Musharrafology

This is the latest marketing technique in town.I call it Musharrafology.

1.Read your ace rival's book....Seeth with anger...and decide to publish your own!!

2.Compile a set of experiences and truths??? and create a book,supposedly a biography and name it strongly as the 'Line of Fire'.

3.Secure a publisher from as far as New York and getpaid a handsome amount..

4.Tell the whole world...IT CONTAINS SECRETS!!!and start leaking them.

5.Grab headlines in all print media.Get interviewed on TV Channels and radio stations.

6.Appoint...guess who??? GEORGE BUSH as your publicity incharge...

7. Now isnt Musharrafology gonna be successful? You bet...keep a look out for the sales figures...

Anexcerpt from IRISHBLOGS-
"
I watched a White House news conference in disbelief last night. Lots of mention of this in the news world. Questions from reporter to President Q Mr. President, after 9/11, would the United States have actually attacked Pakistan if President Musharraf had not agreed to cooperate with the war on terrorism? He says that the United States was threatening to bomb his country back into the stone age. PRESIDENT BUSH: First, let me — she’s asking about the Armitage thing. The first I heard of this was when I read it in the newspaper today. You know, I was — I guess I was taken aback by the harshness of the words. PRESIDENT MUSHARRAF: I would like to — I am launching my book on the 25th, and I am honor-bound to Simon and Schuster not to comment on the book before that...

The power of advertising

Discovered an interesting post on Advertisement-Outsourcing on Brands n ads. Real refreshing read. We are all so caught up with the buzz on IT-Outsourcing nowadays that at times,we end up overlooking the power of other industries and media. Advertising, in India, for that matter is a very powerful industry, what with the quantum of ideas and concepts floating around. Besides,i have no qualms in saying,that when it comes to creativity, India will be able to beat any other global player...just wait n watch.

Article Marketing-Drive traffic to your website.

The quintessential technique of writing to create content which satisfies the reading urges of a large number of people waiting to devour quality stuff has fast evolved into an excellent marketing tool.

Creating an article about one's product and services and making it interesting enough for people to click on to read is a tactic which was part of journalism for ages, but the reach of the internet as a self-effacing medium has evolved this into a serious Marketing tool spanning humongous potential.

As more and more online communities and networking sites, along with Social Groups emerge on the scene, ready space is available for a marketer to share details about his product. Online visibility coupled with e-commerce diminishing boundaries for product sourcing, is fast becoming proportional to product growth.

With rampant interlinking between sites and people just clicking from one site to another, information needs to be eye-catching and hard hitting.This automatically increases site traffic and is a low cost marketing techniques.

All one needs to do is-

1.Choose a title that has the right keywords.The most popular key words are obviously the most happening, but in all probability, your article may end up at the bottom of such a search.So,maybe it may be slightly more beneficial to include a one-odd different and interesting key word.

2.Choose a title that is interesting, intriguing-slightly mysterious.

3.For starters try coupling your article with the most-read topics...for instance if you are writing about a Human-Resource Software, talk about the most happening HR practices first and then couple your product details with the same.

4.Try not to make your article very lengthy.

5.Make sure the Author-Resource Box has all relevant information leading to you, the product, relevant website and at the same time is not a huge personal biography.

6.Monitor traffic to your product website through the articles to evaluate the success of your article. This learning-by doing approach will automatically shape your article writing technique. ( Inbound linkages to your site can be tracked by using a backlink checker like http://www.iwebtool.com/backlink_checker or www.wholinkstome.com)

7.And remember, quality is better than quantity.

Top Ten Signs You are new to web 2.0

Nice post from Prashant Narayanan
Take a look...n considering that some of us may not be from the IT background....ENJOY...

TopTenSigns....

Do i have your permission to make my money?

Permission Marketing-The Personalised Approach to Marketing

Permission marketing can be broadly defined as " Taking permission from potential consumers before sending them an advertisement about your product".By giving an option to a potential consumer, to agree to gain information about your product, the marketer has the advantage of using his resources to target only interested entities.

An excerpt from Seth Godin's views on permission marketing-

The biggest problem with mass-market advertising, Godin says, is that it fights for people's attention by interrupting them. A 30-second spot interrupts a "Seinfeld" episode. A telemarketing call interrupts a family dinner. A print ad interrupts this article. "The interruption model is extremely effective when there's not an overflow of interruptions," Godin says. "But there's too much going on in our lives for us to enjoy being interrupted anymore."

The new model, he argues, is built around permission. The challenge for marketers is to persuade consumers to volunteer attention - to "raise their hands" (one of Godin's favorite phrases) - to agree to learn more about a company and its products. "Permission marketing turns strangers into friends and friends into loyal customers," he says. "It's not just about entertainment - it's about education."

By using this 'personal marketing orientation' technique of marketing on a one-to-one basis,marketers end up with Consumers who pay more attention to the marketing message.With 'product innovations' and customisation being the new buzzwords,one-to-one marketing clubbed with permission marketing is the marketing tool for success.
As the consumer volunteers to being marketed to,the marketer gets his unbridled attention and the chances of success are more...

Lying for Marketing

Last year Seth Godincame out with a book on 'All Marketers are Liars'....kindof true...dont we all embrace falsehood when we try to further our Business Development interests or promote our products?

Lying is an art...and for that matter dont we all lie at times.More significantly, dont we all want to be lied to sometimes?...Specifically when the untruthful reply will be in our interest or nice to hear....Food for thought!!!!

HPs strategy for the small and medium segment

As the real estate boom continues and investments in housing become the major focus area for a huge populace, Hewlett-Packard has come up with a marketing strategy to utilise the surge in demand in this segment.They have decided to tie up with the lucrative home builders segment, by providing customer oriented value propositions.

As local builders and property developers cash in under a surge in demand for good quality residential options, HP has decided to tie up with them for building homes already equipped with IT products.

Areas of interest range from Plasma Screens to digital entertainment centres ;from PCs to other personal access devices.By aiming at the small and medium business segment , HP plans to also include some home control options, to successfully replicate the above promotion model , already being used in the U.S. in India.

Munnabhai creates a new Viral marketing tool called Gandhiism...

Watched Munnabhai..Lage Raho yesterday....my god....wasnt it mindblowing.The people behind the movie have, with extreme simplicity created a new Marketing Tool...Gandhiism!!

In other words, by attaching the movie to an ex-political leader, an ex-revered old man, an ex-idealist, and weaving the movie around his ideology, the makers of the movie have been able to generate mass hysteria...The non-violent approach propogated by the movie has met widespread appeal in these violent times marked with terrorism.

The new marketing technique propogated by this movie is hence
a viral marketing tool (through word of mouth ) capable of generating mass hysteria. A thought provoking, Message based, Positive influencer has been welcomed and recommended..........

A technorati search with Munnabhai as keyword yielded more than 2500 results. This is the amount of written data generated by the above in the blogosphere and we have yet to take into account the otehr media where buzz was automatically created.

A great piece of work....congratulations to all involved...

itvidya.com

As my organisation participated in the Manthan Award conference on e-content in various areas,i came across an interesting site on the Manthan Website...itvidya...A nice forum for IT people to interact, share ideas and help each other...Some of the member contributions are interesting and informative...makes real sense to the not-so-tech-savvy as me...a good endeavour by Ajay........great for people like me who are still experimenting with all this stuff!!!

Viral Marketing-The new B2C Toolbox

An important fallout of the reach of Web 2.0 is the ability to communicate with a large no.of consumers online!!!The idea is to catch the interest of a large populace at a low cost by letting customers do the selling.

Viral Marketing is a Multilevel Marketing(MLM) strategy which exploits the simple human nature to share, by using existing communication networks.

Viral marketing campaigns are at times hugely governed by regional considerations....and are at times successful when designed keeping in mind the cultural roots of the target audience....Some excellent creative viral marketing campaigns have been analysed at-Marketing Sherpa's Viral Marketing Hall of Fame-Top 12 campaigns you could swipe ideas from............makes real interesting reading!!!!

Object Centred Sociality

This is a real heavy term which caught my attention as i carried on researching the reach and impact of social and business networks...

The essence of my exploration is...........people connect with other people not only for the sake of connecting...they need to have something in common...be it a some common object or objective or interest....something that creates a kinship...something that generates a desire to associate, share and for that matter, keep associated....

Dont we all relate better with people who agree with us...people who are part of our immediate environments....who are affected by what affects us....cohesion results as people tend to garner support for their ideas and beliefs,as also benefit from those around. Infact we identify best with people who support our ideas or are instrumental in helping us achieve our objectives and goals.

The keypoint here is....when the common objects breakdown, the social network breaks down too.

That is the reason we have to make use of alumni associations...ex-employee groups...forums....to keep in touch...and generate a common platform for interaction......blog posts are also one such object of sociality......most of these networks cease to be functional when the commonness erodes.

www.itvidya.com is a very good example of 'object centred sociality'....a network of individuals brought together by the common 'object'---the desire to learn, share knowledge, ideas and maybe in some way, be useful to each other....A key point here,obviously is Ajay who keeps adding to the 'object' by posting information on useful events,seminars,links,...the works..............hope more and more people keep adding to the "object " and stay connected!!!!

Ryzing and Orkutting

Business and Social Networking along with Corporate or Business Blogging are tools which are catching on like viral fever across marketing communities.
Networking on Business and Social Networks-groups of individuals and organisations has emerged as a key technique in modern marketing. This is a fact we all are aware of...only the size and volume of the entire userbase hit me hard as i read a post on 'Virtual Reality Marketing' posted by Eric Kintz, VP, Global Marketing, HP. He has talked about Korea's Cyworld where 17 out of the 48 million South Koreans are hooked in to this online community....at this rate, being a part of one such network is akin to a qualification/important part one'spersonality.
These online networks help individuals and organisations achieve goals through relationshipping and friendshipping.One can develop relationships, build new contacts and establish friendships.The idea is to develop relationships first and then use them for business.

The focus is hence, on the VCP model(Visibility,Credibility, Profitability) of Marketing-

1.Visibility-The success of all networking is based on the ability of people to remember who you are, what products/services you are associated with and what services you provide.

2.Managing Relationships-Evolving simple aquaintances into credible relationships
3.Collaborating-Joining together for achieving business goals,by making best use of opportunities.

This relationship capital has huge potential if we are able to mimic the dynamics of the real world through online sites and replicate them appropriately to achieve our end objectives. Patience, interactivity and sensitivity are three areas which one needs to work on!! Ryzing on
Ryze and Orkutting onOrkut are the latest buzzwords.