My this site has content accumulated for almost 17 years now and has more than 500 posts. That means, on average 2.5 posts per month. At times there have been periods of lull and at times my writing has been on a high. What has kept me going on till now? Passion? My love for writing dates back to as early as when I learned alphabets. Perseverance? I am a creature of habit to the extent of being boring at times but somehow that’s the life I like – of habits and discipline. Or something else? More on it in my next post soon. But if there is one thing that I have understood about writing in the last 3 decades, it is the power of consistency.
Read MoreMarketing
Creativity Goes On
June 25, 2020I am sure you would have seen this ad by now.
Simple yet brilliant – that’s what Apple messages always are.
And most importantly, to the point.
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What is branding?
June 9, 2020No, I am not going to write yet another post on a topic for which more than 10,000 books & 8,000,000,000+ google search results exist. Even though millions of resources exist but there are only a few that catch your attention and this post is about that :).
I recently shared a personal anecdote on how brand influences action. What I bought was just another drugstore brand but why I bought it, had some correlation between brand and buyer behavior. The why of my buying behavior resonated with fellow professionals in some of the marketing and startup groups that I am a part of. While I received much positive feedback about the post but it also ignited a discussion on what is branding? Not surprisingly, everyone had an opinion, but not a consistent one. These groups have a mix of professionals from marketing, product, design, and entrepreneurship background and all these roles require an understanding of branding, albeit of a different scale. So, it was interesting to listen to different perspectives, especially from designers and marketers.
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The value of Brand in the time of uncertainty
May 16, 2020A couple of weeks back, I was in urgent need of a moisturizer and everything was closed due to lockdown except for essential services. To add to that, I have relocated to a different country recently and I am hardly familiar with my surroundings yet. I went to a shop nearby that had slots allotted to us hoping I will find one of the known brands there. I had a few minutes to browse the store and pick up something before the slot was over. With most of the labels here being in either German or Hungarian, I generally rely on Google translator for help but even that was giving trouble due to flaky connection. I couldn’t spot any familiar product on the shelf. I kept on trying to read different product descriptions with the help of the translator until I spotted this:
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Communication during the time of crisis
April 3, 2020Be helpful, be informative, be transparent – and if you can’t be any of these, then be silent.
That’s what is expected from most of us during this time of crisis, be it brands or individuals.
This post has to be straight without any frill. The last thing that we want to see right now is non-contextual advertisements, automated messages and communication for the sake of communication! Sounds basic, isn’t it? But many aren’t following it still.
My one simple expectation from myself and everyone around me right now –
Be Human, communicate like a human.
Additionally, if possible, let’s try to –
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When Brand Storytelling Works
January 19, 2020Spotted these Amazon Storyboxes at a mall recently and they instantly made me curious to browse more. Beautiful stories presented in a beautiful way, loved this new initiative by Amazon India. Good storytelling works always, isn’t it?
And not just storytelling, the Amazon Storybox is yet another brilliant example of the importance of packaging in marketing. Packaging changes perception, packaging reinforces the brand value and packaging sells.
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Marketing Books Worth Your Time
December 14, 2019Winters, holidays and year-end reflective mood – perfect combination to laze around with a hot cuppa and a good book, isn’t it?
The holiday season is almost here and it’s that time of the year when you can refresh your reading list, all the good books that you wanted to read but couldn’t due to hectic life and multiple other commitments, are waiting for you to be devoured.
While I am scouting for some good books that I can try reading in the last two weeks of the year, I thought it’s also a good time for me to share some of the books that I enjoyed reading this year. I plan to do this post in 3 parts – the first one, i.e., this post is around marketing books, the second post would be on some of the good fiction that I read (oh yes, I still read fiction and absolutely love them :-)) and the third would be around life design and other interesting titles in general.
So, in marketing, I read around six titles this year. Actually I had picked two more but they were too repetitive in content to finish till the end. Those books were more like blog posts somehow dragged into a 250-page book format. Out of the six that I read, here are the three that I liked.
Interestingly, while all three are written with different perspectives and around different areas in marketing but the crux of the content remains the same:
• Focus on your product first, a good product is your best marketing asset.
• Listen to your users, there is no substitute to direct user insights.
• What’s your story? Storytelling is the new marketing.
We know these all but how many of us actually implement or get to implement these in our day to day life? Think about it.
On that note, let me share the names of the three books around marketing and branding that you may give a try:
Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen, Reviews
– Donald Miller
Ever since I have entered into consulting, one pattern that I have observed with many of my clients is a huge mismatch between the effort spent on channels vs messaging. A lot of time and money gets spent in discussing tactics like email vs Facebook but very few put in systematic effort in crafting the message that will connect with their TG. If you can resonate with this, then this book is for you.
The importance of storytelling is something that we don’t need to discuss more, I am sure by now every marketer, designer, and product manager understands and swears by the power of good storytelling. But in case you are looking to better yourself at your brand storytelling game, then you may find this book to be useful. Full of easy-to-implement ideas, and practical frameworks, this book has many takeaways for bigger brands as well as startups. Yes, at times you will get that feeling that this book is trying to sell you their premium online course but I don’t see that to be something negative and at no point, it mandates you to go for it.
Sticky Branding: 12.5 Ways to Stand Out, Attract Customers, and Grow an Incredible Brand
– Jeremy Miller
I got attracted to this title as the review at many places said it’s meant for brands with smaller budgets. Packed with insightful examples from different industries, this one is a great read for those who are starting with marketing and brand building for their businesses and would like to understand how to build an engaging brand. All the principles and philosophies explained in different chapters of the book, end with exercises that make it a great playbook with actionable strategies.
Do Purpose: Why brands with a purpose do better and matter more
– David Hieatt
A very easy read for a very difficult subject i.e., the purpose of your brand and how to build it. This book was an accidental find during one of my visits to the British Library. Initially, it looked something short and sweet but for the size of the book, it’s quite informative and to the point. While the title might make you think that it’s a branding book but most of the information shared is actually quite relevant to having a purpose and goal in life and entrepreneurship in general. If you can manage to find this one, do give this a try. This title is a part of the Do Books series and I liked it so much that I am already planning to read other titles from this series.
Which branding/marketing/product marketing books caught your attention this year? Let me know if you have any recommendations that I can try.
Diwali Campaigns 2019 – Which one won your heart?
October 31, 2019It’s the season of festivals in India these days and with festivals, comes the season of shopping. From Dusshera to Diwali, there is a different excitement and frenzy in the air. It’s that time of the year when marketers bring out their best offers and consumers are left spoilt for choices. It’s that time of the year when brands launch their best campaigns to connect and attract their target audience.
Like every year, this Diwali has also been very interesting when it comes to marketing and advertising. From digital to retail, the market was flooded with new campaigns. While some chose the route of social awareness, some went ahead with direct product promotions. Whatever be the route, finally the ones that attracted the attention were either –
Entertaining or Educating or Engaging or Empowering!
The same golden 4E rule of marketing which is about content. Good content wins.
While there were many campaigns that I liked but here’s a quick round-up on the ones that I loved the most:
Zomato – When it comes to digital content, Zomato wins hands-down for me. I am a huge, huge fan of their marketing especially their social media marketing. The quirk, the pun, and the message-fit to the occasion, I mean hats off to the team who comes out with posts like these, absolutely hilarious and shareworthy. (*Insta embed is giving issues with this theme on web, in case you can’t see the full slideshow, view it here).
Samsonite – I had goosebumps watching this ‘Diwali Ka Safar’ film and loved the idea as well as the execution. When the whole world was speaking of gifting during Diwali, Samsonite came out with a wonderful campaign on gratitude. Subtle product placement but with a remarkable message, this ad won the hearts of many.
Google Pay – Going by the number of Diyas that my whole family was busy scanning on Diwali, I have to say that this was one of the most engaging campaigns this year. From paying to sharing, the Diwali gamification by Google Pay was indeed a very smart campaign to increase product usage.
FeviKwik – What a perfect product fit campaign by FeviKwik! I mean to come out with a Diwali specific advertisement for a product like FeviKwik would have required some serious effort. And look at this post, isn’t it simply amazing? (*Insta embed is giving issues with this theme on web, in case you can’t see the full image, view it here).
Sabhyata – Many brands took the route of starting something new or celebrating change this Diwali. But speaking of this film by Sabhyata, I couldn’t guess the end when I watched it for the first time. And considering it’s coming from a brand with the name “Sabhyata”. I quite liked it. With a traditional range of products but ads like these, I am sure the brand will find its connect with the younger generation.
While I have listed the five that I liked the most but there were many more like Dunzo’s Glow Green or Swiggy’s Mute SoanPapdi that were interesting and funny. Though for me, nothing could come parallel to last year’s UmeedKaDiya campaign by HP. That film I think was a league apart, something that many of us will remember for years to come.
So, which ad was your favorite this year? Would love to hear from you in the comment section below.
PM, PMM, UX – Are the roles merging?
September 15, 2019Product Management, Product Marketing, and UX Design – are these roles merging?
My answer – Yes and No.
I get this question asked often these days especially when we discuss the go-to-market plan in my product marketing sessions. The cohorts consist of aspiring product managers and as a logical sequence of the course they go through value proposition, UX design, followed by GTM plan.
This question is quite genuine considering the way things are nowadays, more so in case of digital products. There are overlaps at times leading to joint decisions. While product management as a profession has been existing since decades but speaking of India, I think this career has gained prominent limelight in the last decade especially in digital and tech organizations.
The new age PM is not only expected to know about products but also about design and marketing. Similarly, the new age UX is expected to know about the market dynamics and the new age product marketer is expected to know about the value proposition. Today a marketing person can’t say, I don’t understand the product specifications as its too technical. A product marketing person is very much expected to understand everything about the product and own up the growth.
Somewhere it’s all about the user! Everyone is expected to know the user and think about the user, which is great.
However, understanding design is different from doing design.
Understanding marketing is different from doing marketing.
While as a role, it’s expected that a PM has a thorough understanding of all three but in reality neither of these functions are replaceable. Despite the fact that all these roles are centered around users, a PM, PMM, and UX bring different expertise to the table when it comes to actual execution and growth.
Secondly, it’s also about the stage and scale. For long I have worked in a startup, where I was owning up both the product and marketing along with managing the design team. Initially, it was all good, as it was one team who was owning up the user experience, product, and the growth numbers. But as we grew, this model had scalability challenges and finally, I had senior resources to lead the UX & PM functions as part of my team while I concentrated on GTM & growth. All of them brought in fresh perspectives and expertise into the overall product plan leading to faster launches and sustainable growth.
A PM doing the job of PMM or UX is not sustainable in the long run.
So, are the roles merging? I won’t say these are merging, rather they are aligning to each other more now and this alignment is for good.
The know-how of all three functions are getting interlinked, the knowledge expectations from all three roles are getting merged but when it comes to execution and ownership, these roles have their own identities and independent KRAs to cater to.
And whatever be the role, finally it was / is/ will be about the user and the growth.
So, how is the structure in your organization? Are you a startup or large scale operation? Do you have independent resources to manage these functions or are some of the functions merged in your setup? If merged, is it PM & PMM or PM & UX? Would love to know your opinion on the same.
Instagram Hiding Likes – Good or Bad?
August 12, 2019“We want people to worry a little bit less about how many likes they’re getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people that they care about,” – Adam Mosseri, Instagram Chief.
Instagram has hidden likes in 6 more countries now and it’s soon going to be implemented in more geographies.
So this change happened and I think it’s for good, as an individual as well as a marketer.
I know there’s a lot of hue and cry going on for this feature especially by the influencers but if I think of it rationally, my hunch is, this will fix many ongoing issues with the platform.
While the number of likes was one of the key ways to put a value on a post for the business side of Instagram, but if I think it from the business side I am not sure what purpose those likes were serving.
Not just for business accounts but for regular accounts too, these likes and follower counts have become like a digital popularity contest leading to users taking any measure to increase their worth in terms of social currency.
For Instagram, it must have been a very bold step, something that might even hit their popularity in the short term but considering all types of scams and bots that are floating on Instagram to increase these followers and likes, it’s high time that measures like these are taken.
I have been a huge fan of influencer marketing always; when done right it has given wonderful results for the brands that I have worked for. There was a time when I used to interact personally with the influencers for different campaigns and wow, what a wonderful era that was where some of those influencers actually created content better than us and our agencies. Those content were stunning, useful and worth every penny that we spent.
But speaking of now, the past three campaigns that I have tried hasn’t given us the engagement ratio of even 1%. In fact, nano influencers have turned out to be better than influencers or micro-influencers.
And there is a huge difference in the rates of hiring a nano, micro vs popular influencers these days.
One of the data points from a recent campaign that we did with few influencers – Influencers with 5k – 6k followers gave us approximately 10% engagement whereas the ones with around 60k followers gave us approximately 1% engagement. We got almost the same results from these two segments but the payouts to them were very different. We paid almost 5x to the folks with 60k+ followers as against the ones with less than 10k followers!
With the bought likes and followers, Instagram honestly speaking has been losing its essence. More than beautiful visual storytelling, it’s becoming an automated-content battleground.
Similar trends have been observed by many other independent studies and research. Recently in an analysis done by Markerly for over 2 million influencers on Instagram, it was clearly found that influencers with
- < 1,000 followers average about 8% engagement
- 1,000 – 10,000 followers average 4% engagement
- 10,000 – 100,000 followers average 2.4% engagement
- 100,000 – 1 million followers average 1.8% engagement
- > 1 million followers average 1.7% engagement
Let’s hope that with changes like these, hopefully, the fake will get filtered out and better features and metrics will get introduced to help both the content creators and marketers. Speaking of features, I think it would be good to have:
- a transparent influencer platform like Amazon, currently brands are dependent on finding influencers through third-party platforms or agencies. A robust influencer network connecting brands and influencers will be beneficial for all concerned.
- tools to clearly differentiate between genuine vs bot followers of influencers. I am ok if the influencers garner reach through paid promotions too but at least the bots or fake profiles should be called out clearly.
- better analytics and reports for brands using which they can monitor the performances of the campaigns with influencers. Payouts can be based on performance and reach. Not only will this help brands, but this will also help the genuine content creators command better deals from brands.
- better image tagging for business accounts, so that not just accounts but exact product image/pages could also be tagged.
The wishlist could be more but for now, all I hope is that Instagram retains its original charm and doesn’t meet the same fate as SMS or email.
What do you think about “Instagram removing likes”? Which tools do you use to audit the potential influencer’s account? I am currently using IG Audit and HypeAuditor. Any other good audit/ranking tools that you can recommend?
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