by Dishan Jayasinha, founder, CEO and creative head of DG Studio
Like every art, discipline, or professional project, marketing also requires a set of systematic principles. Beyond the diversity of brands, corporate cultures and successful strategies that have been created in the business history, all the valuable products or services have something in common: the satisfaction of a social desire or necessity.
Just as they are conceived based on variable factors that include the social and cultural characteristics of each niche market.
Every product must be perceived as different and unique, but without overestimating the customer’s demand for it.
According to Kotler & Keller, the word “product” also stands for “services, events, people, places, organizations and ideas”. These marketing specialists also emphasize the importance of creating experiences for the customers, more than just offering an article, like Walt Disney did with his magical films and theme parks.
The Chrysler’s ATL (Above the Line), “Eminem commercial” — that cost around 12 million $— is a perfect example of a well-focused, mass marketing campaign. It honors the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit, cradle of many worldwide talents, including the multi platinum rapper and the multinational car brand. More than just selling a luxury vehicle, they attempt to connect with the emotional part, not only of their target audience but with all the hard work souls of one of the most humble metropolis in the U.S.
But you don’t necessarily need a big bank account for creating a successful project. Even placing a lemonade stand under the inclement sun of Sacramento at 2:00 pm, just after the finish line of a marathon, is understanding a target necessities, for example. So you can also start from the bottom knowing the basic commandments; this includes setting a high or low price for your newly created product — price skimming and penetration pricing — creating a value proposition for your clients, etc.
The first steps.
The companies, in order to send an efficient and solid message about their services and corporate culture, they have to identify their target; their ideal audience based on a previous segmentation of the domestic or international market. This subdivision helps to the establishment of the specific desire or need that the corporation it is going to be focused on, according to demographic, geographic, psychological or contextual factors.
The clients, competitors, providers, intermediaries — distributors — and other public (such as the government or the press), are known as the company’s micro-moments. They have a direct relationship with the brand.
On the other hand, marketing specialists have recommended the continuous tracking of the natural, economic, political, social and cultural major factors that usually influence on the micro-moments, also known as macro-moments. The generational changes, the increasing globalization, the consumerism and spending habits, the inflation or the poverty rate, national legislation, the technological and scientific development of each country, and the social values, are just some of that variables.
Michael Porter identified, in 1980, 5 competitive forces: the new and actual competitors, substitute goods, the customers’ power of negotiation, and the providers.
In the end, the target must be the guidance of the campaign. Many companies have left behind the distant and bureaucratic vision and began to design programs that could give superior value to their clients. They knew that the emotional part of the human being has a huge amount of influence in the decision process of human beings. Even when people go to vote, they follow their emotion more than a rational reasoning.
Got the target, but not the budget.
Continuing with the lemon stand example, thanks to the Internet, it now can be advertised in your local neighborhood — even internationally — by easier, more instant and massive ways.
Instead of standing under the sun for hours with a handwritten sign, you could publish the same BTL method (Below the Line), on a Facebook fan page. You could also affiliate with contributors for online publicity or to create shared content, and write blogs about your tasty recipe. Moreover, your Instagram posts can notify your followers about your next location, as you can redirect them to your other social profiles, etc.
The online marketing is a new method for any kind of brand to improve their closeness to their beloved customers. The marketers are able to build and monitor their company’s online reputation and give instant responses to the natural, financial or technical problems that every company faces in their history, without depending on intermediaries. A closer contact also includes the possibility of receiving instant feedback.
But first, the company must set the specific goals that it wants to achieve by applying the virtual instruments. They can be used for visual change promotion, for a new line of products publicity, as “to generate leads and create brand awareness”, as the digitalmarketinginstitute.com affirmed.
The new era of communication has provided cheaper ways to elaborate a wide range TTL campaigns (the combination between Above the Line and Below the Line campaigns). Nowadays, you can promote your lemon stand nationwide by subscribing to a social network, including exclusive codes for free samples.
Finally, the social media gives the opportunity to the companies to analyze a niche market desires or necessities, just as the expansion of brand experience so important for marketing specialists as Kotler & Keller.
Dishan Jayasinha is a Sri Lankan-born American, MD turned entrepreneur, creative mastermind and humanitarian. He is the founder, CEO and creative head of DG Studio, a Los Angeles based digital agency with Sister companies in India and Mexico. He is also the founder and CEO of JayMed, which provides medical billing services to nonprofit clinics and major medical centers in the US.
