Recently I saw an interview with Subodh Poddar, a famous creative director. Subodh Poddar is the brain behind TV commercials for Nerolac, Godrej Cupboard, Baidnath & many other famous brands. He’s sharing his experience about how the advertising & TV production process changes over the years.
Mr Subodh Poddar recalling his old days.
How the visualiser team used to sketch scenes from different angles before the actual shooting.
Whenever the visual team used to sketch scenes they actually applied different thought processes with the brainstorming team.
But nowadays all design elements are readily available with the designer via different graphic tools like photoshop, illustrator etc.
These available tools are killing the thinking process of the visual team.
I totally agree with his view about & how fast the world is changing with latest technologies.
The same thing is happening with marketing also.
With all-new digital media and social media, marketing ways are changing fast.
But though technics are changing, mediums are changing Core of marketing is not changed.
Marketing is creating emotion in your audience & more importantly when people pay attention people pay money.
Facebook, Instagram, Google AdWords has changed the way how marketing is done.
Now people are in an ocean of information, they get all information with a single click, attention span has also decreased over the period.
People forget next minute what they are looking for or what they saw 5 min ago, for 1 product they have many choices.
But still, the buying process is more or less what it was 100 years ago.
- People saw it.
- Customers ask their brain whether they need this?
- If the answer is yes then they review it
- If they gain trust then buy it.
& I’m sure this process will be there for the next 100 years till the existence of humans or humans is the position to make a decision of buying.
For the conversion or for sale you need to follow these marketing steps.
Now let\’s check what has changed over the period & how traditional marketing is different from digital marketing?
Let’s not take the example of more than 20-30 years old so that it’ll be easier to relate what is changed.
1.People Saw It
In the era of TV when digital platforms are not available. Marketing people used to create attention-grabbing TV commercials, billboards, Newspaper & magazine posters.
Now in digital marketing people are doing the same things, Youtube Skippable advt, Instagram reels advt, Facebook video, google display advertisement.
So only platforms are changed.
Until and unless people see you, they will not think to buy your product.
To create attention you need to be visible somewhere and here marketing starts.
2.Customers ask their brain whether they need this?
Once you grab the attention of a person next step you have to do is to convince your customers brains that this product is for you only.
I still remember in my childhood when 1 month before Diwali, In TV advt breaks Asian Paint or Nerolac paints commercials keep reminding us regularly to paint our home because Diwali is coming.
They create emotional attachment and make us believe how important it’s to paint a house for a happy environment.
It’s more than 25 years but I’m still able to clearly recollect the jingle of Nerolac paints.
“Jab Ghar ki Raunak badhani ho,
Deewaron ko jab sajana ho,
Nerolac, Nerolac”
If you watch that advt carefully, then you will understand following things,
The first brand gives a Positive vibe/signal to the Customer\’s brain,
Second, they emotionally convince the customer\’s brain that they definitely need to paint their house.
And lastly, they tell customers that Yes we are the ones who can help you.
Now Let’s check the latest Advt by Nerolac Paints.
Lot’s of things have changed over the period.
20-25 years ago painting a house was a costly affair.
I know now also it\’s a costly affair but our spending capacity has changed.
If you check the latest advt of Nerolac it’s about their washable paint, though it’s not that great as the old one but serves the purpose.
Now let’s check whether they are following that 3 magical steps or not.
The first brand gives a Positive vibe/signal to the Customer\’s brain by showing children are playing but at the same time, they alert you that you are also facing similar problems with your walls.
Second, they emotionally convince the customer\’s brain that children\’s smiles are more important but at the same time your walls are also Important & customers definitely need to protect their walls with such paint.
And at last, they tell customers that Yes we are the ones who can help you.
3. If the answer is yes then they review it
In the old days, getting reviews of any product was a bit challenging. So the customer usually depends upon the opinions of his fellow friends or they used to visit Store to watch/experience the product physically.
Now people get reviews from various websites, blogs, and youtube videos.
In the old days brand, ambassadors played a big role as people used to believe that brand ambassadors really used this product and that’s why he’s recommending it.
Over time everyone knows how commercials work.
But it\’s not the end of the road now influencers are playing this role.
Though their reach is small compare to big actors, still it’s more effective.
More Positive reviews on the internet higher the chances that your product will sell.
Many brands like Noise, Oppo, MI will give you a discount coupon if you post a positive review.
4.If they gain trust then buy it.
Recently I attended the webinar by Swastik Nandkumar, in that webinar he highlighted very Important point out Sales
“Nowadays Salespeople are not required for information about product as information is available on Google, Customer needs a salesperson for relationship & trust.”
It’s very true if you observe your own shopping experience only.
Your regular bread and butter you will get in 3-4 nearby shops still, you always prefer only 1 shop.
This is where relationships and trust work.
In the old days, people used to take the opinion of their shopkeeper/painter for which product they should purchase and 90% of the time customer end up buying the same recommended product.
On top of the icing in that interview, Subodh Poddar highlighted one more important thing that their competitor Asian Paint targeted end customers and advt revolve around customers.
But in the Nerolac campaign, they give importance to Painter and advt revolves around Painter. As they feel that painters play an important role in the buying process.
Don’t you think this is a masterstroke?
In this digital era, we buy the product once we build a strong relationship with the brand.
That’s why people prefer to buy from Amazon.com rather than any other shopping portal.
So I hope I’m able to convince you that though marketing methods have changed over the period, but the fundamentals of marketing are the same as in the old days & will remain the same in the coming days also.
Now Let’s check how CATT Marketing Funnel Works?
First, we will try to understand what is CATT?
C- Content
A- Attention
T- Trust
T- Transaction
CATT revolves around the Niche you selected & asper that your success, wealth creation or sales will happen.
So What’s Niche?
If you try to be everything to everyone, you will be nobody to everyone.
Let me explain this with the same example of Nerolac.
As I mentioned earlier when Subodh Poddar and the team design Nerolac camping they decided to be a choice of Painter, as their competitor already projected themselves as the customer’s choice.
So there\’s no point in choosing the same niche.
Another example OPPO projects itself as a Good Camera Quality phone.
MI is Good Value for Money, RealMe Young People choice, Micromax as Indian Phone brand and so on.
Everyone has their own niche. If they have different products they create a sub-brand. Like RealMe created Nazro for their high-performance Mobiles.
Once Niche has selected CATT Marketing funnel comes into play.
C – Content – Create useful creative & useful content based on your niche.
A – Attention – Once content is ready drive attention to your content using various digital or traditional marketing methods to grab the attention of customers.
T – Trust – Build trust with your targeted customer using review, drip marketing.
T – Transaction – Once Trust gains, convert your lead into a customer.
Recently I come across one very useful article about Integrated Digital Marketing written by Mr Deepak Kankraju.
In this article, he thoroughly explains how different digital marketing methods can works together as a team for better results.
Instead of expecting 100% results from one digital marketing method like SEO, SEM, Email marketing let them perform together so that they will complement each other contribute to success.
And this is also true.
Recently I came across a brand called TheBetterHome. They are running a very excellent Paid Advertisement campaign along with an organic social media campaign. But one thing they are missing is email marketing.
I purchased one product from them, used it & forgot it.
They didn’t do anything to retain their old customer.
But I guess recently their marketing team realised the mistake and they focused on missing element of digital marketing ie Email Marketing.
Right now they are running very creative Email marketing where they are not selling their product rather they are explaining why we should save mother earth. Which are helping as attention-grabbing and brand value creation.
Another best example of integrated marketing is Swiggy.
I just loved all the emails from Swiggy. They are so creative. (Though I didn’t buy anything from swiggy as I’m not used to ordering anything online)
Swiggy marketing team is great at their organic content & paid advertisement also.
They connect with customers from all possible digital platforms. A true Integrated Digital Marketing.
Can Personal Branding help in product marketing?
As I mentioned earlier, you don\’t need a salesperson to gather information about any product. In this digital world, Buyers can fetch all required information from Google.
But here is one major problem right now. If you search anything on Google you will definitely get 50,000+ results.
Out Of these tons of information whom to believe? and how much information anyone can fetch or evaluate themselves.
It’s like finding a pearl in the ocean.
So people need experts to find pearls in the ocean of information.
If you select your niche properly and able to establish yourself as an expert in the niche then the game will be yours.
That’s why personal branding is important.
With a personal brand, you can sell your products also.
The best example is with the power of a personal brand, Elon Musk recently increased the value of Dogecoin more than 200 times.
Baba Ramdev is another example where he established himself as Yoga Guru & now he’s the driving force of sales and marketing of the Patanjali brand.
How can anyone create his personal brand and establish himself as an expert?
Remember one thing no one knows anything 100% about any subject or he can rate himself 10 out of 10 in that niche
It’s highly impossible.
If you know anything about any subject where you can rate yourself 5 out of 10 then you are definitely an expert for a person who has a score of 2.
With your expertise, you can help him to score at least 4 Points out of 10.
So don’t wait till you become 100% expert in your niche.
Follow these 6 steps to create your personal brand.
- Learn – Select your niche and keep learning more and more information about the niche. Acquire new skills.
- Work – Whatever you learn, try to implement these learning in real world scenario, because implementation will give you better understanding of any subject.
- Publish – Publish what you learn, how you implement it & what are challenges you face. You can publish your experience by writing blog, creating youtube videos. Let the people know what you\’re doing now it’ll help to build personal brand around your niche.
- Consulting – Now with your personal experience and branding you can consult other people/ business to overcome problems which you are already solved.
- Mentor – Mentor other people who want to gain expertise like you in a similar niche or domain. When you teach, train or mentor someone you are automatically learning new things and improving your own skill set. It’s like sharpen your axes.
- Startup – You can build product / service regarding your niche expertise. As with your expertise you know the common problems the market is facing. So you can offer a better common solution to people.
So are you excited about your personal branding?
In this article, we saw how marketing fundamentals works & how those implemented in real-world scenarios.
With niche how CATT marketing cycle works & why personal branding is important.
If you have noticed such unique brand marketing details please let me know in a comment, I would love to hear more about it.
Also tell me your niche, if you haven’t found out yet. let me know whether shall I write an article about niche selection.
Cheers.
