3 CAMPAIGN WHICH MADE EVERYONE JUST CRAZY

About the Campaign:

• —Pepsi’s #CrashtheIPL invited users to submit videos on their microsite; the best one gets a chance to be aired on television.
• — “Crash the Pepsi IPL” was a unique campaign that empowers creativity and originality and urges young consumers to make their own mark.
• —The winner also received a cash prize of Rs. 1 Lakh.
• —Ad was played on television during Pepsi IPL.

Execution of the Campaign - How it Works:

• —Fans were urged to make an effective and creative ad.
• —Youtube celebrities like TYF and Kanan Gill promoted the ad campaign to encourage youths for participating.
• —Judges evaluated each entry according to the originality and creativity .
• —Pepsi Tool kit was available to make effective ads like Painter Babu for the brand logos, Music Da for the official soundtrack, Camera Boss for the video clips, Sound Anna for SFX sounds like bongo, pour, last sip, Idea Guru for ideas. 

 Response of the Fans:

• —Crash the Pepsi IPL has created a buzz through the brand’s social media assets.
• —It ran a contest on Twitter asking users to share their idea for the next Pepsi ad with the hashtag #PepsiAdInATweet.
• —Increase the response rate of the fans because winning entries could win passes to the YouTube festival.
• —#PepsiAdInATweet brings up some interesting ad ideas and fans are participating in it.

  Amazon's #AurDikhao -

Amazon Truly Captures Indian Consumer Behaviour.

About the Campaign:

• —Amazon India launched a new campaign highlighting its tremendous strength in product offering of more than 2 crore products online.
• —Indian consumer loves to be spoilt for choice and has an insatiable hunger to see more options, more choice & more selection while making purchase decisions.
• —With this campaign, Amazon India takes the joy of online shopping to another level.
• —Amazon India looks at the simple insight of “Aur Dikhao” by stating that the real fun of shopping is in the choosing.

 Execution of the Campaign - How it Works: 

• Amazon creates strong impact in the minds of consumers and build its position in the market of having the largest product portfolio.
• —Aur Dikhao TV ad has been able to catch the pulse of the Indian audience.
• —People humming the tune whenever the ad is shown on the television and they are actually watching rather than swapping the channel.

 Response of the Fans:

• —Amazon India has been building buzz around the hashtag #AurDikhao with appropriately related conversations.
• —The social media assets of Amazon India have taken on the flavour of #AurDikhao with interesting visuals on the new concept.
• —With cricket season in IPL 8, the brand has now involved its fans with a contest around #AurDikhao.
• —Twitter users have been invited to tweet what they would like to see more of in this season of T20. Winners stand a chance to get Amazon gift vouchers.
• The idea has been extended well on social media with meaningful engagement and creative visuals. Connecting with Twitter influencers and building social buzz around #AurDikhao has given a good start to the campaign.

Dabur Vatika's

#BraveandBeautiful

About the Campaign:

• —Dabur Vatika has launched emotional ad campaign titled#BraveandBeautiful.
• — The campaign features a bald woman, a cancer survivors.
• —The ad is a CSR initiative, where Dabur attach their product proposition to a cause.
• —'Brave and Beautiful', is a tribute to women who have battled cancer and have taken steps to live like normal people.

 Execution of the Campaign - How it Works: 

• —Dabur Vatika invited people who have defeated cancer with their attitude and invited woman to share their stories with the brand.
• —Their stories were put together in the form of a 'Coffee Table Book' to inspire millions of others who are fighting this dreaded disease.
• — Selected stories filmed as an advertising campaign and aired.

 Response of the Fans:

• —The video has garnered 2.4 million views on YouTube and has gone viral on social media websites.
• —More than 2 million likes on Facebook and has 1100+ followers on twitter.
• —#TuFauladHai event was very much appreciated by the fans all over social network.

Which one you liked the most?

source: socialsamosa

Work with what you have and don't THINK OF EXCUSE

Like all mothers, my mum was a great cook too.

Or maybe, whatever a mother cooks always tastes great.

Most times, she would dish up amazing curries with whatever was there in the kitchen.
At a time when earnings were barely enough for survival, this meant being inventive.
It meant that her goal was clear.
That there would be good food on the table.
No matter what.

Her recipes were therefor dictated by what was available.
Not what she had to buy.
The peels, the stalks, the extra rice.
Appeared in new forms on our plates.

Life is like that.
Nothing is ideal.

Work is the same.
No mix is  perfect.
And to do things well in a perfect world is hardly challenging.

The skill and leadership lies in taking what we have and turning it around to make it worthwhile.
More than worthwhile.
To make it impactful.
Engaging.

Calls for resourcefulness.
Inventiveness.
And most importantly, belief and trust.

After all, mother always did this with a smile on her face.

4 types of BUYERS YOU WILL LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT

We often come across a variety of people wandering across clothes, footwear, grocery and other stores shopping for things they need and sometimes also picking up stuff that they don’t really want. Some of them tend to buy everything that catches their attention, irrespective of whether they are going to use it or no, while others stick to buying during a sale only things that they really require. By this we understand that there are different types of buyers and each one of them possesses their own unique personality.

As a marketer, CEO of a company or businessman you should be able to identify these personalities and also what inspires these various types of buyers to buy. You can thereby sell your products and services to them depending on their specific preferences and needs. All you have to do is some research, observe your prospective buyers and interact with them to know how they make a buying decision.

Based on their personalities, your buyers can be categorized into 4 types. And, it is extremely important for you to know how to convert each one of them. So, listed below are 4 main types of buyers and ways to convert them:

1. The Decisive Buyer

Such a buyer is aware about his/her needs. They might not waste time on deciding over buying a particular product/service. They will make a decision instantly and stick to it as well.

 Ways to convert:

• Be quick in providing all the necessary information they need to seal the deal.
• Ensure them that you are capable of fulfilling all their needs very much in time and they can ask for anything they want.

1. The Logical Buyer

Such buyers rely on facts. They concentrate on the information provided, gradually working through whether they really like a product/service and would end up buying. These buyers are thoughtful and do not take any decision without evaluating all the positives and negatives of the product/service.

 Ways to convert:

• Be patient and don’t try to force your likes on them.
• Don’t make up stories, share just the facts.
• Give them time and space to decide as they are slow in decision-making.

1. The Spontaneous Buyer

These buyers are both impulsive and passionate. They will quickly decide whether to buy a product/service or no and when they do they are often thoughtless. They are extreme opposite of the logical buyers and concentrate more on personal stories and bonds instead of factual information.

 Ways to convert:

• Make the selling experience as exciting as possible as they look for drama.
• Both information and engagement are a must for this type.

1. The Considerate Buyer

Such buyers are friendly and animated. They like to form a bond with others. Also, their decision making process is not that fast. They aren’t impulsive or ready to take a risk so easily. They are caring but would decide at their own pace.

 Ways to convert:

• No facts and figures will work here. Rather target your existing customer opinions about you. It will help such buyers connect with your brand and eventually buy.
• Generate trust by catering to their needs.

Now that you know your buyers so closely, you can start targeting their needs and thereby converting them.

FUNDING FUNDING FUNDING........BY ARUN PANDEY

Alas 90% of the start-ups die during their first year and only 1% make it through their third year, one of the key reasons for closing down the shop is the lack of capital. Whatever is being advertised in the media these days but the ground reality is that there is nil or absolutely no external funding system in India, there is no mechanism except VC funding which can help entrepreneurs fund their start-ups. Majority is not really lucky enough to get funding based on the pre-money MVP,   This blog is for you if you were not lucky like the Bansal’s or the Bahls, whose timing was so sacrosanct and perfect that they landed right at the beginning of the funding cycle, did that one right thing brilliantly and got funded within the first 2 years of start-up. Following are some of the tricks which we ourselves had tried out and made it through the first year without diluting any equity, hopefully it will be helpful to many more mortals like us and help them sail through their dream journey  

Convertible Preferred Shares (CPS or CCPS option): well if you are trying to bootstrap your start-up by friends and families, what do you give them in return? This is the point where (CPS or CCPS) option comes very handy. Convertible Preferred Shares are corporate fixed-income securities that the investor can choose to turn into a certain number of shares of the company's common stock after a predetermined time span or on a specific date. The fixed-income component offers a steady income stream and some protection of the investors' capital. However, the option to convert these securities into stock gives the investor the opportunity to gain from a rise in the share price. Convertibles are particularly attractive to those investors who want to participate in the rise of hot growth companies while being insulated from a drop in price should the stocks not live up to expectations.

Alternate revenue stream: What if you don’t have anyone in your friends and families network or what if the entire majority of your known beings suddenly start distrusting you and think you are on a suicidal path after leaving that fatty corporate job. The only option you have is to start generating revenue from day one, ignore all those who suggest you that if you start doing services your start-up will turn into a scary monster which will be untouchable by any VC. Start doing consulting and service with a small section of your founding team, the only note of caution is treat this unit as a completely separate business unit in your larger organization and stay focused on your core strengths and competencies. Consulting and services have a very positive side if you get your first few customers, they can also act as the mentors and beta testers for your actual product, especially in case you are B2B focused.  Actually an honest start-up which is bootstrapping in this manner is several times better than the other half which is just blowing VC money and acquiring fictitious customers through irrational discounting.

Sell your ip’s as solutions: One of the other techniques which can land you your first B2B customers and if you already have a few then help you grow your account is using the core IP of your product and pre-sell it as a solution. For example your analytics platform might have a fully matured next product to buy algorithm, you can sell this solution to the end customers for free and charge for the customization, consulting and end user training. This is an absolute win-win as this tests out your products core engine and generates that much needed capital to fund your final product journey.   

Focus on the global markets:There is one thing you absolutely need to be aware of, as a start-up there will be many times you will get misused. Especially in some growing markets, a few customers might just reach out to you to get their POC’s done, try out things at your expense especially stuff which their teams are not capable of doing. This might take a lot of your efforts and all of this while there was never any intention of providing a serious business out. Beware of this scenario and except canned demos, profile presentations, competency displays everything should be charged from the beginning. As a thumb rule if there is anything which takes more than 8 person hours of your effort charge it out, the best route to avoid this kind of scenario is to focus on global developed markets. In our personal experience we wasted a lot of time in the local markets and we are yet to see a meaningful deal materialize.

Funding Platforms which you should absolutely seek: There are some platforms where you should absolutely have your start-up represented, these platforms will connect you to several potential funding opportunities. Even if you don’t get funded through these platforms they will prepare you for the D-day, some of these platforms include F6S, angel.co, 500.co, seed-db.com, Techstar, ycombinator.

Top saving techniques: A penny saved is a penny earned, there are several potential techniques which can save you a bomb in terms of expenses and help you sustain till your product launch. 

• Cloud: Use everything Cloud and cloud versions of your software’s too, in this category try google cloud as it is the most economic cloud options
• Incubators: Use Incubators and shared spaces as much as possible, these save time and a whole lot of money. Almost every big city have several of these mushrooming every day.
• Refurbished laptops: Many big organizations scrap out there laptops every three years, there is a fair chance of getting a heavy duty decent enough laptop during these events as Refurbished laptops. You just need to connect with the Operations team for any of these biggies.
• Outsource: Outsource everything except your core competency, you should outsource accounting, payroll, HR, facilities and food too. This segment too saves lots of money and time.

Finally do not much put a lot of effort chasing funding till you are not actually ready, a VC is like a guru in the Indian spiritual system he pops up when you are readyJ. Till then March on and march on my friend Happy Diwali in advance!

BY-ARUN PANDEY(AUTHOR)