Sunday 16 November 2014

How to make your online budget work for you.





Let’s first get the basics and fundamentals, a re-think, reset if you will.

Traditionally products were manufactured, packaged with a label and a name and sold in market-place that got re-sold, re-distributed to smaller communities eventually reaching an end-consumer. Money in the chain could be 5-stage in modern management terms. (i) Consumer pays (ii) the Manufacturer; (ii) the marketplace, distributor, stockist retailer, warehousing shared some of the profit; (iv) in-logistics had to be paid to reach the marketplace and (v) out-logistics costs money to reach the consumer. I call this a 5-leaf-clover.  (While a 4-leaf clover brings you luck, the a 5-leaf one is what exists only if you see it that way).

How does anyone get to know about the product?  Advertising emerged for years dominated by radio, TV and press.   Call it above the line, and don’t argue about radio for the moment.  Let us leave below-the-line, hoardings, banners, events, point-of-sale and all that jargon for the moment. Any and all cash or money comes from the ONE product the manufacturer sold to the ONE customer.

The “town crier” was your first ad. spend for a long time.  Perhaps we are going back to the good old days and long for our own “Town crier”.

Things have changed and are changing every day. HOWEVER some things do not chage at all.

So what are the change elements?
1.    SERVICES : It is no longer products only.  Services are being paid for and consumed. Scribes, Doctors, lawyers, entertainers … with money exchange at Supply point, consumption point or intermediate points. 
2.    DIGITAL : More complex services are emerging such as digital assets, eForms, ePaperwork, eEVERYTHING.
3.    INTERNET : Is now a utility and a near-essential at every establishment like power, water inflow, sewage outflow, phone, radio or TV.  Each may be connected, networked AND wired or wireless.  Let us not get into the variants, exceptions and add-ons.  Allows communications between 1 to 1, 1 to few, 1 to many and 1 to all.  The combinations of these 4 produce further combos such as many to many, few to few, all to all.
4.    MOBILE : Allows mobility. Anytime. Anywhere. Any media (audio, video, text, images), 24x7x365, any device.  On the move, at-work, at-home, midnight or 3 AM.
5.    ON-DEMAND : Unlike press, TV or radio a big change is consumption is not PUSHED to me; BUT what I what is when I want it and in the way I want it I have PULLED what I need.
6.    RADIO : A personal belief is that radio is going to play a much more significant part. Aural, music, audio. We can do other things whilst listening to the radio. Efficacy is going to fall into place especially with internet radio overtaking AM/FM at some near point of time.  It is one of the most cost-effective means at the moment.
7.    CONTENT : A catch-all phrase that is a problem. Data, knowledge, information, analytics, reports, eBooks, digital assets, images, video, audio, text, education, entertainment everything is content whether structured or un-structured, with or without meta-data bibliography whether visual, aural, sensory recipes or more.
8.    PLATFORM : What brings the “5-leaf-clover” and all the above together? You can miss the woods for the trees such as cloud, apps, internet, smartphones, eGovernance it is firms such as Uber, Airbnb or Coursera, Amazon, Alibaba or Flipkart which provide a whole integrated disruptive system.  You either create it or be a part of it.  It’s the way of doing business in the 21st century.

Creating product, service OR “Brand” awareness, desire, interest and action (AIDA) within the above Pandora’s box is impossible. Period. Forget it. One dollar spent is one dollar too many.

Now let us flip this back to the 5-step marketplace of yore.  As a consumer I still need products, services, brands.  You have to be there when I need it. I should be able to reach you in 3 steps. I should get it yesterday and free if that’s possible. I can see it before I buy it, return it, exchange it or gift it.  I do trust a “few’ individuals whom I know in “this regard” and will take their word before I buy this. Because they may have bought it before. Used it. Is an expert.  Is recommending it.  It is the best, the cheapest, the fastest, coolest, hottest, quietest, sturdiest, outlandish, quaintest or what attribute I may attach to the product or service that I want right now at this point in time.  80% of the time I go back to where I originally bought things and will buy again from there. 96% of the time if I am unhappy with your product I will just go away without telling you BUT I will tell everyone else not to buy from you and how bad you were the last time.

The marketplace works on Demand & Supply. If there is more demand than supply you win, if there is more supply then demand then I win.  Rarely is there a win-win in this gap of economic elasticity.  You can appeal to my greed or fear as I see fit.

It’s your job to have a portfolio of all your products, services and brands and have them available by geography, demography and psychography, Grouped and listed ABC-wise or XYZ-wise, by prioritization by-cost, colour, sizes, styles, features, benefits, ROI (Return on Investment), TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), adwords, meta-tags, attributes, characters or whatever.

The challenge for you is “to be found” by me when I want it. I may Google for it. I may phone a friend, I may call a phone company, I may look up the Yellow pages, I may walk into your showroom, a dealer shop or a pre-owned ware-blouse.  I consume but I may not be the Buyer, there may be other Users, I do not take all the Decisions though I perhaps am an Influencer   (BUDI factor).  You have to reach all of us, else you can’t sell your product to us.


I recommend


I think you get the picture. Talk to us to work through every piece of this complex jigsaw unique to you and your customers and  to put this into place as your …
a.    MASTER-STRATEGY for stakeholders direction.  “A roadmap”.
b.    TACTICAL boundaries for management.  “Decision Execution System”
c.     OPERATIONAL workflow and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for process improvement and operational individual, team and enterprise effectiveness.

q      Product (and/or Service) portfolio maps are to be constructed.
q      All channels including TV. Press, Radio, Internet, Mobile & Social media to be considered.
q      Digital marketing is ONLY a part of the mix, but an important one. It rarely brings results despite all the hype – however well-leveraged it does create companies, products, services, wealth, money and is creating the 21st century – but only if you RESET your thinking.
q      The 1, few, many AND/OR all to be clearly listed as well as the Geography, Demography & Psychography of your target prospect customer base.
q      Niche and specific engagement, conversation, dialogue, interaction, face-to-face, feedback, objection handling, educating with every single consumer as if he or she were the only one and the last.

How to identify, design, architect, enter, comply, risk-mitigate, govern, leverage the “5-leaf-clover” in your industry or the industry of your customer, supplier, customer’s customer and supplier’s supplier maybe critical to your very survival let alone growth and scale as a brand.


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