to share important updates with the relevant stakeholder. Over a period “Relationship Building”/ “Networking” has gained more importance over the main objective.

I am not saying “Relationship building” / “Networking” can’t be one of the objectives, I am only saying it can’t be the only/main objective.

Challenges in Regular Calendar BTL for brands

For the retailer the “Regular Calendar BTL” is primarily an evening with music & drinks & few boring /monotonous presentations…with very little/no value-add in terms of business gains.

Companies/brands now must persuade/sometimes plead key retailers to attend the retailer meet, although the spends in those meets are continuously going up with each passing day.

“Regular Calendar BTL” are fast becoming a hygiene factor in the industry with less & less business value for its stakeholders. Hence “Regular Calendar BTL”as a tool is fast moving towards a “Retention Strategy” than a “Growth Strategy”.

A large chunk of the regular BTL module can be digitized which will make the entire marketing and sales effort simple to implement and apt for the retailer, thus increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the regular BTL calendar output.

Certain cases of consumer regular BTL like service camps for automobiles and wet testing for product launches in case of FMCG need to continue with the offline mode as followed now.

Campaign BTL

Trade Based Brand Equity - (TBBE)

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Importance of Trade Brand?

1st for a brand to sale in distribution-based business…Trade is the Route to Market…so called RTM

2nd the connect between the end consumer & the brand/product/service is through the trade…..which means the traders are the sales team which sales it to the end consumer….😳…

So in a nut-shell, the company needs to contribute in such a way that both its expectation and expectation of the trade is fulfilled.👍

What is the Trade’s objective in joining hands with the company???

Hence, the solo expectation of the trader is to GROW his/her business by partnering with the company/brand. Hence, to enhance “TBBE” the company needs to contribute to meet this expectation of the trade partner.

How can a retailer grow his business?

Increase in number of customers in your shop

Sale the product @ the highest possible price

Sale more premium products/futuristic products from the range of products your sale

Buy the product @ the best rate from the company

Product/Service support in Right Quantity & Right time

3B's of TBBE

Key Take-away- Business

Job role, sales policy, KRA/KPI of sales/trade marketing & all other functions which directly deals with trade, more tertiary oriented.

“Sales-enablement-tools”, which currently is primarily used for tracking & measurement of trade data, to be made commercial oriented with major/if not all incentive to trade (in terms of schemes/discounts, turn-over-discount etc.) to be based on tertiary and not on secondary/primary.

Key Take-away- Branding

A proper on-ground-visibility strategy needs to in place for a duration of minimum 2/3 years, with complete detailing of resource allocation i.e. 3M – Manhour-Monies-Machine.

Companies/brands need to use digital optimally to increase the brand-presence of the retailer locally, which not only drives traffic to the trade but also motivates them to perform better.

Key Take-aways- Bonding

Companies /brands to have Bonding factor @ both levels i.e. first @ trade & second the customers of trade, which needs to be part of the annual M&S plan with clearly defined actions & deliverable

The MOP Mirage II HOW TO MANAGE Market-Operating-Price..!!

What should be the right (exact) price of your product?

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Product price to customer quoted price variation ratio

What is MOP?

Consumers or Buyers are always in look-out of buying any product or service @ the lowest price possible, which varies as per consumer, which is one of the fundamental reason for the MOP concept

Importance of MOP

Is it possible to price one’s product as per MOP?

MOP fluctuations?

Why & how does MOP go up or down in Offline business?

Why & how does MOP go up or down in Online business?

Relation of Discount to MOP?

MOP- Mirage

How to maintain a healthy MOP?

Pricing & Channel margin

Distribution/Network Strength (counter share- universe share & quality of network)

To maintain steady MOP in the market, Poor Quality network who reduce MOP for sale needs to be identified, warned & if required eliminated from the network

Increase in counter share helps maintain the MOP

Selective increase of number of retailers instead of carpet bombing helps to maintain MOP

Marketing Campaigns

To ensure the MOP is maintained in the market, Companies need to have marketing campaigns with objective as MOP as a part of the marketing calendar along with pre-requisite training to marketing & sales team on the same

First 50 days in new sales role/function

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Importance of Sales function & Sales team in any organization

Why does a sales person Fail?

Sales-skill is a necessary condition but not the sufficient condition for success in sales

Business-Situation understanding

Business-situation understanding is the first thing in the to-do list in the first 50 days of sales role

Product Strategy understanding

Knowing a product & knowing the product objective is a completely different thing. This is an inherent problem I have seen across sales teams (primarily front-line, who matters the most), they know the product but rarely know the objective behind it.

Value of Sales Reports

If a sales person understands the objective behind all company actions around him which directly affects the sales, he will be less surprised & won’t lose face in front of customers.

Why a sales person doesn't like to prepare sales reports?

Importance of historical data

In the first 50 days of sales role, the sales person needs to thoroughly study the past sales-data of his/her market/customer & if required, make new sales-format for him/her & the team (@local level) which should be the starting point of all discussion with the team & the customer, in future

Visible hardwork - help in relationship building

The sales person in first 50 days needs to be sincere/hard-working which is visible to his/her customers/partners/market to gain the confidence/respect/trust which forms the base of the relationship management in days to come

4 Key Aspects of Agency Liasoning/Life Cycle - Selection- On-boarding - Management & Renewal/Termination

1^st for a brand to sale in distribution-based business…Trade is the Route to Market…so called RTM

2^nd the connect between the end consumer & the brand/product/service is through the trade…..which means the traders are the sales team which sales it to the end consumer….😳…