Consumercy

A Sunday, well-spent

"Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week"- Joseph Addison

If life weren't about sipping on bootleg heineken, watching $2 pirated DVD's, reading photocopied Dan Brown, downloading stuff on unlicensed Kazaa, one would simply pass off any given Sunday not knowing he existed in the 21st century. Great to be around when the consumer benefits from the war of intellect vs idiocy.

now and then

The largest selling colour mobile phones. The No. 1 selling home appliances brand in the world. For best results use our after-bath lotion after our bath gel. 'Best' quality milk. 96% fat free. Limit to tall claims? None at all. For these are posted, printed, painted, preached by the 'biggest' of brands. And as over 70% of the consumer mass is cuckoo over broadcast media forms yet. Corporations spend billions of dollars on 10-year forecast papers yet. Change? there shall be, as the world keeps getting proportionally older. And today's 40 something p2p users fill up the consumer chain.

dig,they will

I have always been amused by etherfarers who trip on my postings way back in the 16th page of their search results! They trip and they visit. Just shows that there are consumers out there who are searching seriously. And their search shall get them to you. Provided, you exist. That's one. Whether they're coming back to you albeit depends on: 1) Requirement: i cannot expect political enthusiasts to be coming back to 'Consumercy', even if they do stumble in once. 2) Quality: whether my delivery meets their expectations.

In either cases what's prime is to serve first hand ideas, thoughts, benefits, deliverables and let niche meet niche. 'Niche' is not narrow no more, contrary to belief or the sound of the word. With a greater number of people getting in touch with others and therefore redefining their interests, each niche holds enough punch.

A small music and video shop 'Habitat' in Bangalore holds it's own against the mega stores like Planet-M and Musicworld. Becuase it serves the niche. The owner is as passionate about his wares; Jazz, Blues, Country,Classicals and Classics as much as all his target audience is. Assured are you of an afficionado's perspective, review, trivia on each of his wares. Contrary to the clueless- colossals delivering hash.

Point. Be enthusiastic about your business and the likeminded shall find and join you.

"sniff thy stench"

What seems normal isn't quite so under normal circumstances. ?. Well,  36%  customers at any given time are about to toggle...relinquish one to take on the other. Seemingly then,there ain't anyway you can possibly predict the exodus. right? wrong. The problem with strategy is that it's always a second -third-n person approach. Strategies work ONLY when they are convincing in first person. Everytime I have an annoying experience pertaining to products, promos, price or propriety, I wonder if owners, managers, overseers ever consider undergoing  or simulating in their heads a similar slipshod. If they did, they would be able to seer goners and return'ers.

Yes, good products sell themselves. That's the ideal case. But if it were that simple to make world class products and belch world shaping ideas all too often, people would've been self-epilating their derrieres. Consumers are willing to trade the best product for a good one, provided the experience is better. Same reason that, Sony Cybershot digital cameras outsell Canon Powershot Series inspite the latter having times as many features and some really cool ones at that. Stitching, shutter, aperture,flash control etc. Reason? Powershot uses AA Batteries that  are cumbersome, discharge fast,  and are anachronistic!! Selling Images and selling experieces top the charts.

Point. You can still make moolah and not be loathed for it ( no oblique Gates blandishment this) even if you ain't selling top-o-the-house reveries. Sell actuality. Sell convenience. Sell the tenth best. But sell WELL THOUGHT, WELL MEANING experiences.

careful with that relic, sir!

You can't push weight around until you yourself have been carrying enough on you for a while. Makes me wonder why some people are still around. Clueless about the present, blind to the future, preoccupied with the 'glorious' past. The link broke somewhere in the middle. It did, but they didn't see it happen?..or were discomfited enough to accept terms and change. Whatever be the case, they can't be done away with because they have 'years of experience'? In what, in somethings and someways that don't exist no more?

Can we equate experience to wisdom. Or sublimity of foregone times to clear and present contrariety.

"don't ya write it off just yet"

Some things shall remain as they are and should, for all you know. Kazaa isn't the substitute for BMG. You would still prefer paying for your fav artist, the gloss, the photos, the embossed CD to a stenciled one. Life's like that... 'Possession of the paid'

The notches are up contrary to what one thinks. Da Vinci Code, The Purpose Driven Life, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Built to Last are just last years examples of 5 million grossers.

I admit I love piracy. The fact that it forces one to do away with the no-gooders. The labels are pressed to fund worthy talent, better products and rational rates or be beaten by Fannings' of the future. The main thing is whether the stuff is 'worthy of ownership'. If it is, it shall be bought. Elementary it is to sell by singles or compilations. You can't package whole albums with one or two decent fares and fudged exclamations.

Calvin and Poirot on the net. How good is that?

And said a friend :  "...Cant carry an online 'Mansfield Park'-Jane Austen tucked under my elbow wherever I may please to go. Very frustrating! Have to read it sitting bolt upright...slumped on the left arm of the chair..slumped on the right arm of the chair... Between the left path & right. Quite ok with paying for one & not the other if that’s what it takes to get my hands on both"

the spoil of the remains

What does it take to spoil the sanctity of any medium? Thousands of people who believe in that medium and a buncha marketeers who fart in the breeze so that it reaches all.

This time it's RSS. And how do they push it?..."No more worries about spam filters". Not until you needle-drivers make it necessary to have RSS bar'ers.

Check the nuisance out at http://www.marketingstudies.net/rssmarketing/index.html?hop=sharling

On the other hand kudos to Virgin Atlantic (yet again!) for the new campaign. Lest you obstruct a consumer to appeal.

"owling for more"

No more is there a line of work. One that says, your vertical, business, domain, industry stops here. Businesses fade into another without seeming contrasting anymore. And once they do, the strategies that envision them do so too. Any domain can pick up a tad or two from any other line of business. One ought to remain observant not just of a competitor's bread, beak and bootie but all around, for cues are anywhere and everywhere.

Excerpt of a published work here. Download redoing_the_strategy.pdf

No matter the leverages, if the cause is met. Why can't they put red ribbon tags on all 'em porn sites and material and mags where millions of relevant target audience pass by each day?

i change my pitch

You can't reach me. I can't reach you. Caught up in a rush. The network's always too busy. The line's are clogged. The roads are jammed. The restaurant's are full. The ATM's outta cash! 21st century ride's just gone gubbins.

Here's the silver lining. You can appeal to your consumers by encouraging them to use your services lesser!....and by paying them for it!!! Yes, you can. View the amount of consumers growingly demanding services out of you, albeit at the cost of other similar such consumers. Getting a service these days is always at the cost of someone else. So how do you keep your consumers happy?.....all of 'em. Prevent them from competing themselves up to reach you. The consumer who lost to another over you, shall seldom seek you again. The loss is yours. Here's what you should do.

- If you are a Telco, tell 'em text'ers and message'ers to text less and get discounts on voice calls. (Messaging/texting happens on the signalling channel. Too much of it and the signalling required to establish a voice call does'nt go past. So no voice calls. And a frenzied caller). Everyone's happy for everone's a caller.

- Get 'em motor mongers to pay insurance by the miles. Pay for what you drive. Frugality of driving. Freedom from lump-sum insurance and taxes. Less accidents. Less traffic jams. Less Pollution.

- Encourage home deliveries. Increase delivery radii. Reduce table-waiting time. Everyone's happy again!

- Encourage net-banking and cheque facilities to pay a third party. ATM's remain stuffed for on-demand requirements

Consider :

- not revelling while your consumers liverjab to get to you

- strategies in your business to keep you approachable and serviceable to all your consumers

- not discouraging your consumers from what they are doing. Instead, encourage them to do the alternate; in line with your strategy. Do not charge them extra for doing something more. Charge them lesser for doing it less.

of what seems to be a plum-plan

Don't know about Welch's, Jobs, and the head honchos. All one reads is all one knows. But here's truly how CEO's of most of 'em Co's where most of you work, seer. And that's a whole lot of Co's and a whole lot of you as part of a larger 'plan'.

Interactions with three MD's in the past week revealed this trait! Only do you as a regular employee get to see that they don't see where you all are headed?