I Wish...

The topic name seems to be very elusive and personal. You may be thinking that why am I even mentioning about my wishes on a management blog. But, there is a catch to it. Today my wishes are not just confined to myself. A whole lot of marketers and researchers are working incessantly to recognize and cash on my wishes and dreams. It is now ever important for companies to identify what people desire/dream and thus place their products and communication strategy. This will allow them to brand their products/services much closer to their target segment and in the mean-time increase loyalty among its customers.

A lot of research is done on finding the consumer perceptions and thought process. We management students spend months doing this in our internship and dissertation projects. The most important question being, Why? What purpose will this research serve? How are companies benefiting from this? The answer is straight and simple. It allows you to know the end segment better. Your goal to achieve customer-centricity will be easy. More innovation and popular features can be embedded in your products/features. And above all, customer satisfaction could be achieved.

Cult brands such as Harley, BMW, Apple, Rolex, Nokia have managed to create such tremendous fan following and have survived these years just by understanding the above mentioned concept. Their food for innovation is not great ideas, neither break-through technology; but catering to their customer dreams and help them in realizing it. And this further leads to a viral marketing campaign. And with the advent of Internet it’s very easy for marketers to understand this and utilize it for their benefit.

Let’s take the above discussion at a micro-scale; consider the following ads which built their communication as such:

1. Pulsar Mania – It showed a series of implausible stunts which attracted instant awareness and demand for the brand. Soon Pulsar concentrated to performance orientation and released improvised versions with better cc capability. Even it sponsored a reality TV Show named Stuntmania to re-instate its brand appeal.

2. This simple yet superlative ad depicted how the Indian women is transforming into a more fun-loving, daring and aspirational breed. It just hit the target at the right spot. (If u want 2 b like Priyanka, u WILL like this..!)

3. The “Lead India” campaign by Times Group re-defined the symmetries of Ad-making. Every Indian has a bit of patriotism in his/her heart; but always cribs about something or the other. This ad answered to the wishes of many Indians on what they thought, and what the solution should be.

In simple terms an Ad is incomplete if you miss out on the WISH/CUSTOMER perspective. If an Ad has to be impactful; it needs to be a proper mixture of creativity, content and concept. And your concept should include the wishesssssss. J