Surviving the turbulence with unconventional marketing strategies

Shiraz LATIFF

If posters are for politicians, it is advertising for marketers. With the current election craze, we see many 'honest' leaders vying for our votes all over the city walls. It is a norm in Sri Lanka that there is no election without posters, let alone the legality of it, which is another issue altogether.

Contemporary marketers too do not seem to see a life beyond advertising. Advertising is a 2.5bn Rupee industry in Sri Lanka and how could anyone say that it does not 'work'. As the old saying goes, nobody got fired for buying an IBM and so with advertising. No marketer got fired for recommending advertising to increase sales. However, when it comes to difficult times, the first thing companies do is cut the marketing and advertising budgets.

As a result of the current economic recession, or the ‘slowdown’ to put it in a more politically correct tone, we have been hearing huge thuds made by the sudden demise of some of the largest and invincible woolly mammoths in the corporate world. Sri Lanka was not immune either. Some of the biggest spenders on marketing crash landed recently not necessarily due to the economic crisis but because they were living in a bubble created by their marketing hype.

As a result of the current economic recession, or the 'slowdown' to put it in a more politically correct tone, we have been hearing huge thuds made by the sudden demise of some of the largest and invincible woolly mammoths in the corporate world. Sri Lanka was not immune either. Some of the biggest spenders on marketing crash landed recently not necessarily due to the economic crisis but because they were living in a bubble created by their marketing hype. Their logic was that if you dish out more dough, you create the biggest noise in the market. More noise will create awareness but not loyalty. Customers have an elephantine memory. No matter how loyal they are, if they feel that you are siphoning off what's in their wallets, it is only a matter of time before competition steps into whisk them away. Increasing your share of voice is not going to bring the customers back to you. You can never have a second chance once you have lost customer confidence.

Traditional marketing tools

Sadly, most marketers today, think that the traditional marketing tools of Above the Line and Below the Line are positively correlated to their revenues, bottom lines, and market shares. Each marketing activity has an optimal level and beyond that point the diminishing returns set in. Beyond this optimal point, standard marketing techniques like advertising, sales promotions, personal selling, etc. become mere hygienic factors and not differentiating factors anymore. This is the point at which marketers need to look at the unconventional areas to keep the momentum going. Traditional approaches in marketing do work and there is no question about it. However, do organizations look at optimum levels of such approaches and cut down the budgets only at that level rather than doing an irrational chop on all marketing activities, which is only going to be detrimental to the overall revenue and market share growth.

The marketers' world, sadly, has not grown beyond looking for opportunities for advertising and commercial space whether it is in media, outdoors or any interactive communication media. Believe me, the Indian Premier League matches this time will not be as exciting as they used to be, since we need to accommodate an additional seven and a half minutes during each match to allow commercial and 'analytical' content to be aired. Whether the viewers will use this extra time as a 'loo' break or be glued to their TVs to watch the so-called extra time is anyone's guess.

However, the advertisers would have already signed the dotted lines emptying their wallets for this 'commercial' space. Let us take a simple commercial on TV. We see the legendary movie idol, Sharukh Khan, endorsing products ranging from a high end luxury watch to a middle class budget car. Does it mean that consumers are so homogeneous that they could relate to what 'SK' says, regardless of whichever the market segment he is talking to? Consumers are not going to be so homogeneous throughout their lifetimes. Their levels of sophistication are going to change and so will their needs and wants. Therefore, a universal marketing strategy does not address all market segments all the time.

Therefore, the crux of all the above is that whether it is the economy or the consumer, we cannot be taking the conventional approaches to seek revenue growth and market share all the time. The current changes in the world scenario have given organizations many opportunities to look beyond the conventional norms.

Looking at some of those possible unconventional marketing methods available, the most striking ones are the opportunities available in areas like viral marketing, experiential marketing and guerilla marketing.

Techno-Cult Groups through Viral Marketing

The advent of internet, provided the opportunity to organizations, to market products and services online and this created the e-commerce economy. Now e-commerce has only become a mode of transaction and no more a strategy to create loyalty. The online community has changed from simple banner ads, links and portals to blogging and social networks. Today, Second Life has companies from IBM, Michelin, Kraft, and Unilever to the World Bank operating as in the real world. Your avatar not only flirts around with your neighbour in Second Life, since in real life you cannot, but also can sit in at a training or a promotional program offered by the Harvard University or IBM. As they say, if you catch them young, you can teach any tricks. Social networks like Second Life, Facebook, MySpace, etc offer organizations the opportunity to create loyal 'cult' groups amongst their customer groups.

This creates a group of loyal fans who become customers and then ambassadors for the products and services that these organizations offer.

Recently, actor, Ashton Kouchner, challenged the cable news network operator CNN to mobilize one million followers on Twitter.com. CNN laughed it off and said it is a matter of time for them to do it with their mass viewers across the globe. Kouchner's challenge to 'Ding Dong Dunk' CNN for ten thousand mosquito nets towards a Malaria eradication program was derided upon by the network which offered to match the same offer whether they won or lost. The reality was Kouchner was able to mobilize a fan base of one million before CNN did.

The lesson to be learned here is the culture of loyalty that organizations can create towards a cause or brand regardless of their size. Another such unique example was set by the now leader of the free world, Barrack Hussein Obama, the President of the United States of America.

He will certainly have a few lessons to teach not only our local politicians but also our marketers. Obama's campaign used technology and the internet as the major vehicle to access his voters.

His campaign team created online communities on Facebook and had millions of young Americans hooked online and working for his election.

To be continued