Advertising for SMEs – A useful tool.

The world is no more round, it is turning flat; in simple words, competition that was restricted to your own country or may be a few neighbors, has exploded to include the world. India has suddenly been thrown into the limelight and become the world’s outsourcing poster boy. Everyone wants to work with India in one way or the other. Future super power or something else, India is on the upward curve. All the more reason why you should be looking at advertising seriously.

But what is the need for advertising? 

Advertising is a necessity because of competition, because the market is limited but the players are many; because advertising brings in more prospects, advertising helps to build your brand, create the right impressions and attitudes towards your product in the mind of the consumer.

However, the success of advertising depends a lot on planning in advance – not just what you should be talking about in ads, but also when to talk, where to talk and whom to talk to – which means, the message, the time and the media should be planned well in advance. Why? There is a simple reason: to ensure you get more value from your ad spend!  Having an advertising plan (Ad Plan) in place is a good way to begin.

Simple questions to ask yourself when you work on an Ad Plan.

• Why do I want to advertise?
• What is the annual budget I have for this activity? 
• Who is my target audience for the advertising?
• What do I want to achieve through this advertising?
• What media best suits my purpose? 
• What is the competition doing in terms of advertising? 
• Is it successful? If yes how? 
• Is it a failure? Then why and how?

Have an annual budget 
Having an annual budget earmarked for advertising is worth the initial effort.  But what your budget should be depends entirely on what you want achieve. It might be a good idea to begin with a fixed percentage of your total annual revenue as your ad budget.
Typically, companies earmark anything between 2% to 10% of their revenues as their advertising budget. The bigger ones go for the bigger spends and the smaller ones prefer something that suits their pocket size. There is nothing hard and fast about it though and you could begin with something even less than 2%. The key is to begin and stay put. Advertising is about being consistent without expecting overnight magic in sales figures.

Study competition that is more successful than you
Imitation is the best form of flattery, as goes the saying. First know your closest competition and then study them in detail. Then study how they advertise and see the results of the campaign. It may do you a lot of good to initially follow and work on some tips from the competition’s ad strategy and see if they will work well for you. As you get comfortable with the whole process of advertising, you can develop your own, solid Ad Plan.

Have a company as your gold standard 
Among competition, identify one company/brand as your benchmark, your gold standard. This is the company you want to be/or reach. Also plan for the right time to reach your goal and the how you plan to reach it.

Set realistic goals
There cannot be anything as important as the ‘Setting of Goals’ in your Ad Plan. A goal has to be specific, measurable, achievable, reviewable and bound by time. Only if you set goals, can you compare if you have reached those or you haven’t. After a certain period, a review is essential. Analyze and see if you are on the right track to your goals; if not, do a course correction.

One trap that one tends to fall in, when one says ‘goals’ is the ‘sales growth’. That is the ultimate aim, no doubt, in fact, the ultimate goal really is ‘increasing profits’ and not just ‘sales’; but there are many others on the goal list. Example – increasing brand awareness, increasing brand visibility, improving recall, inducing trial, giving out information (example when a company merges with another and a new entity is formed, or when a company changes its name, or when a company has an IPO coming up and so on). In any of these cases, the goal has to be specific, for example, “We want to increase brand awareness by 10% all over India”. The more specific the goal, the more accurately you can measure the ROI on your ad spend and ensure better results eventually.

What advertising cannot do
Advertising is there to promote your product/brand/company/event. Advertising cannot, however, improve your product – it cannot improve your product features or its functioning or its after-sales support. It cannot stop the product from mal- functioning. For example, if you buy a washing machine after reading an ad, and the washing machine goes kaput in 6 months, you are most certainly not going to blame advertising for its failure to deliver! Or, when advertising gets people to a car showroom, but the sales guys there are not trained well, that again is not advertising’s fault. For great advertising to work, you ought to have a great product that delivers to its promise, consistently, year after year!

Usually many companies expect too much out of advertising without knowing what they are doing it for! That’s the trap one must avoid.

Action is critical 
Once your goals are set and the ad plan is formulated, action is advisable. If things work, that’s what we wanted. If they don’t, roll up your sleeves and get back to the goal resetting. A simple way of getting into action is breaking your annual ad plan into small, easy-to-digest tasks. This is done by making a month-wise event calendar for the year. By events, we don’t always mean events, they are actually the tasks or activities under advertising that you need to do in that particular month. An annual advertising plan can overwhelm a beginner; by working out an event calendar, life becomes simpler and you can breathe easy.

Where should you go with your advertising? And how to avoid media mania 
Media mania is about people wanting to go all over the media –in newspapers, TV, radio, hoardings, social media – everywhere. But one needs to control this sudden media lust and go only where you will find your audience. The trick is to identify your Target Audience very clearly and then find out what places he visits, what he reads, what channels he watches on TV and which radio channel he listens to. Then go where you find your customer. This way you plan your ad budget well, save on unnecessary spends and get the most out of your advertising rupee. For example – an automotive parts supplier should ensure he is ‘seen’ by his customers – so he should target the auto belts of the region. He should see what the decision makers do, read and watch. And should go there with his advertising.

Reviews are important – monthly, quarterly and annual 
Reviewing an Ad Plan is extremely important. It can be done on a monthly, quarterly, 6-monthly or an annual basis. Review the Ad Plan with your team members and the ad agency if you have engaged one.
If budget permits, you may even want to explore the idea of hiring your own advertising or marketing communications consultant.

Internal advertising should not be ignored 
Along with an external advertising plan, it is also important to focus on internal communication to motivate your employees as they are your best brand champions. Internal communication could be in the form of an HR training manual, posters, contests, internal celebration of important events, etc.

Grow your network
Networking is now more than just a buzzword. It has the potential to keep your cash register buzzing. Growing your network, both real and virtual, can make that big difference to your business. It can help you generate good word-of-mouth at a much lesser cost. This takes us to digital advertising or digital communication, which has assumed a key role in promotions. More on the subject later.

Keep advertising. Keep growing.

The best time to begin advertising is anytime now. Start small so you can grow big. Increase your spends gradually. You don’t have to have a budget of crores at the outset. Start small, grow steadily, advertise big.
But before you do all of this, start working on your advertising plan.

Happy Advertising!

The Basic Branding Kit SMEs must have - The How

SME - Basic Branding Kit 

At the outset, when you are about to enter the market fresh with a dream and a mission, you need to have the following:

1.     Brand Identity

i)                Brand/Company Name

ii)              Brand/Company Logo

iii)            Company Stationery – Visiting Cards, Letterheads, Envelopes

2.     Brand Strategy – A document that details:

i)                Brand Core/Essence – Who am I?

ii)              Brand Vision and Mission – What is my purpose?

iii)            Target Audience – Who am I talking to?

iv)             Brand Positioning – How does my Target Audience see me?

v)               Value Proposition – Why should my Target Audience buy me?

vi)             Brand Personality – What do I look like, come across like, what is my personality as a brand?

vii)           Brand Message – What should I say (through any form of communication) so that my Target Audience responds the way I want them to?

3.     Road Map – The document that details where I am headed in the next 1, 5 or 10 years.

4.     Essential Collaterals – Website, Presentation, active Digital/Social Media presence

You may feel this is too much work and consumes too much time. But in this cut-throat world, you may not have a choice really.  

Invest a little time and money in your brand – it pays.

As you get busier in running the company and business, you will tend to ignore your brand and branding. It is a natural progression for most and needs to be consciously dealt with. Your brand is not ‘any other product’, it has the potential to join the ranks of big brands. If you believe in this, then you must invest time and money in your brand. Treat branding as a continuous growth program; you will do yourself and your brand a world of good.

The homework you need to do, to begin a branding program for your company

A little homework goes a long way in making your branding exercise fruitful. Just some rough notes on the following would be enough to kick start your branding program with your consultant/agency.

    1)     Who am I? (Your company)  

•          Who is my buyer? (Who do I want my buyer to be?)
•         Who are my competitors?
•         Where do I want to be?
•         Where am I today?
•         What does my buyer think of me today?
•        What do I want my buyer to think of me?

If you are too busy to work on these, no worries. Your agency/consultant will help you answer these. Just make sure you make some time for them.

SMEs in the industrial /engineering segment can immensely benefit from branding

The irony of today’s global marketplace is that there are few biggies, companies who make it to the Forbes list; while there are probably millions of others who are in the SME segment. The clutter is more here than there - at the top. The clutter gets worse in the industrial/engineering/B2B segment; what with thousands of small and medium sized companies vying for the same share of the market pie! Evidence lies in the way these companies are identified by their ‘industrial belt’ status and not by their name. If you check with your buyers, you will see the truth in this statement. No prizes then for guessing why branding assumes all the more importance in this segment! Every company – small or midsized, has the potential to become a known brand.

You have a good product, a good team, great potential and a global market. What you need is good branding, a solid plan, a sound strategy and a clear road map. Armed with these 4, SMEs can break clutter, create flutter and even take the market by storm. Branding gives you an opportunity to go from a ‘registered vendor’ to a much-in-demand company; it ensures buyers can ‘search’ you, ‘Google’ you from a sea of unknowns. Branding makes you known for what you are – in the country and in the world; it gives you a chance to make an effective statement; it makes you stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Every product, every company – small or midsized, has the potential to become a known brand. It’s all in the mind and more in the branding. If you are inching towards the big picture you have sketched for your company, branding is where you should begin.

All’s well that begins well. Happy Branding!

SME Branding - to do or not?

Branding – To do or not to do?

When Yahoo! redesigned its logo recently, it flew in the eye of a news storm with branding gurus vociferously rooting or hooting the change down.  When our own homegrown Bajaj Auto overhauled its logo in year 2004, a good 5 decades or so after its birth, the fraternity debated whether Bajaj was justified in spending a few crores for the change. Reebok, a few decades back changed its logo every two years; while Coca Cola still has its good old logo and so does Nike. Some companies have spent millions, while some lucky ones have spent a mere hundreds on designing or redesigning their logo. Which makes us wonder - what really makes a company go in for a logo redesign? Or how important a logo is really? Does every enterprise, company – even a midsized one or a start-up really need a logo in the first place?

Logo or branding- a reflection of the company’s core.

A company name and logo go far deeper than being a cosmetic garb. The name and the logo together reflect the company’s core values, its essence, its raison d’être. Bajaj Auto’s new logo captured the company’s changing policies, its growing markets, its global moves and its new standing, while retaining its core. A branding exercise is not just a design or logo exercise but a discovery of what the company really is at its deepest level, its culture, where it stands, what it stands for and where does it want to go and how. The new Bajaj Auto logo stands for its 5 brand core values - Learning, Innovation, Perfection, Speed and Transparency.

Whether it is Bajaj, Yahoo or an unknown, every company, no matter what its size, needs an identity.

As clutter dominates the global markets, as competition grows exponentially, as USP (Unique Selling Proposition) stands at the risk of obliteration, it becomes all the more critical for every company to have its own unique identity. Every company needs to do this exercise of finding out its unique position. It needs to find a way to establish itself firmly in its customer’s mind (positioning), create an identity that reflects its core and resonates with its customers for life. Without an identity, the company will be just another faceless product, unknown, unnoticed and unidentified.   

What is the right time to go for an identity or branding exercise?

The right time to go for a branding exercise is NOW, if you haven’t already started working on it. With the immense benefits of branding, it’s never too late to begin. For the start-ups and the debutantes, it is utmost important to enter the market with the branding in place. Let’s not think whether sales should come first, or branding; each has its importance and cannot be compared or prioritized.  If you have a good product, good sales spiel, you are bound to grow big and fast in a new industry, but as you will later discover, even the competition has grown as much. This then becomes your perfect branding time.

Branding, creating an identity, creating a vision, mission, a set of values, a purpose and philosophy statement – all of this should start before you start marketing yourself in the market. It should be done before launching your company, before inviting buyers to try you. That is perfect timing for creating an identity, for branding your enterprise or your offering.

In the next post, find about how to put together a basic Branding Kit.

Extract from my article in Sampada Diwali 2013 issue. 

Known Devil v/s Unknown Devil

The 80-20 Golden Rule for Winning More Business

Whether you are a freelancer or an agency, this is a golden rule that works for both, when you looking to win more business.

I have, very often, in my enthusiasm and weak moments spent hours/days/months chasing a new client. And then in my wakeful hours regretted every such moment; as most of such chasing turned out to be unfruitful. I chased new clients, they ran away, I did not get them and I lost work on hand too. At the least, I lost precious time that I could have spent on ‘work in hand’. 

Does it mean I should never chase new clients?

Nope! 

It means that I should chase old clients. 

“Huh? You out of your mind or something? Why chase old clients? They are yours anyways!!” sneers my inner voice.

No my dear Watson, you chase new work from old clients. I can bet you that you will end up winning quite some work this way. 

“How? Why?” – Inner voice

Because, my dear, a known devil is better than an unknown devil. And you are the known devil for your old client. 

Here’s why the client prefers the Known Devil:

a)  The client knows you well enough to trust you (the fact he is still sticking with you shows his trust in you amply).

b)  The client knows the way you work (he knows that when you say you will deliver tomorrow, the max you will take is another day to deliver). But the client does not know about the new agency and is terrified they may not deliver at all.

c)   The client has included you in his comfort zone and unless it’s an emergency (like when the boss is angling for another agency), he would choose to stick with you

d)  It has been proven that 80% of new business comes from 20% of your customers/clients and 20% comes from the 80% whom you have never met or are meeting for the first time.

e)  Obviously, there are no prizes for guessing, whom I will chase – the 20% who are my special clients- trusted, good old known devils. 

f)   It has also been found that if the client is looking for a fresh approach and invites a pitch from new agencies, eventually they will give you part of the work or come back to you in a couple of years with the whole brand jingbang.  

In this dog-eat-dog word, the known devil wins!

“Kuch jamaa nahi!”  

Ask any creative true to his creative religion and see how he reacts to this line “Kuch jamaa nahi, options nahi hai kay?”

I bet he/she would be short of tearing out his/her hair in frustration and turning red in the face with the mercury climbing higher and higher and then like a punctured balloon, the climbing temperature would suddenly dissipate in resignation – because this is a line that is as old as the hills and that he has been hearing since he was initiated into this unfathomable profession of advertising, branding and creativity. 

So what does this line really mean? In client parlance, it means,” I don’t know what to make of this” OR “I can’t tell if this fits our brief/brand/product/industry” OR “ I don’t understand this” OR “I don’t know if boss will like it” OR “ I don’t like it” OR simply, “I am paying you through my nose for this so you bloody well work more”. 

Phew!

Whatever it means, one has to slink back quietly to one’s pad and start chewing the weathered tip of the chewed pencil and start staring into nothingness again, hoping that something will strike or fall from the skies, an option that will make the client say “Jamaa!”

 

Reading between the lines though, I would like to believe that as creatives we are really working for two clients– one is the target audience and the second is our client or rather, the first is the client and the second is the target audience/customer.

Since the client is the decision maker of whether your idea/name/logo will hold well, he is your primary audience. He comes with his own likes and pet peeves, whims and fancies and moods; which projects and latches onto his decision. So, if by sheer misfortune, he is in a foul mood and has fought with his missus in the morning, God help your idea! For whatever it is worth, it is not going to clear his mahogany table and is most likely to land squarely in his already overloaded trash can. 

And if he, by God’s grace is in a good mood, then even your wishy-washy idea may pass his knife without getting royally butchered! So what if he asks you to marry option I and option II and come with a legally produced baby –option 3!!! 

The point is that your idea/ad/campaign/name/logo has to first ‘connect’ with your client and later with the brand’s official target audience/customer.  And that is the bitter truth. 

From that POV, your client becomes your primary target audience and the official TA, your secondary TA.  Decide who are you really working for m’friend -The client or his customer?

“ Kuch jamaa?!”

Like a little known girl to the Cinderella of Pune West
Bavdhan in the wish-list of the rich.

Five years back, Bavdhan was unheard of as a dream destination for home buyers in Pune. The only place people spoke about was Chandani Chowk the hangout/eatout/outing. People travelled to this chowk or square on weekends in hordes, on bikes and cars to spend a magical evening under a starlit canopy of the dark blue night sky. Garden Court and Banjara Hills were the restaurants one would go to, if you were looking for an alternative to KP (Koregaon Park).

Today, Bavdhan has climbed up the charts to be among the top few bestsellers on the wanna-have list of home buyers. It did, earlier, face stiff competition from the likes of an Aundh and a Baner, which managed to win the cream of the lot for its proximity to the Hinjewadi IT Park. But as these places started getting crowded, people started eyeing Bavdhan with increased interest.

Placed at the junction of the Express Highway, the Pirangut road, the wide, smooth, uncrowded NDA-Pashan Road and Paud Road leading you to the city, Bavdhan is fast gaining popularity as
the preferred residential destination.

On one side the undulating greens of the lush hills and on the other the urbane glitz of the high rises, Bavdhan is tempting a diverse populace. While it is becoming the abode of choice for Gen Y – the IT nouveau rich, it is also a second home, to those who are moving to a larger house from Kothrud and Aundh. What is however defining Bavdhan’s status in the property market is the fancy it has caught with the premium class of buyers- Mumbaiities, NRIs and expats, both investors and residents.

There is something about this place that is on the fringes of Pune city, a natural charm that keeps the rush hour out of your hair and allows you to revel in the dawn of bird songs, while making it possible to zip to a Mumbai in less than 3 hours flat; it’s like having your cake and eating it too. Nestled amidst three hills on its south, east and west and the scenic Pashan Lake in the north, Bavdhan has witnessed gradual growth in the form of planned development. It is strategically located on NDA Road, the centre of Aundh and Kothrud - both well-developed suburbs.

A quick drive in the still-green avenues reveals a smattering of yuppie brands that have set up shop here – Dominoes, Smoking Joes, Naturals Ice Cream, Café Chokolade, More, Reliance and more in the pipeline including Big Bazaar. The increasing fine dining restaurants like Ambrosia, Oasis, Bohemian, Up and Above, Trikaya, Nebula have people spoilt for choice. All schools, locals and international schools and colleges right from a Symbiosis to a Sanskriti, to the Mahindra World Business School are within a radius of 10 km, with buses plying to the door step. Commercial and industrial areas like the Hinjewadi IT and Biotech Park, Pirangut

Industrial Area, Pimpri Chinchwad MIDC are at a comfortable driving distance. Daily essentials from groceries to hospitals serve the area well. People are shifting to Bavdhan from Baner Road, Aundh and Kothrud, because of better living.

Bavdhan has witnessed an increase in residential values in the Jan-Mar 2012 quarter compared to the previous quarter. The current per square feet rate at Bavdhan ranges from INR 4,700 to 5,100.

Little wonder then that Bavdhan has a spread of premium properties from every known builder of the city.

isleroyale by Gera offers bungalows from 3400 to 5700 sq. ft. priced between INR 2 crore and 4 crore for the privileged few. http://www.gera.in/dubai_campiagn/dubai_campaign.html

Selva Ridge http://www.marvelrealtors.com/offerings-res-ong-Selva.aspx from Marvel Realtors, a gated community spread across 22 acres comes attached with a 10- acre forest reserve. With the forest reserve and open spaces covering 92% of the property, Marvel Selva Ridge Estate offers a refreshing break from the concrete jungle.

Gloria from Paranjape Builders http://www.pscl.in/real_estate/Project/Pune/Gloria/overview is another premium project vying for a share of the property market pie. The Paranjape legacy combines with ultra-modern design and Gloria takes shape.

Iris from SKYi is a departure from convention in the brick and mortar category. Iris is a home that gives you a feeling of space of light, wind, ether, all the five elements. When you know that you are living in a home that gives you all this, rest assured that it’s an i-home. Like the one you have at Iris, Bavdhan. http://www.skyi.com/ihome-concept.htm

These homes come for a price but are worth every penny spent for the lavishness they bestow on their residents. Penthouses, private infinity pools, private forest reserves, you wish it and it’s there.

With so much to offer on a platter, Bavdhan is upping its ante for certain. And while it may not have reached to the stature of its Eastern cousin KP, it is slowly and steadily getting there. Bavdhan in the near years to come is definitely going to be a residential destination to write home about.

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"Content" Talk with Sonali Brahma

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SMCPune up,close and personal with Sonali Brahma.Want to know more about the content queen , read our interview with her.

SMCPune : Who exactly is Sonali Brahma?
Sonali Brahma is a writer, a student (there’s always so much to learn from life), a mother, a daughter, a trainer, an honest and committed person. But more importantly, she is an explorer who is 12 years old in this world. She likes to ‘see’ and ‘understand’ the world,  to inquire, probe the depths of her ‘subjects’ (target audience) when she is writing a story, just as it is, when she is writing for an ad campaign. To connect to these people so she can capture the core of their thoughts, their feelings, their fears, their joys through her words. She believes that the world and life has so much to give that there really isn’t enough time to do it all. But she tries. And so, she writes and leads – copy, content, scripts, short stories, profiles, letters, features, articles, and of course some inspiring and thought-provoking FB updates! To describe her in three words – Never say enough!
SMCPune : What is your passion? Tell us about your experience with different brands you worked on.
Sonali Brahma : Writing is my passion. It is the origin of my odyssey into the world of brands. I have had some amazing experiences building brands. Right from building a baby brand seeing it blossom and mature into a fully grown, much envied beauty (Mont Vert Real Estate) to working on the my alma mater (SIBM) as a lead creative resource, to working on a Child Care brand from scratch and watch it take baby steps (Innocent Times) and then proudly talk about a hospital one had helped launch (Oyster and Pearl Hospital), it’s been a truly overwhelming journey. A world that is at once exhilarating and adrenalin pumping and at times nail biting, a roller coaster ride with its ups and downs. Explore, love, fall, learn and conquer…it is this creative world that drives me that I am so very passionate about.
SMCPune : Being a content writer, do you think it’s important to express yourself via blog? Your website doesn't showcase your industry work ..Any particular reason of not including the details there?
Sonali Brahma : Yes, blogs are a great platform for self expression. But I believe they play a far larger role today. Blogs have become a great business and marketing tool. You can not only write about your line of work, your views about things in your domain, but you can ensure the right ‘pull’ (drive the right target audience to your blog). Moreover, a blog is dynamic, can be updated to the last minute, and is easily editable, unlike a website. To me, my blog is my online marketing showcase, my website, its more formal sibling.
SMCPune : You have recently joined social media channel. What prompted you to join and what are your views on it?
Sonali Brahma : I have always been a social media enthusiast. FB, Linked In and more recently, Twitter have been my bridges to a world of opportunity. As against popular opinion, which says, Social Media is for those who do not have much to do, I believe in the power of social media. It is online networking and networking is the best way to build your business and brands. It’s like playing golf, only, you play it online. Joining the Social Media Club has brought me closer to a tribe which has experienced the power and felt the success of social media for itself.
SMCPune : Great Content is required but if it is not shared via proper channel, it loses its essence. What are your views on this?
Sonali Brahma :One of the pivots of successful communication and advertising is ‘the right message (content) at the right time, to the right audience, through the right channel’. Even if one is missed out or incorrectly used, the entire point is lost. So great content, whether expressed through traditional media or new media, needs a proper, well thought-out channel/outlet to create an impact. The power of words and equally important, the power of media must never be undermined.