Harnessing Brand Communication to Reignite Momentum & Restart Commerce

Brand communication is voice. It humanizes any brand to be able to create real and relevant conversations with people. In times of crisis like today, brands play a significant role in shaping the choices people make. These choices are not just about the product or service, but also message and purpose-driven.

IILM conducted an engaging and interactive webinar on “Brand Communication in Times of Crisis ” by Karen Wilson – Publisher & Business Head Lifestyle Division – India Today Group. The webinar was scheduled for 15 May and was streamed live on YouTube. The participants were a mix of students, faculty, and guests who joined through registration.

YouTube video

 

Karen initiated the webinar by talking about how in these unprecedented times, people look to leaders and institutions for guidance, reassurance, and information. We further deliberated that customers today are more aware and exposed to the realities of business. And that’s why it becomes imperative for any business to stick to implicit messaging.

The webinar took an interesting turn when Karen highlighted how increasingly, businesses require to reignite momentum and restart commerce. How they should perceive this moment of crisis not as a danger but also as an opportunity but not at the cost of sounding an opportunist. She added that this is the time for brands to take a moment and reassess past business practices and the road ahead. Karen showed some eye-opening advertisements from the past and from the present that exhibited what brands must do in times of crisis and how in the process maintain their reputation as well.

The latter part of the webinar was open to the audience and some interesting questions on how businesses should strategize their brand policy when sales begin to nosedive, consumers set stricter priorities and reduce their spending, and most businesses postpone new investments. To this Karen focused principally on the right brand messaging and its importance. She explicitly pointed out how brands must appeal to consumers’ emotions. All messaging must elicit a high emotional response to the said product. The underlined sentiments of this new normal must be reinforced in all communication. To a very interesting question on how businesses dealing in non-consumable services must do their branding? Karen was quick to answer that businesses must leverage testimonials and focus on the USP of their service for the end-user.

The webinar was a grand success in terms of the relevance of the content, the structuring of the presentation, the flurry of questions from the audience, and the huge participation.  The crux that as humans, we’re programmed to stay connected. While social distancing measures offer protection and security, they come with a significant impact on the emotional and mental well-being of individuals, communities, and the world at large. It is at times like this that brands must continue to connect and reassure their customers that this too shall pass, and we are in this together, therefore resulting in them remaining top of mind.

Check out this post I wrote on “The Anatomy of Online business- Brand Storytelling the new normal, it’s packed with amazing tips.

Revamp Brand loyalty & Sales strategy in Educational Sector through Online Marketing

The purpose of writing this research paper was to determine how can brand loyalty and sales strategy be revamped in educational sector through online marketing. The strategies which marketers follow in the past were based on the assumption of traditional marketing, word of mouth. With the growing recognition of online marketing, marketers need to reexamine their theory and practices. They need to revise their policies on brand loyalty and sales strategy.

Nowadays, Social Media Experts were asked to share the content and images as well with the online community as it is happening without any obstruction. Online marketing enablers are customer experience and conversations in the online community, engaging the community, networking and prospects through regular low cost personalized solution. The data received from the questionnaire was being correlated with one factor to measure the impact on another factor. Updated content on website will get you more footprints and real results. If website visibility is well – established, it is easy to do regular low cost maintenance of your strategy.

The web traffic, clicks, leads; sales conversion for your community will provide the information, how well you can perform in the online marketing.

Brand China

Lei Jun – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Xiaomi Corp has once said according to one report, “Doing the right thing is much more important than doing the things right. A pig could fly if it finds itself in the eye of a storm.” Probably by this he means that things get much easier if one jumps on the band wagon of existing trends instead of innovating new trends. He has been successful by doing what he preaches.

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Will Kirana Shops Survive the Tide of Organised Retailing in Emerging Cities of India?

With the changing demographic features and improvement in quality of life of urban India, the Indian retail sector is witnessing a tremendous growth. As per AT Kearney’s annual Global Retail Development Index (GRDI), 2010 India is ranked third in the list of most attractive market for retail investment. The retailers are now selectively focusing on smaller cities/emerging cities of India like Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kochi, Nagpur, Indore, Nasik, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Coimbatore, Mangalore, Mysore and Thiruvananthapuram. The emerging and potential cities are projected to contribute significantly to retail revenues. Although organized retailers entered the tier cities of India in early 2000, their growth has been modest during this period. This prompted a study to establish the potential of emerging cities for the growth of retailing with the focus on consumer preferences and behavior. Further, since these cities were dominated by traditional retailers, the study also attempts to establish the impact of organized retailers on unorganized sector with respect to the purchase behavior consumers of food and grocery (The outlets which sells food, grocery, household items, toiletries and cosmetics).

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Apple of our Eyes

What is it about Apple that draws so many eye balls and so much headline space? I’ve never heard of people queuing up or sleeping outside stores to become the proud owners of the first Samsung S3 or Nokia Lumia or Blackberry for that matter. But, what is it with Apple that creates this magnetic field. There is no doubt about the fact that Apple products are superiorly engineered but what is it about them that creates that “halo”? Umpteen numbers of articles have been written about the comparison of iOS with Android. Numerous tech-gurus have shown a hands down to Apple when comparing it with Android vis-àvis the entire package of features and pricing. Still it continues to make heads turn and stock prices soar.
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