CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT

The new buzzword for brands and marketeers :
After buzzwords like knowledge management, re engineering, business processing its now the turn of consumer engagement. Consumer engagement starts as early as a kid when all of us take our kids for the nursery school admission. The school management in their interview grills the parents and kids but while the parents sit and reply to the questions the kids are actively engaged in the playroom with lots of toys to play. During this engagement the parents comfortably fend the questions while the child is kept engaged. The engagement with the kids through those toys helps the school to understand the kid more and better.

This is a very important marketing tool that most big brands of schools effectively use to get the best talented and bright kids to their school. To me the definition of consumer engagement is nothing but politely and meaningfully conversing with the prospect to get the customer closer to experience the brand. Of course there will be several definitions one can look at but at the end of the day consumer engagement has to lead to conversion across product category. Hence it is of prime importance that engagement which is two ways dialogue is thoughtfully planed with a strategy, which has a killer instinct to win over the customer.

Types of Consumer engagement:
You have active and passive engagement with the consumer. Active engagement is more of two a way interaction where the consumer closely interacts to get to know the look and feel of the brand. In case of passive engagement it is other external props that entices the customer to experience the brand. A very classic and relevant example is movie watching in a multiplex. Here your primary motive for the customer is to identify a good movie and watch it in a multiplex. While the consumer is engaged enjoying the movie it is that other extras in a multiplex like the food, ambience, bookshop and that keeps his mind passively engaged with the multiplex brand. Even for some reasons the movie was not good the passive engagement of the multiplex in its various forms of frills that he experienced will bring very closer to multiplex brand. For the customer this experience has to be unforgettable and delightful.

The same holds good for a eating place or a fast food joint. While you relish the great food other factors such as the live making and viewing of roomali rotis or preparing of gelato cold slab through the transparent glass keeps the consumer actively engaged and gives he are she a different experience. There are these little extras that keeps consumer busy. Consumer enjoyment does not limit to only offline, live brand experience. Even online brands have strong consumer engagement mechanism to keep the customer hooked to the experience the brand is offering. One example, which is very common, is gaming portals, social networking websites and marriage portal. In the case of marriage portal you interact with lot of questions that the portal poses. Here the tone of engagement is a bit serious as the prospect is in search for a life partner and he or she needs to carefully handle the interaction. One of the best experience in consumer engagement I would like dwell upon is the great music festival in Chennai. The consumers or rasikas who enjoy the traditional music with all its nuances is also actively engaged with tastefully created ambience,décor which is perfectly integrated with other frills such as music shops and books, with mouthwatering idlis , dosas, vadas and strong aroma of filter coffee at the venue.
Here the over all engagement platform gives the customer a very delightful and tangible experience.


Consumer engagement helps generating sales and retaining customers: In a world where competition is stiff and customer expectations are high in terms of best deals, marketers across brands, products and services have taken consumer engagement as their new mantra to accomplish success. As mentioned earlier the engagement can be either active or passive.

I would like to illustrate an interesting shopping mall experience where consumer engagement is of the highest order. I was at a shopping mall, which was buzzing with lot of activities. While there was enough consumer engagement with in the mall by way of video games, singing competition and you were heard live through a popular radio stations there was one holiday travel brand that were just asking people to fill up a simple form with your contact number and address details. No quiz or trivia was asked. If you are lucky you get to win a prize. But more than the prize what was hidden in their sales strategy was to call some randomly picked customers and ask them to report in 24 hrs.These lucky prospects are then offered a free holiday at any of their resorts. The lucky customer gets a free gift voucher of 2 days and 3 nights to try the resort. However to get this free voucher it is mandatory that you have to go with your wife and spend 45 minutes with their sales team. You get the free voucher but not before you attend a strong sales pitch presentation promoting their various properties. Here the holiday company was involved in three different stages of consumer engagement process starting from filling up the form, followed by calling the prospect that you have won a free gift voucher and finally making the prospect attend the sales presentation. Here the travel brand was very clear that they were looking for a big fish to net their sales returns.

Similarly several loyalty programs keep continuously using consumer engagement ideas and tools. It could be credit cards, debit cards or co - branded cards. The Jet miles and Petro bonus cards are one of the strong consumer engagement examples. In the case of Jet once the passenger completes his journey the first task in his things to do list is to update his mileage points so that he does not miss on it. The whole engagement process has been so successful it is difficult to get this jet customer to switch brand. The petro bonus cards is another very good loyalty program where the customer interacts with the brand each time he or she refuels gas in their vehicle. There are several examples one can quote but rules of the marketing is changing fast and that is one of the reason most marketers are bringing in new consumer engagement models to woo customers and bring closer to experience their brands.

Power of design in Annual reports.

Corporates moving towards creating better annual report designs :

All of us are somewhere stakeholders of some company and we keep on receiving financial report. From my experience in the good old days the first thing that a reader does after he gets his annual report copy is straight way go to the page where the dividend figure is mentioned and after that it straight away goes along with the sale of old newspapers. Companies never saw the power of annual report to communicate to the stakeholders both internally and outside the company. Most companies viewed creating a glossy annual reports was an additional expenditure to their advertising and marketing budget. That era has come to an end and trends have changed with more corporates making efforts in presenting better financial statement with good information, contents and design. Companies like Infosys have been consistently churning out good annual report, as this is one way for them to communicate to their global audience and business partners. This year the annual reports from some corporates have been tastefully done.

Unique approach :
The one annual report that is really impressive and different this year has been from MindTree Consulting Ltd. This is the first annual report after they became public limited. The idea and design for the report sprung up from the creation of the children of Spastic Society of Karnataka who designed the MindTree logo.Their creations were extensively used in the design. The theme of the annual report is "The Mind is a amazing thing."

Through their paintings, it was communicated to the world that they have a great mind that is trapped in a very disobeying body.

What is also unique about the report is that the company have published a list of resources where people can get help on cerebral palsy. MindTree consulting has attempted to use this medium to spread awareness. The first annual report of MindTree consulting after becoming public limited is a salute to the indomitable spirit that says ordinary people can do extra ordinary things. This is a great way of exhibiting corporate responsibility.

Adds value to the corporate brand: A financial report touches a lot of audience right from the stakeholders to business partners to financial institution. What’s more even new employee prospect who wants to join an organization scans through either on the net or lays hand on the reports. Now here if your annual report stands out and disseminates all information interestingly then you have managed to bring in the prospective employee a bit closer. This is one example and there are so many other situations one can look at the role and importance of a good annual report. A well thought out annual report can really create a lasting impression The contents and design must clearly spell out the goals and vision of the company which will help the stakeholders get to know in which direction the company is surging ahead.

Total planning and orchestration required: Earmark a sizeable budget right at the beginning, which will also include the paper that you use. Remember great designs may not get good results if the right quality paper is not used. There should be complete orchestration between design team and the printing company to get excellent results. Time is of very important essence and hence company should plan early to get the final printed copy on time. Since this report comes out only once a year planning should start early one must not wake up at the last moment to meet the tight statutory deadlines. This has been the issue with most corporates in our country. If companies view churning a good annual report as an investment for the brand this will only further help in strengthening the equity of the brand.

Innovative thinking: Internationally some of the companies have made their annual report interactive and have uploaded on their web page. The corporates should now capture the proceedings of their annual general meetings and post them on the web. This will help shareholders who are not able to attend the annual general meetings due to paucity of time or distance. On request from the shareholders the proceedings of the meeting can be sent through a cd or dvd. This is one way of being in touch with the shareholders and thereby building the confidence reposed on the company. It also means that the company is very transparent and honest with their shareholders.

If companies are serious and make it a point to consistently produce good annual report design every year then it will be able to get greater mileage both for their product brands and the corporate brand. Some of the software brands have this top in their agenda. And today they are commanding a premium image both in the domestic and international market. These software companies along with their focused public relation programs and well designed annual reports have achieved in building the company values and image.

Finally if the CEO of the company believes in creating a great annual report design then it will motivate his people in the marketing and corporate function to strive towards in producing an excellent annual report design.

Is Brand Dhoni the new role model ?.

Two great wicket keepers endorse the same brands

Cricketer and celebrities has become the role model for tomorrow’s generation. The other day I came across an interesting observation in one of the leading dailies where Ajay Jadeja’s little son was mentioning that daddy you are not a great cricketer look at Dhoni uncle, I want to become like Dhoni. Look what the dynamic and dynamite Dhoni has done to the generation next. Watching cricket and advertisements have motivated kids to follow celebrities to accomplish their ambition. Today most of the kids and the generation next youth who are constantly on the move and look up for role model to learn and achieve their goals. Currently it looks like brand Dhoni has become the icon across all audience and all product categories.

Walk in to a hair-dressing salon you will notice the posters of Dhoni
to woo customers to get their hair cut like Dhoni. Dhoni as a brand has became so popular with his hairstyle that even the President of Pakistan in his speech at the prize ceremony in the last one day series against Pakistan in Pakistan mentioned in his speech, I adore your hair my friend Dhoni and advised him not to shorten or change his hair style. Another very interesting observation hit me. In the early 70’s we had Farookh Engineer who was the only cricketer model I remember of endorsing any brand. Incidentally he was also endorsing the brand Brylcreem. He too was a wicket-keeper and an aggressive batsman known for his lusty heating. Today Dhoni is also endorsing the brand Brylcreem. Is it sheer co- incidence or was the brand looking for a great wicket- keeper batsman after Farookh Engineer to endorse their brand. We have so many wicket-keepers come and go in the last three decades.

Finally a good brand fit. Farookh Engineer was quite successful and so is Mahi today as a wicket-keeper batsman. Both the cricketers had good-looking hair and were popular with the crowd when they arrived at the batting crease. As personality both were bold, aggressive, jovial , cool but a had a different style and grace in their approach to batting. Since helmets etc were not used in the early days and Farookh use to bat bare headed he could subtly display is beautiful good looking hair applied with Brylcreem.

Greeting card messages looses shine.

Festivity and Cards:

The next few weeks across the country there will be buzz around all places across the country as the season of festivity begins. Two decades back people religiously go shopping for various types of greeting cards to send it to the dear and near ones to express their greetings and convey their good wishes for the various festivals. Some major local players and national brands dominated this market. Greeting card brands offered a wide range of design with interesting creative messages at various price points. Then there was the social organization who were very aggressively marketing their cards to both the individual customers and corporates. Some of the big brands were very strong in using various media to promote their brands just few weeks before the festive season. These brands were offering personalized printing of names on bulk orders of the cards. One had to plan well in advance so that you get the design of your choice on time to catch the festive season.

Technology paves way for the cards:

Thanks to the revolution in technology it has now become easy sending greeting cards. PC’s and mobile phone have really made great inroads in this segment. The consumers find these as very simple and cheap means to send his or her good wishes to his friends. In the case of computers one can create a design of one’s own choice and send it. All one has to do is send an E-Greetings, SMS or MMS. In today’s world where time is of paramount importance people cannot set a side time to write the addresses go to post office buy stamps and post them. The inertia to send card has become low on the priority list, as there are other simpler and easy means to send good wishes and still enjoy and celebrate the festivals. The cellular operators also encourage and woo users during festivity to send good wishes messages at very attractive rates. The prices are down to earth and so tempting that even somebody who does not send social messages joins the messaging bug during festivity.


Government a big looser :

The postal department has have lost a considerable amount of revenue as purchase of stamps have dropped over a period of time. Also some of the private courier brands have to face loss in billings. Many local brands and national brands have also seen the drop in the sales of greeting cards as simpler and cheap substitute option is available to customers. Small time designers and paper companies have also been affected. Big time social organizations that earn considerable revenues marketing cards have also been affected to some extent. The revenues of press, magazines and to some extent the electronic channels have come down as marketing efforts to push greeting cards have dwindled. Although there are some corporates who still oblige these social organization a majority of them have moved away from this as it also involves considerable amount administrative machinery and expenditure to dispatch the cards on time.

Emotional connect missing :

E – Greeting cards and SMS’s has been easy means for people to send their messages. Not only is it easy but it has become cost effective for many. But what one does not realize is that sending greeting card messages through SMS’s etc is like talking to an answering machine where the emotional touch is missing. In the case of greeting card the sender invariably takes lot of trouble and planning to hand pick the right greeting card with the right choice of message before he or she sends it. By choosing the card with right message and visual gives he or she to express the emotional feelings of celebrations from the bottom of the heart. This is where greeting card brands have been very forward in their thinking by coming out with newer designs that will touch the receiver. Technology will never be able to fill this gap. Emotive expressions through a nice greeting card attach more value and touches the human chord. The chances are that with messages flowing from various well wishers one may tend to not read the messages as most of the times the message content is very boring, mundane and monotonous. That does not hold good when you receive a greeting card. You will receive different types of cards and one will make it a point to take some time to have a look at them. In some case if the card is unique and eye catching one tend to preserve it for some time.

Marketers adapt to the change:
A quick shift has taken among many players. Greeting card companies have been very forward looking in their approach and have moved to the gifting segment, which constitutes a huge market. With a growing affluent society and opening of malls and multiplexes the aspiration and desire of the Indian consumer has prompted many companies and brands to move towards gifting from the social expression card segment. Some of the companies have tied up with several international brands to bring gifting in a big way keeping in mind the nuances and the flavor of the Indian market and the Indian consumer.

New ideas have also been explored in the area of cards. Specially designed cards have been created through niche positioning to market cards for occasions such as friendship day, valentines day, father’s day, mother’s day, teacher’s day .While these may not deliver great volumes but in terms of value some of the brands will be able to reduce their revenue gap for their shortcoming through traditional and conventional greeting cards. While technology has eaten in to the greeting card brands but there will be some loyal and die hard customers who will still use the greeting card medium to express his or her wishes . These may be mostly in the smaller towns for whom emotional connect and expression is bigger then technology.