Customer Satisfaction Sucks !!!

Yup,it took me sometime to digest and understand this as i was reading “FLIP” by PeterSheahan.But then looking by my own experiences and by what the book said,i too agreed with it.

Ever since we ramped up our sales of Smiley Privilege Card,i used to think customer satisfaction as a prime index for our growth ahead but little sooner did i realize that customer satisfaction is merely an index of what we condition the customer to expect,not what he or she really wants and the big question here is what does the customer really wants ? And biggest question of all is does the customer know what he wants ?

Our product can only outclass competition when we can predict what the customer wants before he even thinks. i know this sounds weird but if you take a close look at ourselves as a customer i am sure sometimes even we don’t know what we expect from a particular product.But then if the product itself has set itself a necessity in our minds,then that i say is the selling point of any product.

We can never measure the demands of a customer and design a product. Look at the best in the business for e.g Apple never had a survey with people asking if they would like to own a portable music player with radio or some cool interface. They just just went on to create something out of the box.They went out there and created a necessity among their customers and that’s how it all happened.

So the bottom line here is that you can never sell something if you focus on customer satisfaction because that would just make you a puppet in the hands of your customer and you truly can’t commit to it.Design your product with a niche that no one else can and in way where your product creates the necessity among customers.

Originally posted 2009-12-27 20:53:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

International Hotel Group “Holiday Inn” now in #Kochi

a JV with Indroyal Group #kerala is how Holiday Inn got its entry to #Kerala. With the scheduled opening to be on May 15th 2011,looks like we have a new value to hospitality arena of Kerala.The site looks promising from its exterior & interior and no doubt the group comes with an International footprint ensuring the property to be a sure “Killer-stuff”.

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I had the pleasure of dropping by the property,official stuff but I did take the liberty to click a few pictures that’s what I have posted here.The hotel Lobby had a freshness factor,something not experienced in any of its Local counterparts. The place is not open for business yet but there’s been a lot of activity going on inside the hotel,pre-launch preparations I guess !

I am personally looking forward to see another Gem coming up in Kochi ! In coming day’s if I get more details about the property,you will be seeing them here …You can follow them on facebook here.

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Originally posted 2011-04-30 15:20:27. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Brand Avatar:Two Marketing Gimmicks that still work !

Every Brands find their way to get placed in the minds of their customers(by hook or crook they day…).At the end of the day reaching out to a mammoth like numbers(in terms of millions that is) is never easy.These are people with unique & different views and thoughts.So how do you connect to them ? Its been Simple ! (Till now) Like say,have a brand ambassador or create a product that creates a new space by itself that customer finds it as a necessity and not as a product(that was the case for Apple Ipod’s).But now,things are not that simple,customers demand more,they are pro-active and they don;t fall for your gimmicks of portraying your product as a messiah or some.
But there is also a another way which is indeed very powerful that you can connect your brand to millions of your customers.And that my matey’s is the way of “Goodness”.Sounds strange ? People out there like to talk about an act of kindness or how you stood out to promote Green.
Yes,I am talking about the “Human” touch campaigns:1)Go Green(save the Earth) 2)Charity(any act of kindness).
Now rather than me going on and on about how these two new marketing gimmicks have been effective can be measured from the fact how Giant Corporate’s have been promoting in such lines.



In India Bharti Airtel has almost bought the “Marathon” as their campaign property and have received very good responses so far. The image of “Go Green” and promoting awareness among people in similar lines have been working well among customers in creating a special kind of affection towards brand.You must have all seen campaigns that says 10% if the bill will be going as for donations and blah blah…Infact these days Archies cards and expressions have been selling their paper cards like that otherwise i rarely find anyone actually buy paper cards.
Now just see how people seem to commercialize the whole act of “Charity” or being Kind.But its in fact good news for NGO’s and other organisations,we all have seen the logo of CRY associated with famous brands.

For sometime,I used to think are these brands in a kind of race.I meant seeing the campaign mode,say for instance the campaigns that Idea Cellular came with were also very interesting and did place Idea Cellular in the minds of customers as a socially responsible brands,for some reasons such associations can sometimes sell your product.

The point is that Being a responsible brand itself creates enough impact among customers for them to use your products and this fact is being utilized well enough but trust me more are still to come…

This is the continuation of the Brand Avatar Series:

Brand Avatar:Part 1,3-D view on changing brand realms

Brand Avatar:Part 2,Tigerwoods,Tendulakar,Angelina..next what ?

Originally posted 2010-01-14 23:39:24. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Brand Avatar: Tigerwoods,Tendulkar,Angelina…what next ?

The Brand stories around has always been about innovation in its look and feel. The earlier strategies were simple,you make your brand look good and appealing. They used to work on having their logos all over the customer habitat. television ads about how you can also be cool using their products. Customers use to fall for that back then.The comapny just had to project the brand as a Life-saver even if it no where in real sense.
As times have changed,so have customer inclination and understanding about brands and to foster these the marketing gurus came up with best solution which has been a very strong fold or say been a battle field for brands since
its been started and that is to have a Brand Ambassador.
Media started to take over the Lives of the common people so much that now the value of brand depends on the celebrity who endorses them.Billions have been floated to pull in the who-is-who to endorse a brand and the only thing that has changed is that now there were a closed set of privileged people who use to get Billions for just saying that they use the product even if in reality they never tried it.But it’s still followed and is in certain cases an un-deniable mode of promotion.People Love celebs,so they will also Love the products they endorse;very Simple logic and it works too.

The Brand stories around has always been about innovation in its look and feel. The earlier strategies were simple,you make your brand look good and appealing. They used to work on having their logos all over the customer habitat. television ads about how you can also be cool using their products. Customers use to fall for that back then.The company just had to project the brand as a Life-saver even if it no where in real sense.
As times  changed,so have customer inclination and understanding about brands and to foster these the marketing gurus came up with best solution which has been a very strong fold or say been a battle field for brands since its been started and that is to have a Brand Ambassador.Media started to take over the Lives of the common people so much that now the value of brand depends on the celebrity who endorses them.Billions have been floated to pull in the who-is-who to endorse a brand and the only thing that has changed is that now there were a closed set of privileged people who use to get Billions for just saying that they use the product even if in reality they never tried it.But its still followed and is in certain cases an un-deniable mode of promotion.People Love celebs,so they will also Love the products they endorse;very Simple logic and it works too.

But the question is how long,the trends show that this regime of the celebs will soon end,not very soon though. The brand quotient is shifting from Looks & Feel to more of an Experience these days.Big giants are already shifting their focus from traditional streams to the next Gen models of Social Media.The Brand Passion unlike before is now having a new angle(as shown in the illustration)

The Question is what next ?

This the continuation of the Brand Avataar Series.

Part 1:Brand Avatar,a 3-D view on changing brand realms

Part2: Brand Avatar:Tigerwoods,Tendulkar,Angelina..what next ?

Keep reading more more…

Originally posted 2010-01-08 15:57:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The brand in making “Kerala”:God’s own country


Some days back I read on how my government is planning to spend crores of rupees in making the state an iconic brand worldwide. And these guys look quite serious about it, at least the present ruling side knows to market things properly. Be that the 100 day stunt or the vision 2030 that’s been conceptualized, Kerala govt. Lead by Mr.Oomen Chandy has taken the word “Branding” quite seriously. These guys even went all the way to IIM-K to attend classes on “governing”. The CM himself has ensured he has turned no stones unturned when it comes to “Branding” his daily activity be it his Facebook page or his office live video feed or his monthly PR & Media releases on his plans, this guy has turned the brand “Kerala” to really inspirational levels.

It even inspired me to do a 100 day agenda sort of thing in certain projects I am doing. Anyway, the brand “Kerala” is going through a very important phase and even I am trying to use my resources for the same course. My organisation is in talks with government bodies in terms of providing them our expertise & services as brand consultants.And we are really looking forward to bag some of those account soon.

Anyway,I invite your comments on what you think are the best initiatives or what need to be done to make our brand “Kerala” a success world over.We need both government and private players to take part in this too to make it happen.

Originally posted 2011-09-19 22:17:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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