A Marketer with a difference

 (Disclaimer: this is an attempt to imagine and experience a person I would like to become 7 years later. So the year is 2032 and meet Mr. Gaurav Chandakkar)   

Introduction: We welcome you to this Annual ISB Dialogue 2027. Today we have Mr. Gaurav Chandakkar, our alumni, an eminent personality behind 'digital ethnographer' as our speaker and guest. He graduated in Microbiology and pursued a master's in Anthropology and then an MBA. He brings 2 decades of varied work experience spanning NGOs, domestic and international alike, as well as flair of the corporate world with MNCs. Later he pursued a Fellow Programme Management from ISB. His thesis has been recognized as a pivotal work in marrying anthropological methods with modern-day day marketing. Let's put our hands together in welcoming him and hear from him his journey and life lessons. 

Monologue: Thank you and I am humbled by the introduction. Let me begin by saying, that this is a dream come true and standing here, among the brightest talents of our country, I feel privileged as well as a little nostalgic as my life journey flashed in front of my eyes. I am going to open all pages of my life and I request you to learn from my mistakes and short-comings. My story is the story of failures and lessons from failures!

Growing up, I was just an ordinary person who aimed at scoring just enough marks to make myself and my parents happy and Help me stay in a Division meant to be for 'Scholars' or good grade earners. Being fat, I was bullied and made fun of all the time and when it came to the period of PT (Physical Training), it dreaded me the most as it exposed my 'inability' to run as fast as my peers. I was a subject of 'fun' for many. So truly speaking I never enjoyed my school days. However, when I finished my secondary schooling and went for the secondary, I was optimistic about a change of situation. However, the impact of 'fun' that people had, had already seeped in and made me a person that I hated. The situation became difficult as I was not able to crack the Medical Entrance exam and had to settle for Bachelors degree instead of MBBS. I had disappointed myself, but more that I was carrying baggage that I had disappointed my parents as well. I was apprehensive about it, but for the first time, I had a friend circle that I enjoyed the most. This also helped me change my mind about re-taking the Medical entrance examination, and I continued with my Bachelor's degree. I guess, I again disappointed my parents. At the same time, I was fascinated by Anthropology subject and started searching more about the subject. Everyone was surprised (or taken aback) when I opted for an Anthropology course for Masters by sidelining the regular 'Biotechnology' course, which was blooming at the time. I guess, I again disappointed my parents. But, for me, I was enjoying the course. It helped me understand myself, understand other people and widen my worldview. A walk in a village was no more just a walk but an inquiry into the cultural nuances of the villagers. It also shaped my interest in writing. And most importantly, here I met a friend, who showed me the way to overcome fear, fear of speaking in English, stage fear and instilling self-confidence. It gave me a chance to meet people from all walks of life and 'not forming opinions' about them. Here for the first time, the thought of applied anthropology was struck. 

I worked with many NGOs after doing my master's, but I always felt that something wasn't right. I hated the way the NGO profession was perceived by many- mainly as a person with Jhola! I used to have debates with my peers, about why NGO is considered as a profession for the 'social-work' only without much ambition. I wanted to apply corporate principles in NGO work. But, for that, I had to know the 'corporate' principles first. Hence, I pursued an MBA and got into the corporate world to learn more about its ways. All this while, I used to do small assignments so as not to lose touch with the field. And, when I first delved into the world of marketing, I knew that this was the field I would like to be part of and I could see myself using some of the principles of anthropological research methodologies in my working and achieving results. It helped me build a foundation for my future work in my Fellowship programme. It also paved the way to build a 'digital ethnographer'. 

The Digital Ethnographer Foundation was formed three years back and has become one of the most promising companies of the decade. We have had great collaborations, recently with Microsoft, for providing ethnographic insights into consumer behaviour on their social platforms. I believe, the modern digital world requires modern techniques and we at the foundation constantly strive to create them. 

Well, today I am not going to elaborate upon the work that is well-known to you but something that I would like everyone to know about the underlying mission of our foundation. Our foundation runs a campaign- a community approach towards fitness - where physically fit people network with people who need help. This is a unique community that helps each other by bringing each other's strengths. We as a foundation also work as a mediator between Donors and the Needy, especially in the education sector. We have a repository of verified NGOs and their needs, and we network them with an appropriate donor organization. We also do independent financial and work audits and send them to the respective organizations. 

To end my speech, please remember:

• Do not be afraid to be afraid. However, do endure the period. 
• In crisis, do not hesitate to ask for help. Find a person whom you can trust.
• People will get disappointed in you, even your parents. However, do not stop pursuing what you think is right for you. Either people will understand you or you will learn a great lesson. 
• Last, but not the least, teach your child to respect and accept others as they are. 

I would like to thank the dean of the college for giving me this opportunity and thank you all for listening to me patiently. As I keep saying, don't let Failures Fail you!

   

The Zen Marketeer

Introduction

Marketing goods has been a basic phenomenon of every society. Marketing and sales domains has been in practice for many decades in human society. The objective of marketing is to instill the interest of people in the goods and services while sales refer to actual transaction being carried out. However, one should remember that marketing starts before the products/service comes in to existence and continues to be relevant post-sales as well. However, marketing has not remained a simple phenomenon anymore. For many years, especially at the wake of internet revolution, marketing has undergone tremendous changes in the way it’s carried out. At the same time, now, consumer has become wise, thanks to the varied information platforms available to them. Hence, it has become pertinent to a marketer to find innovative ways to market.

Marketing can be looked at as an creative expression of a marketeer that can be expressed in text or other visual forms. In a world where technologies go obsolete sometimes within months, marketing and sales are the probably only domains which is deeply rooted in human psychology. Though marketing cannot overcome the importance of the ‘quality of the product or service’,  it definitely finds its place when they are created. Investment in marketing activities also gives individuals and organizations a measurable and reliable ROI.

This article brings about the science involved in marketing and ways through which it crosses the path with creative expressions of a marketeer. The article will also lay down the understanding of economics and importance of communication skills for a marketeer. Further, this article will address the important differences in traditional and digital marketing techniques, introduce a CATT marketing funnel model and integrated marketing approach. At last, we will discuss the power of personal branding briefly.

The Rise of the Internet and Indian Demography

India has already been ranked as the second largest online market worldwide in 2019 after China. It has been estimated that, in next five years India will add 300 million¹ more internet users taking the projected tally to over 974 million people i.e. we are looking at an estimated growth of ~39% in coming five years. Growth of internet users is also the result of corresponding penetration of mobile phones that makes internet access easy. It’s estimated that almost 64% of the internet users access it using mobile phones². The growth of internet has been dynamic in nature, in urban as well as rural areas. 

Internet Users in India

It would also be pertinent to look at the demographics of people who are fueling the rise in internet usage. Indian demographics can be divided in to 3 sub-parts viz. India 1, India 2 and India 3 as depicted in the following Picture³.  

Indian Demographic Sub-categories by Mr. Sujith Pai ³

This sub-categorization is very important from marketer’s perspective, as it depicts the nature of their target market. Success in marketing is defined mainly by defining the target audience. This is the first step followed by which all other activities entail such as designing communication strategies, writing content that will connect with the target audience and selecting the platform where these target audience will be present. Hence, a Zen marketeer will always have eyes and ears open to the changes in the economics and demographics of the market in which (s)he is active. A wise marketeer would make use of such statistic in order to decide ‘where’ to compete.

Traditional Vs Digital Marketing

In a world of digital marketing, one often forgets that it’s more about marketing than digital tool usage. Traditional marketing entails media like television, radio, billboards, face-to-face, physical print and placement/POP (point of purchase). There have been various literature available that stress importance of such media when we have to address mass. This also means the product or service being marketed has mass and widespread applications. However, traditional media comes with some disadvantages. First of all, marketer cannot personalize his/her message to the target audience. Secondly, measuring the effectiveness of marketing activities using traditional media channels poses an unique challenge. Third important aspect of the traditional marketing approach is its ‘static’ nature. Marketer cannot update his/her approach once activities are executed.

On the other hand, digital marketing has empowered marketers to craft personalize message to their audience. Digital marketing also allows a much deeper insights into the personalities of the target audience and using the tools digital marketer is in better position to understand what kind of content is getting consumed by whom and when. This also gives an opportunity to ‘measure’ the ROI of digital marketing activities directly in terms of “sale” or indirectly in terms of the “engagement”. In addition, digital marketing is ‘dynamic’ in nature where marketer can update his/her approach based on the ‘live’ feedback that can be obtained often via various tools.

‘it is not about doing digital marketing, it is about marketing effectively in a digital world’

                                                                                                 Menezes, CEO, Diageo

The CATT Formula for Success

The digital world also brings unique challenges more importantly the ‘noise’. It’s all external pieces of communication that may interfere or disrupt the intended message. We have abundance of noise that leads to clutter, lack of credibility and eventually dilution of the intended message, giving way to spam. Hence, in order to succeed in a market perforated by ‘noise’, the Zen marketeer can rely upon CATT formula for achieving success. This model is proposed by Digital Deepak. The model states that

Wealth=n^CATT

Where,

Wealth= success/ROI                     N= niche category selected                         C= content         

A= attention                      T= trust                T= transaction

So as per this model, marketing success is mainly dependent upon the good quality content which can attract audience’s attention. Quality content, which addresses concerns of the target audience and gives solution to them, is also the key to build trust. Trust later is leveraged to generate transaction. However, wealth creation or say ROI generation is mainly dependent upon the niche that has been selected by an individual or organization. You can recall our previous discussion where marketer can make use of all the data (economic and demographic alike) in order to choose such a domain where (s)he is capable of defining the ‘persona’ of target market to be able to offer personalized content and solution.

Holistic Marketing: Traditional plus Digital

Digital marketing entails various activities like email marketing, content marketing, social media marketing (SMM), SEO, paid advertising that can lead the target audience to transact for the offering. However, today the consumers use multiple channels to seek information. This is also referred to as the ‘media fragmentation’. It can be observed that the audience interacts and engages differently on different media. Hence, singular approach of using only one method of digital marketing may not yield good result. For example, when we talk about social media, a person is present on different platforms and the level of engagement on these platforms may not be same. Also, consumers can choose when, how to interact with brands. Hence, an integrated digital marketing approach will yield far better results as the chances of engaging audience increases as number of interaction increase with multiple digital activities. 

Integrated Digital Marketing Approach

A holistic view towards marketing will include the use of traditional marketing medial along with integrated digital marketing activities. It has been proven that, in some of the domains, traditional marketing has equal importance if not more when designing marketing activities. For example, in B2B market, print media still has weightage where people may prefer reading a printed magazine. Hence, depending upon the product and industry, one may have to go for holistic approach.

Personal Branding: Boon or Bane?

Many organizations term their employees as their brand ambassador. Similarly, once’s digital footprints define one’s image and can also create a brand out of it. It’s the image or a perception that people have about you. Personal branding is mostly a self-promotion to showcase the kind of person you’re and your strengths. Personal brand is not created over-night. It’s a process, which is also termed as Mass-Trust Blueprint by Digital Deepak. It involves following steps:

1. Learning and unlearning
2. Work to implement your learnings
3. Content creation through blogs/websites etc.
4. Become consultant to others seeking solution
5. Mentoring the other like-minded individuals
6. Become an entrepreneur to offer own product/service to the existing problem

   

   MassTrust Blueprint by Digital Deepak
   

However, personal branding or say self-promotion is a double edged sword. Personal branding definitely helps people understand your knowledge level and which problem you’re able to solve for them. It also helps in giving personal touch to the offering. You as an influencer can enjoy authority, your content can be consumed by many and trust building can be easier compared to a novel person. In short, as a personal brand you can achieve most of the aspects mentioned in CATT model.

However, there’s downside to personal branding. Personal branding may not always help your brand. You as an influencer can be stereotyped and overselling can create negative mind-set among the audience. Hence, caution has to be exercised while self-promoting.

Conclusion:

The internet revolution and penetration has given new avenues to marketers, which are different that the usual traditional methods of marketing. The digital marketing has become norm this new world. The digital marketing has many positives and its dynamic nature helps marketers to control marketing activities and change/adapt as per the situation. However, this also pose some unique challenges to marketers. It has also empowered consumers and they, in turn, often opt for multiple channels to seek information or engage. This multiplicity of channels make it an imperative for a marketer to opt for integrated digital marketing approach or, many-a-times, an holistic approach to combine traditional and integrated digital marketing methods. A Zen marketeer is the one who can create ROI by choosing a right niche, with a right content for the right audience on the right platform at the right time. The Zen marketeer is also the one who can make use of power of personal branding appropriately to become a distinguished brand in the clutter of digital world as he understands that digital marketing is more about marketing than digital.

References:

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/255146/number-of-internet-users-in-india/ accessed on 15^th August 2020
2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/558610/number-of-mobile-internet-user-in-india/ accessed on 15^th August 2020
3. https://blog.usejournal.com/india2-english-tax-and-building-for-the-next-billion-users-198701f0a7a6 accessed on 16th August 2020

Faith

The time wraps an
Unconvincing puzzle around you
The thoughts are troubled
You ponder over a future
The path unseen
The way to survive
Is to have a Faith in probabilities

You

They are there always been there

Donning the mask conveniently and happily

Being erudite, disguising effectively

They were also there, always been there

Masking themselves effectively

Somehow managing but happy

And then you are there, always been there

Sweating it out, trying to balance

And managing, managing well

That’s the reason you commit mistakes

Being human

That’s the reason you feel bad

Being a learner

And that should be the reason

For not being let down by your own conscious

Just Like That

When is it that you yourself feel that you are successful

Is it when as a baby you learn to crawl or

When you learn to stand straight or

When you utter that first word

Is it when you get an admission to a good school

Or when you meet and make your first friend

Is it when you secure good marks in school

Or when teachers pat your back

Is it when you get to good college

Or when you become an unmissable hero in the college

Or just be the one the crowd who is never noticed

Is it when you decide your own on after-college life

Or when you get into a career decided by your parents

Is it when you get a job with better paychecks

Or when you get someone whom you can spend life with

Is it when you have a group of freinds who,

,As they ‘will cry when you die’

Is it when you get along your life as parents

Or when you decide to when to become one and stand by it

Is it when you get paid decently for the job you hate

Or when you are paid peanuts for the job that you would die for

Is it when others exclaimed how successful you are

Or is it when you become the subject to be envied

When all these are just questions

Answers will be many

And certainly no right and wrong in them

However, important is to feel that you’re successful

The options are many and choices are hard

The mind is mingling in these thoughts

Turning back, everything seems so foggy

Need to see through and get that feeling back

Life is cut across various stages

You are successful at one and may not be at other

But the life is a journey as they say

Hope is the light that will light up our mind

Get that hope and take step forward

Just Forget It....

I was a person of substance

Well that’s what I used to think

I was a person of dreams

Well that’s what I aimed for

I was a person with ideas

Well hat what my idea of myself was

Now, I am left with a void

Searching a substance in my life

Everyday dawns with a positive thought

Proceeds t a negative one by night

Every word I say, I am not sure of

Every act I do, I am not clear about

Every person I met, I estrange in a moment

Every friend I make, I lose in flash

Everything that happens, I have no control over

I've loosen all the strings

The life is running and I am drudging behind

I am soaked in the thoughts

I need to break myself open

I need to choose rather than follow

The life’s rule are not fair or may be

Or maybe just forget it….

China: better than India?

Many of us be it lay people, businessmen, economists and policymakers always try to draw parallels between India and China and try to project which will be economic Power by 2025 or 2050. However the article that I read about China was an eyeopener. It has reinforced the advantages of having Democracy in India. Though there are some benefits in the political situation that China has, the social impacts (like the one mentioned in this article) are far grave than Economic and Monetary benefits especially from Common Man's perspective.
Link to the article:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/with-an-annual-package-of-rs-49-crore-genpacts-tiger-tyagarajan-is-the-lion-of-salary-circuit/articleshow/14280131.cms