I am not a marketing guy. For me it is purely a voodoo science
like an ancient alchemy trying to convert Philosopher stone into a gold. Sight
of customer scares me. To explain to them all the nitty gritty things about
product or getting their feedback is a nightmare. In my almost ten years of
experience in software development I hardly entertained a call with client. If I had to, I would
always make an alibi to somehow put it off. And believe me those few instance
that simply couldn't be obviated, had
been so bad its even hard to put it into
words. Trying to balance two contradictory forces of maintaining good veneer all the while temper rising underneath is
akin to unstoppable force hitting immovable object. In the hindsight I am glad
that I kept that zen mystic going throughout otherwise the entire meeting might
have dissolved into a brawl for all.
My first foray into
the subject was much maligned. During my
MBA course the portion of 4P- Price Product , Place and Promotion as the
fundamental tenet for entire marketing
was pedantic and boring, that I was completely sure that I would flunk
it. The only thing I knew about marketing then was advertisement. Like Marlboro
man lighting the cigarette or in Mad Men episode Don Draper giving that demo of
wheel and using all that nostalgia as theme. You can check it out on Youtube,
the best marketing pitch you'll ever see.
But coming back to marketing before even digesting the topic
I was thrown into another curve ball with 4C- Customer, Cost, Convenience and
Communication. Though seemingly same thing they have subtle difference with 4C main
emphasis on Customer rather than market. Then I remembered the age old adage-
"Customer is God". That made lot of sense. But what if God is an
idiot. How is one going to market that situation? Something puzzling. Perhaps
one should ask late Steve Jobs. Apparently his turtle neck sweater sure did
know how to create that itch in the back of customer for them to be lured into a
honey trap.
And of course as I was wading through 4C all the while
scouring the net, with grim countenance I learned that some wise marketing guru has come up with 4V - Validity, Value,
Venue and Vogue. The whole idea was to put what customer actually values as center of focus rather than product or services.
Pretty smart. Why didn't anyone think about it before. Seems apparent enough.
And as I was pondering and going through reddit forum suddenly my eyes fail
upon 4E of marketing - namely Experience, Exchange, Evangelism and Everyplace.
Something that propped up from teaching of Jerome McCarthy (Note no connection
what so ever with Joseph McCarthy) regarding
inbound marketing. Believe me at this point I seriously wanted to imitate that
protagonist of Edward Munch "Scream" and made wailing cry on top of
bridge. But alas I was sitting in my room in front of my laptop and that would
certainly wake up my dog, which was the last thing I wanted to do.
Then all of sudden a epiphany like jolt of thunder hit me.
Hey why don't coin your own 4 alphabet that describes marketing. Sounds cool
enough. But is there anything left that Michael Porter and et hasn't unearthed
yet. But still it was an adventure right. So there I was sitting in front of my
laptop and juxtaposing some invalid thoughts and like waving Magic Wanda came
4T which goes like this -Trust, Traction, Technology and Trend.
a) Trust: If people trust your service or product then they
will buy it no matter what. It's the best bait and nothing can beat it
b) Traction: You don't want a onetime customer. You want
your customer to be a milk cow that you can milk every day. Success of your
business certainly depends on returning customer. If you don't have that
traction then you are nothing but a street peddler.
c) Technology: Do I need to say more about this? It is a
buzz word. Attach technology to anything and it becomes cool. I wonder why they
haven't come up with the word called Political Technology yet. Anyway use
technology to innovate your product. It does not need to be big but simply out
of box and you'll discover that sales are up and costs are down
d) Trend: You don't have to be Karl Lagerfeld to define
trend. Trend is something hip. It's like selling same old garbage in shiny new
wrapper. Only trick is making people think it's something out of this world
that they simply can't ignore it. I
remember few years back I told a offshore developer to contact me in hotmail
and she said that is so 2000. You don't
want to be that. Key is your product should be something that people talk
about. At the end it is all show business.
Anyway this disquisition is getting kind of long. Who knows
4T might also catch up and become more trendy.
Believe me that's my own marketing ploy.
