“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

 

 

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.

 

2. 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)