Bandwagon for $ - the new WOM

Beep-beep, beep-beep AH! an sms! Went to check after stroking my eyelashes with mascara. Hmmmm that's interesting - 2nd one in a week, eh? Went to complete the other eye when yet another sms alert bounced in. WHAT! Two in as many minutes???? WOW! This trend is really heating up isn't it?

What am I referring to? Well, these message were from friends - not spam - to say that they'd had a good experience with a product and were relaying their personal recommendations. Like when you've had a good meal somewhere and tell others about it, you know? It's as old as the hills and known as Word of Mouth Marketing i.e. WOM. And you know what? It is now SO successful that even corporst giants are cottoning onto it a one of their marketing strategies.

During a posh charity dinner recently a Country Manager related how global brand Unilever had enhanced its approach in Thailand and how savvy consumers were making money hand-over-fist. Unilever was founded in the 1890's and over 3 centuries it success has been influenced by the major events of the day - economic boom, depression, world wars, changing consumer lifestyles, advances in technology and now WOM.

Its approach leverages on interpersonal relationships to spread the word around and consumers are rewarded for bringing in more customers. The credibility is high because of the personal approach and consumers learn about the features of a product to share them with colleagues - they get rewarded to taking the trouble to learn and share. Companies shift a portion of their advertising budgets to funding the rewards system.

Yes this is what Networking Marketing is about and what financial guru Robert Kiyosaki promotes strongly as THE business model of the 21st Century. This is NOW! if you want to promote your brand and increase your sales while reducing brick-and-mortar overheads. Putting it together involves a sound marketing plan supported by integrated mechanics of delivery. Want my help? Call me at 6-03-21697704 and bingo! we'll get started :)

BRING ME THE BRAND I'LL INCREASE ITS PROFITS!

What do you mean it's not about the $!!!!!!

Mr. International Product Manager was most perplexed, and quite honestly so were the rest of us! He was part of my class on Branding Strategies and had the most unusual issues - his company was cash rich, BUT the expenditure was not allocated towards making profits. You know what? in fact, what stumped all of us was that he has actually been tasked with providing support to small companies that were competing for the same markets he's in! Can you believe that, hmmmmm??? The directions from his principal office were crystal clear - no compromising on his deliverables! He was in a fog, and so was I :(

But aha! As the class progressed and we went deeper into discussing market postitioning, I was able to analyze his responses and translate them into what the principal office was really after. You see, their product/service was research (so the Product Manager said) and that is what he had been promoting all along. BUT what had not been so clear was that the research being done on local herbal products was not an end in itself. And that's why his task was not to focus on bringing in the profits, but on profitability - NOT the same thing. Actually, his role was to use his marketing budget to enhance the Brand Credibility (profitability) of the smaller companies so that they could focus on leveraging on his support to plan their Sales i.e. profit campaigns for distributing the herbal products. His role is to influence their customers as opposed to bringing in customers for them.

Why? Because his job was to represent a global name, whose market position is to help others to be profitable, that's why he was 'selling' his company's research. Well, once we had honed in on the essence of his Brand, we could derive action plans for him to meet his sales targets. You see, Marketing (profitability) is about resulting in sustainable sales (profits) that bring in repeat business; NOT just the quick $ transactions. Mr. Product Manager left the class a very happy man :)

Are you positioning your Brand towards profits (quick sales) or profitability (repeat business)? I'd be glad to offer some suggestions on how you can leverage on your strengths to bring in repeat business, and so gain you more time for doing other things you'd like to. Just call 6-03-21697704 and we'll get started :)

BRING ME THE BRAND, I'LL INCREASE ITS PROFITS!