I’m
disappointed with you!!! This is some phrase that nobody wants to hear from
anybody. But lets face the fact... We just cannot make everyone happy, can’t
meet everyone’s expectations. Life is a tradeoff between what people expect
from you and what you can deliver. Guess I’m getting too analytical with life...
Can’t help it though!! MBA does tend to make you over-analytical.
People need to be satisfied with anything and everything around them. It starts with the toothbrush they use, the car they own, the special someone they love and so on... the list is just unending. But the good thing is that the “satisfaction” criteria differ from person to person. So, even if someone finds you useless, there are good chances that someone else will find you perfect. Hence people try to adapt themselves so that they are acceptable to the masses (a larger portion of the population). The same is true for the products too. There is no ONE good product for “everyone”. So the manufacturers try to concentrate on one group and try to please them. And success depends on how well they(manufacturers) attract and retain that target group.
Continuing on the analytical front... For every goal
to be established, there are a set of constraints to be overcome.
But
what are the general factors to be considered while designing a strategy to
launch a product??
What
are the companies supposed to deliver to make us happy?????
It’s
time for a little introspection...
Let’s
put it the other way... What do we want from a product????
The
answer to this question is what is known in marketing language as “Consumer Behavior“
Still
pondering what it is... A professor always explains things better than a student...
take a look at this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=LI_WwbgwYfs&NR=1
Let’s switch ourselves in the shoes of the marketers for a while...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=LI_WwbgwYfs&NR=1
Let’s switch ourselves in the shoes of the marketers for a while...
All the theory is well defined, but the problem is when we try to launch a marketing strategy for a product. The consumers are confusing, they have different tastes, different expectations, different backgrounds, different income levels, and gender of course makes a huge difference (how else would you even justify a colour called pink!)
I
give up... Let’s see what You Tube has to say about this...
Our
product should also be well designed and should serve a purpose…
For
example,
I
don’t think even God could help you with products like these… let alone the
consumers.
Also,
the strategy should be able to sense the vein of the consumers, if not at least
the target group.
Compare
the two ads,
And
you wonder why virgin mobile was a flop!!! It’s not just about the girls. Of course! Life is a lot about girls.
If
they had wanted to target the youngsters, they had to give an all round
perspective or the hot pick of the season and thats exactly what airtel was successful
in doing.
This
was an example of how consumers think and prefer products as per their
functions. But there is also a feel-good factor required for the product to be
successful in the market.
Check
this out…
There
are a lot more factors than quality, price etc to persuade a consumer to buy
your product. These were some of the examples.
Phew!!
These consumers... oops!!! Thats us.. How demanding are we!!!
Now
lets get to some action... Competitors!!!
Not
only do the companies design products and strategies for the consumers, they
also have to craft it so as to get an edge over their counterparts too.
Some businesses
think it is best to get on with their own plans and ignore the competition.
Others become obsessed with tracking the actions of competitors (often using
underhand or illegal methods). Many businesses are happy simply to track the
competition, copying their moves and reacting to changes.
Competitor analysis
has several important roles in marketing:
• To help management
understand their competitive advantages/disadvantages relative to competitors
• To generate
understanding of competitors’ past, present (and most importantly) future
strategies
• To provide an
informed basis to develop strategies to achieve competitive advantage in the
future
But, What do we need
to know about our competitors ??
• Who are our
competitors?
• What threats do
they post?
• What is the
profile of our competitors?
• What are the objectives
of our competitors?
• What strategies
are our competitors pursuing and how successful are these strategies?
• What are the
strengths and weaknesses of our competitors?
• How are our
competitors likely to respond to any changes to the way we do business?
The war begins here…
These were some of the ad campaigns launched by pepsi to knock out coke... whoa!!! don't mess with pepsi...
At the end of the day, may be it a product or person, he has to plan his strategies to survive through his competition and external demands.
at the same time .. not lose his sanity too .. which i guess you'd have realised how hard it is
And that is exactly what i'm trying to do ..
Cheers :)
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