Ankita Aerosoft

Vodafone ZooZoo ads- A perfect example of Viral Marketing

Vodafone ZooZoo ads

If your an Indian I’m sure you’ll never miss a laugh at the Vodafone ZooZoo ads which mainly appear during the IPL season. The advertisements are really attractive it would capture the attention of every individual. Initially everyone thought that the advertisements were pure animation, but it was later known that kids enacted the whole thing while wearing a mask.

Unlike the other two above this wasn’t a free cost campaign, but it successfully triggered a viral chain. After launching the campaign Vodafone’s subscription rates increased by almost 30% each quarter and moreover they made good amount of money selling their ZooZoo goodies.

Ofcourse this took millions of dollars as they had bid for heavy viewership during the infamous Indian Premier League, but they’ve successfully got more than they had asked for. So you see this clears a major mis-understanding among people who think viral marketing is free, at many circumstances it is free, but it will be faster and much easier if its paid

Regards,

Ankita Mishra [MBA,Marketing/HR]

Manager Marketing

AeroSoft Corp

FLIPKART :Indian Amazon

It’s being touted as India’s answer to Amazon. Founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (not related to each other) in Oct 2007, Flipkart has catapulted to one of India’s most popular e-commerce sites and undoubtedly as the most popular online destination for books within a short span of three years. With expected revenues of Rs. 75 crores this FY, Flipkart plans to generate a whopping Rs. 4,500 crores by FY2015. Now that’s pretty impressive for any business.

Flipkart’s initial success can be pegged down to the experience of its founders, both of whom had worked with Amazon. They also successfully used word of mouth marketing and social media to get word out. But there are literally millions of retail websites. And not many have achieved even a fraction of the attention that Flipkart has. So what is it that makes Flipkart stand out? For one, they offer a huge range of titles (more than 7 million) which really sets them apart from the rest of the crowd.

But is simply offering so many titles enough? I don’t think so. I mean, how difficult is it for someone with deep pockets to simply replicate this? Not very. In fact, the Bansals started their venture with just Rs. 5 lakhs. So what does Flipkart have that makes its model so robust? An amazingly well-oiled warehousing and delivery system. This ensures that deliveries occur within promised times all over India. And with a business volume of nearly 2 lakh books every year, one can imagine how important logistics is to this business.

So what’s my take on Flipkart? I personally didn’t like the website interface so much. And this one’s supposed to be a newer one. It didn’t inspire me at all. And they still haven’t turned a profit yet. But on the positive side, they have the scope and the scale. They are adding new product lines such as movies, music, games, cameras and computers. They are coming up with creative ads and improving operations. They have just received another round of funding. All in all, there’s no doubt that Flipkart has tremendous potential.

Regards,

Ankita Mishra [MBA,Marketing/HR]

Manager Marketing

AeroSoft Corp

The Bata shoes story

In the words of Ken Burnett, writer, publisher and occasional fundraising consultant.

"The Bata shoes story has been a favourite of mine for so long I’ve almost forgotten why. Recently I had a salutory reminder of it, which made me think that this story perhaps holds one of the simplest yet most profound and important messages of all, for all of us.

The Bata shoes story goes like this:
When I first visited Africa in 1978 I toured the wild north of Kenya. In tiny villages and markets along the way I kept seeing signs for Bata, the shoe company. When it came to indications of commercial product dominance in these fly-blown, out of the way spots, Bata was in evidence far more than any other maker of anything. I vaguely wondered why at the time, and later was told this tale, in explanation.

At the end of the nineteenth century, just as colonial Africa was opening up as a market, all the manufacturers of shoes in Victorian England sent their representatives to Africa to see if there might be an opportunity there for their wares. All duly came back in time with the same answer. ‘Nobody in Africa wears shoes. So, there is no market for our products there.’

All, that is, save for the Bata rep. He came back saying, ‘Nobody in Africa wears shoes. So, there’s a huge market for our products in Africa!’

And that’s why signs promoting Bata appear all over Africa, even in the remotest of spots. It’s why Bata’s shoes are known as the shoes of Africa.

So, what’s this got to do with fundraisers? Well, it’s about how we look at things and how we see them. It illustrates why being good at looking is a quality well worth cultivating.

Another instructive example for me came years back when I found myself at a fundraising conference in the UK, attending a session called ‘frontiers of direct mail’ or something similar, a panel discussion featuring many of Britain’s most successful fundraising direct marketers. Sitting next to me in the audience was a young account manager from a marketing agency of my acquaintance, just a few weeks into the job. After the presentations she couldn’t wait to deliver her verdict.

‘Huh,’ she exclaimed with contempt, ‘that was nothing new. I already knew all that.’

‘Well,’ I replied, trying to be sagelike, ‘I know what you mean, but funnily enough I took six pages of notes, nevertheless.

She delivered me a withering look, which showed that her scorn for me knew no bounds. She didn’t have to say so, for I could sense her smugness as she flounced off thinking. ‘Fancy that, I know more than Ken Burnett.’

The fact that people see things differently was brought home again for me recently at the UK Institute of Fundraising’s 2011 National Convention where I shared the stage briefly with two splendid observers of the human condition, Giles Pegram and Alan Clayton. Afterwards we were duly sent the audiences’ evaluations of our presentation, handed in as they always are at the end of our show.

I’m a bit long in the tooth now to pay much store by evaluations. They always only give part of the story and you invariably have to discount the ‘Mr Grumpy’ effect. But how can one reconcile the difference between comments such as these?

One delegate wrote, ‘Didn’t take anything away from session. Boring, not interactive’, while another said, ‘Wow – thank you so much. Already I feel 10 feet tall and I haven’t even started yet.’ Where these people in the same room? Well of course they were. Each had seen and heard the same things, but had looked and listened differently.

Someone else said, ‘it’s just common sense’, and that was clearly a criticism. Another said ‘it’s just common sense’ and meant it was great to be reminded of simple, fundamental truths.

Of course we know nothing anyone does will please everyone. But equally, if we dismiss something because we think we already know better, we’ll often miss out. Instead, we should learn to look and listen better, and to think before we jump.

Thanks for the lesson, Bata.

Regards,

Ankita Mishra [MBA,Marketing/HR]

Manager Marketing

AeroSoft Corp

Friday 1 June 2012

What is marketing?

Marketing is the process of satisfying your customers’ needs while selling your

product / service at the best price, anywhere you can, using suitable promotion or advertising.

Your existing and potential customers are referred to as your ‘market’

What is the ‘Marketing Mix?

The marketing mix or the 5 Ps of marketing are:

Product: your product or service
Price: the price you will charge
Place: where you will sell your product / service
Promotion: how you will promote your product / service to potential customers
Packaging: your product packaging

Just like a cake, your marketing plan should be made up of different ingredients. For example, just as all cakes contain ingredients such as eggs, flour, milk, sugar – your marketing plan should contain all of your 5 Ps.

GET YOUR MINI-COMPANY AHEAD BY GETTING ONLINE

In real life business today if you don’t get online you get left behind!

More and more entrepreneurs in Ireland are now making use of Internet technology to promote their business online and stay one step ahead of their competitors.

If you want to impress the judges at this year’s competition you need to start thinking like these entrepreneurs. You need to be creative and imaginative in how you promote your business to your target audience.

Think beyond posters and flyers!

As well as using traditional publicity tools to promote your business e.g. posters, flyers etc… try using websites like Bebo, Facebook and Youtube to get your message out there and reach your customers.

Most of you are probably using these already to communicate with your friends – why not do the same to communicate with your customers?

Some ideas to get you started:

Set up a website for your mini-company with a Bebo, Facebook, Google Pages or My Space page.

Set up a blog using Bebo or My Space blog feature, the Facebook ‘Notes’ feature or set up a separate blog on wordpress.com or blogger.com.

Upload photos of your product(s) to websites like Flickr, Slideshare and Ovi.

Make a short promotional video and upload You Tube. You can then embed this video on your Bebo, My Space or Facebook webpage.

Regards,

Ankita Mishra [MBA,Marketing/HR]

Manager Marketing

AeroSoft Corp

Top marketing tips

Never stop marketing: promoting your business should be an ongoing activity and not just something you do when things are quiet! Think about companies like Coca-Cola – hugely successful, yet they are always getting their message out there.
Focus on your USP: in all your marketing material focus on telling your customers about what makes your product different and better than what’s currently on the market. E.g. rather than just selling “cookies”, sell “home-baked cookies with Belgian chocolate and no additives”.
It’s all in the name: try to give your product a catchy name and perhaps even design a logo for it. This will give your product a strong and memorable identity.


	Don’t forget… … the importance of packaging. Students often feel that this is not important. However the opposite is in fact true. Your packaging says a lot about your business. Your customers may make a decision to buy from you purely based on eye-catching and tasteful packaging...

Regards,

Ankita Mishra [MBA,Marketing/HR]

Manager Marketing

AeroSoft Corp

Some Major Marketing Mistakes in the History

1. Euro Disney

High hopes!

When Euro Disney first opened its doors in Paris in 1992 their target markets were families in both France and other parts of Europe. It was envisaged that the Park would be as instant a success as Disneyland had been in the United States.

However, Euro Disney made the catastrophic mistake of not taking the views of the French people into consideration when developing their marketing strategy. This in turn led to the company making massive losses in it’s first two years of business.

Major marketing mistake

The Park was marketed in the American style appeal of “bigness and extravagance”¹ – like Disneyland in Florida. The marketing messages emphasised the glitz and size of the Park rather than the real attraction for their audience -the once in a lifetime, special family experience that would be remembered for many years to come. There was little mention of the amazing adventures and characters guiding visitors to what they could do and see at Euro Disney – a big pulling factor for families in France.

Not taking the views of their target audience into account resulted in the French people taking offence to the American style bigness approach of Euro Disney². Euro Disney quickly developed in to one of the most expensive mistakes in Disney’s history. In the first 2 years since it opened, Euro Disney lost close to $1.03 billion.

Reference

1 Wentz & Crumley, 1993
2 Crumley & Fisher, 1994

2.Gateway Computers

At a time when most computer manufacturers were switching to selling their products either online or through big computer stores,Gateway Computers made a disastrous marketing decision that cost them dearly.

Gateway decided to open up a nationwide chain of computer stores. However, at these new stores customers could not walk in and buy a Gateway computer ‘off the rack’. They had to choose their preferred model from those on display, place their order and then wait a number of weeks for the computer to be delivered.

Surprisingly, this decision was made at a time when other computer manufacturers were giving their customers the option of buying their PCs online from the comfort of their own home and having it delivered directly to their door.

One of the key rules of marketing is to make it as easy as possible for your customer to buy your product.

This move by Gateway, which made it more awkward for their customers to buy their products at a time when their competitors were making it easier, has become known as one of the major marketing mistakes in the computer industry. As a result Gateway’s sales fell significantly leading to price cuts and redundancies.

Regards,

Ankita Mishra [MBA,Marketing/HR]

Manager Marketing

AeroSoft Corp

http://aerosoftseo.com/websites-for-sale/

Nike - Philip Knight's Success Story - Famous Entrepreneurs

"Play by the rules. But be ferocious."

Starting The Business

Like Fred Smith and the origins of FedEx, Philip Knight's first ideas of what would become Nike Inc. came to him while he was at school. While working on his master's at Stanford, Knight - an accomplished runner during his undergraduate days at the University of Oregon - wrote an essay that outlined a plan to overcome the monopoly Adidas had on the running shoe market. He thought the way to realize this was to employ cheap Japanese labour to make a shoe both better and cheaper.

The plan was put into action shortly after graduating in 1962. Knight went to Japan to meet with the executives of Onitsuka Tiger Co., a manufacturer of imitation Adidas runners, claiming to be the head of a company called Blue Ribbon Sports (which did not exist, except in his mind). Knight convinced Tiger to export their shoes to the States though Blue Ribbon and had them send samples so his associates could inspect them.

Knight paid for the samples with money from his father. He sent a few pairs to Bill Bowerman, Knight's track coach from his days at the University of Oregon, who became interested in the venture. Knight and Bowerman became partners and put $500 each into the purchase of 200 pairs of Tigers. Blue Ribbon Sports was formed, and Knight began going to high school track and field events selling the shoes from the trunk of his car.

Sales were at $3 million dollars when Knight chose to dissolve the partnership with Tiger in the early 1970s. Blue Ribbon began producing its own line and began selling its Nike line (named after the Greek goddess of victory) in 1972. These first Nike shoes were adorned with the now-internationally recognizable swoosh logo - which Knight had commissioned for $35 - and had the traction-improving "waffle soles", conceived of by Bowerman while watching his wife using a waffle iron.

Building An Empire

Blue Ribbon's success (renamed Nike in 1978) throughout the 1970s and into the '80s can largely be attributed to Knight's marketing strategy. He thought it best not to push his Nike shoes though advertising, but rather to let expert athletes endorse his product.

Fortune smiled on Knight as his partner Bill Bowerman became the coach of the American Olympic team and many of the best performers on the team decided to shod their feet with Nikes. Of course, when the runners performed well, the shoes they wore were highlighted. Steve Prefontaine, a brash and unconventional American record-holder, became the first spokesperson for Nike shoes.

After the tennis player John McEnroe hurt his ankle, he began wearing a Nike three-quarter-top shoe, and sales of that particular brand jumped from 10,000 pairs to over 1 million. As Knight had hoped, celebrity athlete's endorsements brought success to the company. Knight also capitalized on a jogging craze, and through clever marketing persuaded the consumer that they should only be wearing the best the best in the world.

The Air Jordans helped the company continue to thrive into the 1980s. In their first year, the shoe made more than $100 million. Knight realized his initial goal of replacing Adidas as the number the one shoe manufacturer globally in 1986. By then, total sales had surpassed $1 billion. However, by neglecting the growing interest in aerobics shoes, Nike would have to face a few difficulties.

Through Problems and Controversy

Sales dropped 18% between 1986 and 1987 as Reebok's trendy, stylish aerobics shoes came to be in high demand. Knight had to acknowledge that the technical achievements of the Nike shoe would not satisfy those who placed appearance above performance. The Nike Air was Knight's response to Reebok. It revived sales and put Nike back in the number one spot in 1990.

Corporate Monster that it had become, Nike was the object of public outrage in 1990 when stories of teenagers killed for their Nikes began floating around. It was believed that Nike was promoting their shoes too forcefully.
That same year Jesse Jackson attacked Nike for not having any African-Americans on its board or among its vice-presidents, despite the fact that its customer base was in large part black. Jackson's Nike boycott lasted until a black board member was appointed.

There has also been a controversy around whether Knight's use of Asian factory workers as cheap labour s exploitative.
Through all of the bad press that has been foisted on Nike through these events, Nike shoes have continued to sell well. And in 1993, The Sporting News voted Knight "the most powerful man in sports" though he was neither a player nor a manager. Knight's marketing mastery is to be lauded and regarded as a major factor in his impressive successes.

Evan Carmichael is an entrepreneur and international speaker. His webpage is among the top 10 Internet sites globally for entrepreneurship and contains profiles of famous entrepreneurs, lessons learned from successful business owners, and expert opinions and analysis. He also runs Entrepreneur Mastermind Groups to give business owners important insights from their peers into managing and growing a small company.

Regards,

Ankita Mishra [MBA,Marketing/HR]

Manager Marketing

AeroSoft Corp