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How to apply Basic Marketing Principles in Digital world?

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Marketing Principles in the Digital world – A transformational reality.

Off lately, I have seen many entrepreneurs struggling to market either their e-commerce sites or their digital ventures.

They lack the key basic premise of marketing & advertising.

The age-old marketing principles are still relevant.

My article is dedicated to those early-stage entrepreneurs, who are on their way to scale and consolidate their digital business.

Difference between Marketing & Advertising?

The most common mistake that most entrepreneurs make is that they don’t truly understand the difference between marketing & advertising.

They use the marketing term the same for advertising.

Advertising is the Art of Persuasion.

The textbook definition is, Advertising is a way of communication to encourage an audience for making a purchase decision about a product or service and conveying information to viewers.

It is considered a vital and essential element for the economic growth of businesses. It is a paid form of communication. (Digital social platforms has revolutionized this medium in terms of organic growth).

The major aim of advertising is to impact buying behavior;

However, this impact on the brand is changed or strengthened frequently through people’s memories.

For instance, you still recall the fragrance or scent of Vicks vaporub.

Marketing is all about finding the needs of the customers, their pain points, researching insights which could be leveraged in the ad campaigns.

Advertising creates Influence in the consumer’s mind in terms of changing the perceptions.

Learn how advertising influence buying behavior, click here.

 

How you can apply these traditional marketing principles in your digital e-commerce venture?

 

Marketing Principles – Sales funnel creation.

In order to make your digital advertising work for you, you need to create a sales funnel which includes

  • Create content which is attractive and creates curiosity for the consumers
  • Create a call to action in your communications; terms like Buy now, start your trial, click here.
  • Use a retargeting campaign i.e. run ads on digital platforms to those you had either liked or commented or clicked your ad.
  • Create a simple landing page for the customers to check your offer or service and enter their details for you to reach out to them.
  • Create some freebie or gift freebies in case they register on your landing page
  • There are tools like click funnel etc which are very useful in converting your web traffic to customers.
  • Always give and respect “Goods returns”, “100 % money-back guarantee” etc.
  • Leverage email marketing. There are many free online tools for the same.

 

Learn about the Branded content form of advertising, click here.

 

Marketing Principles – Go Hyperlocal.

New eCommerce sites should try to leverage Hyperlocal marketing.

 

What is Hyperlocal marketing?

Hyperlocal marketing is the process of targeting prospective customers in a highly specific, geographically restricted area, sometimes just a few blocks or streets, often with the intention of targeting people conducting “near me” searches on their mobile.

In terms of objectives, hyperlocal marketing’s primary purpose is to drive foot traffic to physical locations and capitalize on near-me searches, which have strong commercial intent.

Near-me searches have become immensely popular in recent years.

Data from Google indicates that near-me searches grew in volume by 130% year-over-year between 2014 and 2015 alone;

If you find it complex, do not worry;

Just go to “Google my Business” and enter the details and you are on.

Hyperlocal marketing helps to increase your SEO initiatives as well.

 

Marketing Principles – Use Local Awareness ads on Facebook ads

This ad format was introduced for local businesses seeking to raise awareness of their physical location and drive foot traffic to stores.

Simply select this ad format from the list of ad formats in the Ads Create tool, then enter the address of your business.

Next, you’ll see a visual representation of the coverage area of your Local Awareness ad, which can be expanded or reduced by selecting the desired radius in the drop-down menu to the right of the address field. Facebook will provide you with an estimate of the potential reach of your ad.

Use Facebook’s Local insights” –

One of the most useful tools that Facebook offers hyperlocal advertisers is Local Insights.

Page Insights report has this functionality.

The Local Insights report tells the advertiser just how well their local ads are performing & when most of the targeted consumers would be seeing your advertisement.

marketing principles

Book “Simplifying Retail” is now published and is full of powerful insights that can empower your retail concept. Grab it from Amazon (global or amazon.ae) or click here (for within India deliveries).

Marketing Principles- Persuasive communication:

Following Persuasive communication, techniques are still relevant in the digital world.

Social proof

Ensure on your eCommerce site, you can add social proof wherein you can mention – ‘5 people bought it today’.

Add social media sharing buttons for consumers to get a share on their platforms and get social validation.

Scarcity

Use ‘only 1 unit left’ or ‘last chance offer’

Create inbuilt Referral program –

Lush cosmetics is using this strategy very effectively.

Hashtag #LushShowAndTell wherein the customers post their product usage using this hashtag and get featured on Lush’s Instagram feed.

 

Use of the power of reciprocity

In marketing psychology, the reciprocity norm means consumers often feel somewhat indebted to a company if the business gives them a product for free.

For example, when you taste or sample a juice in a hypermarket, you feel indebted to purchase it as well from the sales promoter.

In the digital world, it can be e-books, invite to exclusive launch, etc.

 

I am confident, the above points will help my readers to scale their eCommerce ventures more effectively. In case you need any input or advice, you may feel free to reach out to me at riteshmohan@yahoo.com

 

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in the beauty, fashion, and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

Ritesh can also be followed on Instagram as @mohanritesh & on Youtube as @riteshmohan

Buy “ Simplifying retail” book for powering your retail careers,

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givenchy

4 Must Do’s for Luxury Retailing.

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Recently, one of my blog followers asked me a question as to what makes Luxury brands so aspirational and different.

This question prompted me to write this article which will give you 4 “Must do’s” to build a luxury brand.

Having worked and being involved in leading the team that produced a luxury concept arising from United Arab Emirates (in beauty & fashion domain), I would like to share my wisdom acquired from my personal experience.

Foremost you need to understand the difference between non-luxury brands and luxury brands.

Most non-luxury brands succeed because they are marketed in terms of the problems they solve. These are their reasons for being.  For example – Brand X of t-shirt whisks sweat away to keep you cooler; A Particular sweetener gives you the taste without the calories, brand car X gets more miles to the gallon so you spend less on over-priced gas.

Not so in the business of luxury. No one wears a Burberry trench coat merely to stay warm. No one forks over $200,000 for a Bentley simply to get from point A to point B.

No Luxury products exist for a much less rational reason. Therefore, the marketing of them must be much more emotional.

In short, mass marketing is the business of selling reality. Luxury marketing is the business of selling dreams.

  1. Forget about positioning; luxury is not comparative. Advocate beliefs:

Luxury brands should advocate the beliefs of customers rather than simply rely on brand values. Beliefs go further; they’re more specific and, consequently, more segmenting.

Unlike mass brands, luxury brands should not strive to please everyone, but those customers whose beliefs align with their own.

A good example of this is Ferrari’s belief in high performance. The brand rarely advertises in mass media, but it invests significant amounts in Formula 1 events. It focuses on actions related to its belief to reinforce this tenet in consumers’ minds.

Another good example is Louis Vuitton’s belief in art. Among other collaborations, the fashion house linked up with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama to create a limited edition of products.

In mass markets, brands distribute their investments across several efforts because they want to reach and please the broadest possible spectrum of customers. Instead, luxury brands’ investments are focused on the specific beliefs of the brand, creating a very focused experience for the right customers.

2) Bring a sense of exclusivity and experiential emotive:

A true luxury brand cannot stop their offering at the product itself; they must go beyond that to offer unique services or rituals. This can start with something as simple as attentive salespeople and prompt customer service, but it should really go beyond that to create a consumption “ritual” that allows customers to experience the brand.

Perfume brand Le Labo does this very well. Using the premise that the quality of perfume deteriorates over time, it revolutionized the consumer buying experience by offering a special personal experience: each Le Labo perfume is hand-blended and individually prepared in front of the customer at the moment of purchase. The glass decanter is then dated and the customer’s name is printed on the label. After taking the perfume home, the customer must let it marinate in the fridge for a week before using it. Through this ritual, buying Le Labo perfume becomes more than an exclusive product; it becomes a personal experience.

3) The store becomes the epitome of luxury for discerning customers:

Luxury brands must pay extra special attention to the way they sell and innovate at the point of purchase. Before, it was enough for luxury brands to use brick and mortar stores to sell their products, but they must now aim to design multifunctional, controlled spaces that create brand experiences and communicate brand beliefs.

BMW World in Munich is another example of a temple-like showroom, where consumers can “experience” the brand rather than simply buy the product.

BMW world.

 

4) Don’t respond to rising demand. 

One of the key premise that Luxury brands work on is “Less is more”. Connoisseurs of luxury brands relish a sense of exclusivity that comes along with Luxury products, its emotional gratification that provides a sense of belonging to the elite club.

One of the most famous and highly successful brands that have mastered this point is Hermes. The bags are scarce, sought-after a simply the best, and they have the price tags that go along with all that exclusivity.

Hermes- Kelly Bag

Status… status… status.

If you’re looking for a bag to tell everyone who sees you that, not only have you arrived, but you’ve arrived with exquisite taste, Hermès will do that every single time

To summarize, I would like to end up with a famous quote by Hubert Givenchy, “Luxury is in each detail”.

I hope the above pointers would help my fellow retailers to develop their brands more luxurious for their discerning customers.

I would be more than glad to share my wisdom and knowledge with my retail fraternity. You can reach me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development and Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Primark

Do fashion retailers need to participate in “Omni channel retailing” rat-race?

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Recently, I was asked this question by one of my Linkedin connection, who was responding to my article on Omnichannel retailing.

His question prompted me to think about Phygital evolution more holistically and I realized that though every retail or digital consultants/ forums have been shouting from the rooftops for seamless multichannel integration which is the key to successful retailing.

This is spot on but I would like to present a case study of one fast fashion brand that could be the exception to above rule. This brand is highly successful and is questioning the status quo of buying & selling processes that are normally followed by retailers.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me introduce you to Primark (hi-street fashion retailer) who does not have an e-commerce arm nor e-commerce website.

 

Whether Primark is right not to sell online, there’s no denying its success. This is one high street retailer that is prospering during rough economic circumstances.

The stats tell the story:

  • In 2017 the retail business generated a revenue of approximately 7.1 billion pounds.
  • As of 2018, it ranked is the second largest clothing retailer in the UK, following Marks and Spencer, with a market share of approximately seven percent.
  • The company now has 345 retail stores located in eleven countries across Europe and the rest of the world, including the UK, the Republic of Ireland (trading as ‘Penney’s’), Portugal, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and France. Italy and the U.S.

Source: statista.com

These figures mean that Primark doesn’t necessarily need to be in a hurry to open up an e-commerce site, as it still has room for growth offline.

Why is Primark not keen to move towards “Omnichannel” platform?

Primark believes in the fact that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

In no way does a transactional site fit in with how Primark is growing. Its strategy is store based.

Associated British Foods, Primark’s parent company, outlined the outlook for its business divisions which reiterated its commitment to the high street and plans to grow space by 10% in the coming year.

Understanding their customer’s shopping behavior & preferences:

The shopping tactic for Primark customer is to get in, grab a basket full of low-priced garments, and get out again with as little hassle as possible.

It’s not experience based, its product based which means that a multi-platform business isn’t a necessity as it is for many of its higher priced high street rivals.

It would take an awful lot of £1 pairs of pants to offset the cost associated with setting up and running a transactional site.

Using Power of PR rather than advertising:

It relies on strong PR, word of mouth and its stores to do the talking. Any big budget marketing campaigns would only serve to eat into the margins and nudge the prices up.

Having worked with another fast fashion brand Forever 21 in the past, I completely understand the business model i.e. to strike a balance between fast fashions at the lowest possible price. The same is true and relevant in case of Primark. Any changes in variables could prove a disaster for fast fashion value retailers.

In Primark’s case, it’s a bold move not to jump into online because everyone else is doing it but to stand firm with a strategy which is working for the business.

I would love to share my retail wisdom acquired by handling fashion brands with any of my connections or regional retailers who need bespoke solutions to their current issues at hand. You may reach me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development and Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

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reverse innovation

Single most effective way to make your brand or service stand-out from the clutter.

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Recently I was a part of a group (mostly comprising of business owners) and we were discussing the importance of marketing & sales in our businesses and how we can improve this function in order to generate more top line sales.

During the group discussion, lots of good points were tabled by each and every member and one such point was on 4 P’s of marketing which is founding principle of marketing (Kotler’s) which has now evolved to 4 A’s mainly

  • Acceptability
  • Accessibility
  • Affordability
  • Availability

 

I feel since the terminology has changed but the basic principles still remain valid. One of the important points that come under Acceptability is Consumer Behavior.

Even before SMEs or entrepreneur ventures out to launch or introduce a service they need to ensure whether there exists a market for their product or services. What does their targeted customers or audience perceives their product and services?

Entrepreneurs often forget the importance of consumer behavior and get engrossed in other 4 Ps of marketing.

It is the customer who is the core of the organization and all tasks (activities or product or services) should either make difference to his life by making his life easier. We call this approach as Customer centric approach. Evaluate your promotional ideas or campaigns, if they are adding value to your customer, or they are just another piece of boring advertising.

Consumer behavior decision examines the “processes, especially any particular triggers that compel consumers to buy a certain product.”  This is vital for entrepreneurial ventures.

Case study: Gillette launch in India.

When international giant brand Gillette entered the Indian market, way back in 1984, they brought their best sellers from US market which was primarily twin blade razor with a plastic tab on top, which enables easy removal of hairs which used to get stuck between twin blades. They did comprehensive research on this product at MIT University amongst a group of Indian students who were studying there.

The outcome was Gillette’s twin-blade product in India bombarded, they recognized that their best product failed to compel & satisfy Indian users. People who bought the razors were not satisfied with the shaving outcome.

Gillette team analyzed the core behavior of their customers and found that their best razor had failed to deliver to Indian customer’s satisfaction due to:

  • Indians tend to have rough or hard skin and hence the beard hair needed more precision shaving products.
  • India as a country always had issues with running tap water, the majority of the people used stored water in a bowl (popularly known as Mug) for carrying out their shaving regime, due to this their key USP of the plastic tab between the blades had failed since it required running tap water.
  • Indian water is hard water compared with western countries wherein the water is soft, which failed to deliver a good shaving experience.

 

Once Gillette understood this consumer segment, the company created a new customized product. Gillette Guard, the first product created just for the Indian market, was introduced in October 2010. It was priced at just Rs15 per razor. At Rs 5 for a refill cartridge, Gillette Guard met customer expectations on safety and ease of use.

In Business terminology, we call this as “reverse innovation” i.e. to develop a product that would satisfy the needs of the lower income customer.

They tweaked their communication with some more aspirations around the brand by asking the targeted customers; Are clean-shaven men more successful? Did the nation prefer clean-shaven celebrities? And the big one: do women prefer clean-shaven men? The media picked up the campaign and brand got significant reach in the minimal time span. Today, Gillette India is one of category leader in shaving products sector.

Learnings for start-ups:

Above case study tells us the importance of Reverse Innovation. In today’s technological advance systems, it’s easy to create a product or a service but it is very difficult to find a customer who would pay for your product or services. Hence understanding consumer behavior is of utmost importance even before venturing out with any kind of start-ups.

 

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development and Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]