Marketing - Is it just left to advertising

I am more and more realizing that in India the meaning of 'word' marketing is still very much limited to 'Advertising & Product Development'....Specially in categories like Durables/Paints/Automotive etc where it should mean much more ....

Couple of months back i saw an interesting advertising of 'TVS Scooty with balancing wheels' for women who do not know how to drive? I liked the idea as my wife wants a scooty but can't drive.....So i went to the nearest TVS dealer in Panvel....When i enquired initially the salesmen said he had no idea and he referred me to another colleaugue...the other one said that particular model is not yet in...Please check after few days....Thinking may be Panvel is not priority dealer i went to a dealer in Vashi...he said that this is not a new model but an additional fitting and the fitting is not yet in....Please check after a couple of weeks....I checked after a week...The fitting was available....I said can i bring my wife and take a trial before i make the purchase...They said its not possible as they haven't kept any sample model for trials....

I bought a Ford Ikon Diesel sometime back from a dealer in Nerul....When i went as a customer....I was given the utmost attention till the deal was done...When it came to delivery the car was given but w/o number plate, w/o music system that was supposed to be prefitted, w/o any demo during delivery of the car....i had to follow up, ask questions i had to get it all done....Now its the time of First Free Servicing....I was given an appointment of 10:30am but when i reached i was asked to sit and no specific time limit was given when they will take my car in for servicing....I was told it might take around an hour or more....

Bottomline is Dealer Training/Seamless Information Flow/Demo On Delivery/Servicing/Timeline Management on commitments made to customers are hardly the priorities for Brands.....Marketing processes are way way below international standards here....Customers are far too less demanding in India....

Implications 'Brands' taking advantage of poor customers and sucking money out of them but at the same time brands themselves are also losing money that they are spending on advertising as weakness in one part of the chain means wastage of money spent on building demand at the frontend....

Do not know how far our marketers realise this ....But on a positive note lot of scope for marketers to do new things and brands to differentiate....

Comments

  1. Nizam CollegiansJune 15, 2010 at 12:57 AM

    Marketers have forgotten the age old adage, “Every customer that walks in is an opportunity, and every customer that walks out
    without evaluating the offer, is an opportunity wasted”.

    Experiential Marketing doesn’t end with just conversion;
    experiences go beyond………

    …..different process begins: relationship maintenance.

    Customer retention techniques can help ensure
    that the customer stays loyal to the brand
    and is not lured away by competitors.

    New marketers realize that it's far more expensive to find new customers than keep existing ones, and therefore it has become absolutely mandatory to invest in existing customer relationships and ensure that they keep growing in a mutually-beneficial manner.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Lazy TravellerJune 17, 2010 at 12:01 AM

    Let me share with you my experience.
    I wanted to buy a cruiser bike. There are only two companies which make these products - Bajaj and Royal Enfield.
    I went to the Bajaj showroom in Andheri (Sai Service, owned by our politician Suresh Kalmadi). I was shown the bike. No test ride. I was expected to shell out Rs 75K based on pure looks.
    Next stop was to the Bullet showroom. The salesperson gave me the test bike for the weekend. I rode over 400 kms over 2 days to get a feel of the bike.
    No prizes for guessing which bike I bought...

    ReplyDelete
  3. AmritJune 17, 2010 at 1:31 AM

    God knows how many times we have all read that acquiring a new customer is many times more expensive than retaining an existing one.
    But one does not see too many people realising the true meaning of this till you analyse an instance like yours adn calculate how easy it would have been to convert you into a brand proponent and get another sale.
    As for customer care, you must read about an online shoe retailer (the largest in US) called Zappos. Its customer care is rated as par excellence and employees treat it like their religion. Their employees (among other things) actively go through internet to search and locate dissatisfied customers (like you) on fb, twitter, blogs etc and rectify the situations. Apart from throwing in free shipping and replacements wherever needed.
    There's a lot one can learn from Zappos.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review of 'Icche' (bengali movie)

Image
Icche is possibly one of the most wonderful movies i have ever seen till date...More so for the wonderful wonderful performance by 'Sohini Sengupta'... The whole story revolves around the mother 'Mamta' and son 'Soumik' played by 'Sohini Sengputa' & 'Samadarshi Dutta'. The mother is a typical bengali mother who is over possessive and protectionist about her son and wants to fullfill all her dreams thru her son....She wants to fullfill all her dreams thru her son and in the process forgets that her son has a life and identity of his own...'Soumik' starts realising this uncomfortable reality when he falls in love witha Girl in Class XIIth and her mother comes to know of it.... The story on hand is simple but on the other hand it deals with various shades of character of 'Mamta' who loves her son like anything, sometimes she is her best buddy, sometimes she is biggest opponent and sometimes she is manipulating... The story ...
Read more

Some serious questions on the movie business???

Given the fact that all movies are now on TV within few weeks of release gives us a sense that producers are looking for multiple revenue streams big time...(in fact i have heard some of them plays a role in releasing the pirated CD's as well..when they know it will not do well....)....Looking at the quality of movies being made now a days , big time fall in footfalls in Multiplexes due to much faster spread of 'Word of mouth'unlike a couple of years back (thanks to social networking)...it gives me an indication that somewhere the business model of 'Movies' are not working smoothly, which is forcing producers to release it on TV much sooner than required so that they can at least cash in on the idiot box which at least gives them greater assurance of 'Eyeballs' (as typically people do give all those movie a watch which they haven't seen in theatre's...bcoz for them its free of cost..)...While its good for the producers that they have TV to save them ...
Read more

Sardar Udham - Amazon Prime

Image
 I was awaiting Sardar Udham with a lot of eagerness because of two reasons. # 1 - It was Shoojit's latest creation and we all know how good a film maker he is. # 2 - It had Vicky Kaushal who is one of the best actors in Bollywood today. The 2hr 42 min film was made with great intent to dive deep into the mind and motives of Sardar Udham Singh that led to the killing of Michael O' Dwyer 20 years after he had given the orders for Jaliwalan Bagh Executions. The highest point of the film was the last 40 minutes which showcases the Jaliwalan Bagh killings and the diplomatic defense of the incident by the army and bureaucrats of the British. It does shake you, emotionally stirs you and does make you feel angry that till date there is no official apology of the same by the United Kingdom. The film depicts some interesting characterization of Bhagat Singh and his philosophy. The role well depicted by Amol Parashar.  What I found very interesting is the way the narrative handled the d...
Read more