Consumercy

Landings from Anywhere

Well, it's been six months since i started this blog and now I get landings from searches made on topics that I now don't even remember jotting. Nevertheless, everytime a search does ping in I trackback and check what it was that this stranger got to read when he visited my thoughts. Did he like what he read? Did he concur? Did he read the entire thing or scurried off a few lines in? More importantly, did he get what he was searching? Were my thoughts capable of simmering his own? Is he coming back....well if any of the prior questions were answered in the affirmative, then he has a reason to come back.

I think of blogs as a trip in a shopping mall elevator. You get into the lift. You just wanna dock at some floor, yet undecided. The elevator stops at each floor and the doors open. How do you decide which floor to walk into? In the few moments that you can steal a glimpse of the floor yonder the open lift doors if what you see attracts you, you walk in. Or if you see a big chunk of your fellow lift travellers landing on a particular floor you follow suit.

And what holds for blogs holds for businesses too. Consumers follow sight, sense, experience, or they simply follow other consumers. Make thy wares really useful to the community you mark, keep 'em ready and polished and wait for the first batch to set foot. You never shall know from where they shall come or how they ever got to know of you. But as long as they got what they wanted, found more reasons to your product than they had when they set out searching, and a relationship to take back, they for sure are coming for more.

impassioned sales pitch..

...that's what it has to be! Why then don't i see many a salesforce putting forth their wares with as much zeal as it takes to make the prospect or the consumer feel that you believe in your product as much as you want him to believe? Most sales calls are strung-out on powerpoints, disorienting numbers and block diagrams. Why doesn't one oft get to hear stuff like, "This aspect is one of my favorites" or " I particularly have to make you understand this feature. It's simply awesome", or " It's tough to be excited in something you don't credit. I'am overexcited about this product I'am selling". As a sales guy one has to add a story to his call (of experiences and past successes, of problems handled and problems curbed), one that corroborates the consumers fantasy and triggers a new one.

A salesman who loves his wares in a way that shows, supplies that extra ounce of assurance that the consumer is searching for. Sell what you are emphatic about or quit. The biggest losers are salesguys who are out selling just coz they have to.

If you ain't read it yet, here's a prior blog on selling and salesmen.

Allied Business Patterns

Retail boom in HK, India, Singapore, China, Indonesia...well, almost all the Asian countries is up 23% on an average and soaring(Economist). I opine that it's just the right time for SME's to latch on, contact and contract'ize within the segment. A lot can be made from proper associations right now, with more FDI's flowing in,..Walmarts, Tesco, Save-a-lot, planning to start businesses in the ASEAN in the very near future. Talking of allied businesses, like lighting, handling materials, air conditioning, paints and adhesives, storage containers, woodworkers, water coolers etc i assume the growth to be anywhere above 50% in the next two years.

Recently, at Spencers I had to opt out two shopping carts before i got one that wasn't jammed. The chain procures it from China and Delhi. Well, the SME's ought to realise that this won't work no more. Their chance is so much more if they give, not the 'Asian' advantage(price) but the quality that meets the eye.

consonance from yonder

Think about the time when you thought of something or raised a point only to meet nays from people around. 'Around' itself was so much a constrictive word. Today 'around' is everywhere. Your thoughts subscribe no more to subjection. If they do, all you have to do to break free is rap upon the net, seek and ye shall find...people who are remote to you, you who are remote to them... tied strongly by a thread of common beliefs, ideas, wishes. And suddenly you are not alone. And then it matters not if your board, bosses, or peers assert.

"It’s amazing how continents away people are still thinking similar ideas and thoughts"- Craig Arthur of Wizard of Ads, in his mail on how he an I found a common thought that linked us from miles afar. Here's his and mine.

Keep thinking. When you stop, you are breaking yourself from a chain of believers who are worthier than your associates who are'nt.

I urge you to read of what I consider my best post yet.

Sin based Marketing

Idea is a mixture of fact, imagination, hope, experience, attitude, bent of mind, vision... and then there's Metcalf's law: the value of the network increases exponentially with the number of it's participants. So the ideas disperse. And so does gossip. Advertising works, and the proof is that millions of people love peanut butter. It's not that they needed it, but not that they didn't want it. 'Want' is proof of a person's must have, what he is. Everybody wants sex. 'Need' is the unsure part. One that can be played with, altered, warped. It's about what he would not mind being.

Play by the wants and it's an 80-20 winner leaving out the ascetics and the challenged. Sins work magic. Innately. Let's take 'em all seven.

1)Pride: Wachtell is prestige vs Pillsbury-Winthrop. So is Bain compared to KPMG.

2)Envy: "neighbour's envy. owner's pride"(tagline of Onida). It's why Gucci is not Aerosoles;  Vacheron Constantin  ain't Omega(which ain't Tag Heuer). So's for any category be it cars, soundstations, ice-creams, restaurants..

3)Gluttony: Hardees, Belgo Centraal (shaven monk'ish waiters, refectory feel, steak, sausages, boar, beer and fries and this restaurant is now a fast growing 'chain')

4)Wrath: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas the No.1 current lister is all gory,language, and hatred. Six out of ten top selling PC games on an average over 84 weeks speak of the wanton butchery of gaming. Tarantino films. The Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann is the worlds best selling novel, a tale of violence, bloodshed and drugs in post WWII US. Dresden Dolls, Q-Strange, KGP. Hardcore satancism, suicide, murder, death, rape, necrophilia, cannabalism in music. Dark albums sell over 1.7 million copies each year.

5)Lust: uh? Vivid, Golden Rabbit, Hussler, Penthouse, Mardi Gras. The oldest, widespread, most profitable business. (Just for note, 77% of wireless broadband downloads in 2004 so far have been pornographic)

6)Greed: Lotteries, Fear Factor(tasteless TV show), Betting Square et'al.

7)Sloth: The biggest boon to this one is the remote control. Everything today can be operated from the couch. Slouch Gadgets are in. Garfield is lovable. And you can bet it was'nt an excercise freak who invented the power steering.

(Extra Note:How many times have you seen one thing in the ad only to find it was 'only for the ad'. Well at Aerosoles you can shop by the ad.Yet it ain't Constantin)