Tag Archives: Consumers

What generates more demand – Following the consumer or leading them?

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“If you don’t have an IPhone, you don’t have an IPhone!”

 

When Apple rolled out this commercial, they made a history by creating a substantial demand for their phone.

The commercial did nothing but scratched the ego of the buyers and subtly declared that no phone is better than IPhone! The brand led the consumers with a new product which they never thought about having!

The move was risky but brave.

It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” —Steve Jobs

 

Customer acquisition is a tough objective and when the competition with your peers is unstoppable, it becomes a herculean task.

To drive your prospects and convert them into your customers, you need to understand their needs, interests, problems they face and the environment they dwell in.

 

What is Demand Generation?

The concept of creating a need for your product or service in the minds of your prospects is called Demand Generation.

Every market will always possess some kind of selling. But the aim of any marketer should be to make the selling surplus.

Demand Generation is a multi-step process:

  1. Identify the interests, problems, needs of your target audience
  2. Provide them a solution that fits them and sells itself
  3. Make your solution stand TALL among your peers

 

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Apart from the theoretical definition, I would like to branch out the concept of Demand Generation into two categories:

  1. Creating a need and leading the consumers:

Leading the consumers with a new product rather than asking them about what kind of product they want and creating a need in their mind is a new way of driving the demand.

This involves installing a new idea in the minds of the consumers and educating them about its benefits and the positive influence it will have in their lives. So instead of doing a lot of market research, a new market for the product is created.

Apart from creating the awareness, engaging the prospects with the product right from the inception to the launch and of course post launch is really important.

During this period, the behaviour of your target audience will determine a lot about the future of your product. Their involvement will also help you gauge their expectations and enhance the product better.

 

  1. Following the need and the consumers:

The second category talks about following the already existing need and providing a better solution.

Innovation is the booming trend in the market. With in-depth market research, lot of new businesses and startups choose to innovate the existing product. They either enhance the feature or skew the target audience.

Launching a customized solution answering the needs of the prospect in a particular domain is a new way how startups plan their foothold in the market.

In this scenario, your prospect is already well-versed with the concept of your product and hence very little efforts need to be put to educate them.

The majority of the efforts are put in to establish the product as a BETTER and IMPROVED version of the other products in the market.

 

Flipkart, Snapdeal are the best examples of innovation. They are the India’s reply to Amazon and Alibaba.

 

Choosing to lead or follow the consumers entirely depends upon one’s will and ideas. Most of the marketers opt to follow the need and begin their journey on the lines of innovation. Very few risk to invent and pave their own paths.

Demand generation process requires a systematic planning and implementation. The current scenario shows that consumers rely a lot on search engines and social channels to make a buying decision.

Whether lead or follow, marketers need to devise a robust strategy that will help their brand to be a part of the digital and social selling experience.

There are many different strategies available for increasing the demand. To lighten the workload and minimize the time and investment, the best solution will be to channelize majority of your marketing efforts to Social Media.

Considering the stats reported by HubSpot, Social Media generates more leads at half the cost as compared to any other outbound marketing channels. For any marketer, more and cheap is always a good mix!

Other than Social Media, Search Engine Optimization, Online Paid Ads (SEM) and Email Marketing are the other channels which can be utilized wisely.

With a pool of opportunities in hand, limiting oneself to one’s own imagination will be a mistake.

Stay tuned for my next blog where we will explore these opportunities together. 🙂

(Image Courtesy: Google)

 

 

 

Social Media, mightier than a pen!

Do you have a query which you would like the concerned brand to answer?  Are you thinking about writing them (with a pen and paper) on their postal address?

Somebody like me or for that matter anyone who understands the power of social media will be judgemental about you and will term you as “a stranger in a Strange Land” 😛

With the world being abuzz about the digital media, the term “Write to us” is so passé. Gone are the days where your letter was ignored by the brand.

Thanks to social media, the reins are in the hands of the common people like you and me…..your voice won’t get unheard! Let’s see how –

Just a few days back my cell phone service provider Vodafone India barred my outgoing service without any notice. After calling their customer service departments from my husband’s cell incessantly, I could finally connect to one executive who unfortunately kept transferring my call to multiple departments. With no output in hand, I decided to take the plunge.

I tweeted my issue mentioning the service provider and within no time, I got a call from customer care executive that restored my services within 2 days!

That’s the power of social media……..!!!!

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With the emerging concept of Social Care – introduction of SOCIAL media as another medium for customer CARE, brands using the emergent platforms like Facebook and Twitter are making an effort to connect with each and every consumer.

With more and more brands building their presence on the HOT social media channels, they are bound to address the questions, reported satisfactions or complain from their consumers. Social media being open and vocal, they cannot afford to miss a single beat.

By widening the mediums for correspondence, brands – whether big or small, B2B or B2C are facing the real challenge to stay at par the consumer expectations which keep increasing with time.

Due to the fierce market competition, every brand tries to provide a seamless experience to its consumers leading to the overall rise of consumer expectations.

Strategies are implemented that communicate brand values and ideals. Brands are trying to listen to the consumer expectations, needs and requirements.

By creating a clear, comprehensive identity, brands try to ally the consumers with their values and ideals, thus trying to achieve the epitome of marketing!

Many of the leading companies such as Mahindra are launching campaigns (Mahindra Rise) seeking for new and innovative ideas from consumers to invent new products, services and possibilities. Others are coming up with solutions for problem areas. Besides these, brands always come up with free coupons, gift vouchers, discounts and offers to keep their consumers glued.

And if one fails, consumers are bound to bring it down with the help of vested power of social media.

Conclusion – more power to the consumers!

With the reins in the hand, I keep wondering are the consumers putting enough efforts to explore the power and make good for themselves as well as the society??

Are you speaking up for yourself? Are you loud enough to be heard among all the noise?

If not, add this into your To-do list for this New Years. Use your powers for good through social media and let your brand know what you feel.

And yes do share the experience with me….