Category Archives: Marketing

Guerilla Marketing, the unconventional way of performing promotional activities, has long been used by small businesses to market their products (and services). But recently, more and more big companies are resorting to this tactic for marketing and advertising their products. This new trend of big companies being attracted towards Guerilla marketing highlights some issues of concern with traditional advertising mediums and some major benefits of Guerilla marketing.

I think the stickiness factor of advertising is one of the most important reasons why companies are looking for alternative ways of product promotion. Due to the developments in information technology, the mediums to which a customer is exposed to has risen dramatically. On an average, a typical individual has access to more than 50 television channels and a dozen radio stations. Along with this there are tens of magazines coming out every month and millions of websites on Internet. This has risen the number of advertisments the customer is exposed to, reducing drastically the stickiness of the messages. Guerilla marketing may look like a rescue for advertisers to attract the customers, or even a boon if the size of budget involved in the effort is comparitively small.

I think budget, though a very big factor, doesn’t seem to be the only factor. Companies with hundreds of millions in marketing budget are also resorting to Guerilla marketing efforts. Guerilla maketing is pulling companies towards itself because it is one of the most targeted way of marketing products. Take for example Red Bull, the highly caffeinated energy drink. Red Bull is one of the companies with the most unconventional advertising strategies in the World. Some Guerilla efforts that made Red Bull the most popular sports drink in the World are organizing extreme events from cliff diving in Hawaii to skateboarding in San Fransisco to support atheletes who compete in these sports and attract a very targeted customer base. Red Bull also conduct a slew of not so typical promotional activities to make it a staple at hip bars around the World including creating student brand managers and consumer educators (read more about Red Bull marketing in Sep 2001 issue of Fast Company)

Another important advantage of some of the bigger Guerilla marketing efforts is the free media attension earned by the companies. Guerilla marketing does miracles in creating a buzz and start people talking about the brand. Consider the KFC campaign to become the first logo visible from outer space right when online firms were investing millions in publishing arial images of the earth. The campaign created more buzz for KFC than any other promotional activity for any fast food company. This also clears a misconception that all Guerilla marketing efforts you see out there are on small budgets. It took more than 50 engineers, designers, architects and other professionals working nearly 3 months round the clock to create the World’s largest logo.

Talking more about the budget, Guerilla marketing normally has the advantage of smaller budget than running campaigns on traditional mediums. One of the more recent successes of Guerilla merketing is the launch of Mini by BMW in the US for a budget of about $13 million. How did BMW pull this successfully in a country where every third advertisement on any conventional advertising medium is of a car? By deploying some great Guerilla marketing tactics.

Guerilla marketing broadens, or we can say removes, the limits of creativity in the space of marketing and advertising. Companies irrespective of their size, products and marketing budgets can use Guerilla marketing to promote their products. And when elephants dance well to the tunes of Guerilla, it readily attracts the customers’ attension and keeps the cash register ringing!

Customers are always looking for differentiating factors between different products and services available in the market. In many industries today, like insurance, car rentals and personal computers, the products are getting more and more standardized. They have the same look and feel, similar terms and conditions and in most cases, the same price tag. In such industries, to locate a differentiating factor is very difficult. Some factors which were previously not taken that seriously can now play a more important role in affecting the customers’ buying decision. One of such factors is customer service.

Customer service has always been a very important factor to ensure long term success in any industry. But normally, customer service is something that comes under the radar when something goes wrong with the product, or in other words, after the product is already bought. We can draw an interesting parallel between customer service and product design. When the design of something is not upto the mark, it is noticed, but when the design is good, it is taken to be as expected and goes unnoticed. Similarly, if the customer service is bad, people notice it and talk about it, but if it is good, it is taken to be granted. It is the job of the company to expose this good customer service and make sure people consider it before making a buying decision. 

There are several ways to expose customer service. With the growing interaction between customers and companies through new mediums like blogs, newsgroups and message boards, it is becoming easier then ever to expose customer service. Another very effective way to expose customer service is through advertisements. It’s true that many companies advertise in order to create brand awareness, but along with that, advertisements should also be used to highlight factors that may be able to influence the customers. Something that the customer can remember when making a buying decision. Something that can put your product above the competing products. If your company has the customer service that can play this crucial role, make sure you bring it up in your advertisements.

One company that does a stellar job in advertising customer service is Avis. Avis has designed everything from its tagline (We try harder) to television commercials around its customer service. The car rental company tries to make sure that they communicate to the customers that it will put extra effort to provide the best customer service. Another company that falls under this league is Dell Computers. Customer Service at Dell is exposed right from the moment the customer thinks of buying a computer. Dell makes sure they communicate to the customer that the computer they make is made just for you. Dell commercials and the company blog does an excellent job in to expose both their pre-purchase as well as post-purchase customer service to the customers.

The unique thing to notice about these companies is that they are highly customer focused and they make sure the customer realizes that. They have great customer service divisions and they make sure that the customer takes customer service into account while making the buying decision. No matter which industry your company falls under, you should put in great effort to join this league by following these two steps – first, provide great customer service to your customers, and second, advertise customer service, make sure you communicate to the customer that customer service is an important thing and you are the best option available out there.

Starbucks, iPod and BMW – what is the one thing common in these three brands? Each one of them command a premium over similar products of other brands. It is amazing to see how the customer who creeps so much in filling gas at $4 per gallon, feels so good buying a grande (about 350 ml) latte from Starbucks for the the same price, even when the same coffee at other places is available for much less. Similar comparisons can be drawn for other products varying from a music player (iPod) to a pair of running shoes (Nike) to a car (BMW) to almost anything else.

There are a few things that help companies sell their products for a premium price. First and the most important one is the ecosystem. These brands create a unique ecosystem of some kind of sophestication around them. iPod, for example, creates an urbane and hip ecosystem around itself. iPod advertisements and Apple outlets lays the foundation for this ecosystem. Then every famous personality owning one makes it even more of a premium product. Talk show hosts ask the guests – “what songs do you carry on your iPod?” (instead of “what songs do you like to listen?”). iPod becoming a fashion symbol or more of a necessity adds to this ecosystem. The last leg of the ecosystem is the iTunes software and the whole array of accessories that go with the iPod. A customer can buy special speakers for their iPod, get docking stations, covers and what not. This ecosystem provides a lot of value to the product and helps the company earn a premium. 

A very important thing to note about the premium branded products is their superior quality. Many times we forget talking about this aspect of the products delivered by the premium brands and just focus on the marketing strength of the companies. The premium branded products are most of the time better when compared to the nearest competitor.

Emotional factor also plays a major role in paying the premium. The customers actually pay the premium to treat themselves. Buying these branded products give them satisfaction and help generate a good feeling about themselves. Take car for example. A customer pays a good amount to buy a BMW. Yes it is one of the best cars available out there, but how important is that while making a buying decision? The most important factor that kicks in here is the emotional feeling of the customer for the car. Some people have it in the list of their “things to buy when they can”. Others use it as a factor to satisfy themselves of attaining a certain level of success in life and yet others just buy it to treat themselves luxuriously (and assemble speeding tickets ;)).

Now let’s talk about how some companies are able to put their brands at that level which makes them important for the customers to have even at a premium. To answer this in a couple of words- Expressive Branding. This gives the customers a very straightforward way of making a statement about themselves. Each of these premium branded products have a certain level of luxury attached with them. And believe it or not, every common person loves luxury. People are obsessed by trading up. They will go to a coffee shop and ask for a cup of something which is not less then a tongue-twister for trading up. These brands promote themselves as a channel that people can use to trade up or to make a statement about themselves.

But it is not a bed of roses. When a company does expressive branding, it takes some major risks. When the brand plays the role of creating an identity statement for the customer, it always runs into the risk of a certain segment of people hating it. You will always find people who would never ever buy a certain brand because it’s not their type. The companies going for expressive branding make a very clear statement to the World – love us or hate us, but don’t ignore us. After all, if you want to earn a premium, you have to pay a price for it!

Look for a cool Apple sign in any prominent location. Follow it and you will enter a glass clad store with a big trendy posters on the walls and series of Macs, iPods and other Apple products. But one special thing to notice there is it looks more like a hangout place or a cyber cafe than a store. What you will see is lots of people standing around surfing the Web and playing with Apple products and accessories.

So what is Apple trying to do with these stores? Retail sales of iPods or Macs is certainly not the primary objective of these stores. Let alone primary, I think its not even the secondary objective (in fact when I was taking to a sales person about an iPod, she told me that I might want to think about buying it online, because then I can get a personal message engraved on the back of it). The primary objective is to maintain a cool brand image that Apple is well known for. Secondary objective is to let people use the Macs and other Apple products and let them know that there is another alternative available for them. And then if the store sells products and accessories, great!

First of all, its worth admiring the artistic architecture of these stores. They look more like museums than stores. The one in New York on the fifth avenue is truely mesmerizing. Next thing to notice is the relaxed and calmed atmosphere in the stores. Customers are made to feel at home and they get close to home like experience while playing with the products. This is really a great strategy. People who are so used to using Personal Computers get exposed to Mac as an alternative and all the i list of products that work only with it.

Another way Apple is marketing Mac and the bundled software at these stores is by arranging free training sessions (this is something I experienced in New York). Everyday they have guests from different fields varying from film editors talking about iMovies to web site designer giving a demo of how to use iWeb. By doing this, Apple is trying to create a thought process in minds of customers that anything cool they want to do on a computer can be done using a Mac.

An interesting way to look at these Apple stores is to look at them as really expensive billboards on busy streets. Billboards that talk to the customers, let them get in and experience the products and educate them on how to use the products. Billboards that are updated regularly to expose the new products and create buzz about the forthcoming products.

Travel in metros, take a walk down any public park or just wander on busy streets, you will see one thing in common, every third person will be listening to an iPod. And this is not specific to a certain city, the same thing is happening everywhere. iPod has created a confidence in customers for Apple products. Now Apple is exposing the same customers to other products. If Apple gets the price equation straight for its products, it won’t be surprising to see them creating Applemania in other markets as well.