Use of Social Media in Marketing

The use of social media like facebook and Instagram has become the new trend in marketing. This form of Digital Marketing is being used by corporate firms to influence millions of people, across geographical boundaries, at a fraction of the cost they were earlier spending on print and TV ads. This is a medium of communication that cannot be neglected in the present itmes.

 

We all have seen our social influencers promoting a particular product on their channels. We connect that since the influencers are personally using that product, the product might actually be useful ! The credibility of these influencers have now started surpassing the well known celebrities. This is mostly because we are able to connect at a deeper level with these people than we would have connected with the celebrities.

 

To properly spread the message, the first step is targeting the audience. We should select our target audience wisely. For this we have to follow the STP approach.

 

Segmentation: we should segment the population into different groups based appropriate criteria like age, gender, economic status etc. this segmentation can be a multi dimensional segmentation, based on 2 or more criterial. Once the population has been segmented, we have to assign them weights based on how useful is a particular segment to our company’s sales.

 

After this, we identify a few segments that can deliver us the highest sales for the lowest cost on advertisements. This becomes our target group. Now we need to see where exactly can we find our target group online ?

 

• 30-40 aged persons, chances are they would be on facebook.
• 20-30 aged people will usually be on Instagram and twitter.
• The teens can be found mostly using the snapchat.

 

 This way we can categorize our target segment based on which sites they will most likely visit.

 

Then we identify the famous people on these social media sites, with which our target segment can most identify with. These social influencers usually have a following of a few thousands to a few hundred thousands. And like celebrities, they too take a few for doing the ads. But that is usually less than the Bollywood celebrities.

 

Apart from this, the marketing that the social influencers do is on a more personal level. They don’t run the same video add multiple times, rather they subtly nudge their followers to try their sponsored products. This can be done by unboxing videos, doing a product review, or simply mentioning a product in a general conversation. The product can even be promoted over multiple videos.

 

Such subtle nudges carry a great effect and push the customers into wanting to try out that product for themselves.

 

It has become increasingly important to study the dynamics of social marketing in the present times. I hope to learn more about it in the following modules. Thanks for reading !!

The Transformation of Communication

Long gone are the days when the medium of mass reach was newspapers, radio and television. These media developed (in that order) to connect the sender with the receiver. But the major challenge with them was that they offered a one way connect. The bygone era was not interactice.

 

In the last decade, we have stepped into perhaps what can be called as the golden age of two way communication. All the different modes of communications developed during the past few years have focussed on making the process more mobile and streamlined.

 

Today we live in the world where it has become indispensable to create a virtual presence. This virtual avatar of ourselves then becomes our gateway to the rest of the world. We gain access to the majority of information through these digital avatars. We curate our profiles to meet our interests which in turn filter the right set of information that we desire to read.

 

So it becomes even more important to understand how communication takes place in the present times. The major means of communication are:

 

1. Text based plateforms like blogs and websites
2. Video based platforms like Youtube
3. IM based platforms like Discord, Telegram, Whatsapp
4. Profile based: Facebook, Twitter
5. Picture based: Instagram, snapchat

 

All of these try to promote 2 way interaction between the sender and receiver of the information, and that too on a real time basis. A person can get instant feedback for the communication he sends.

These platforms differ on the way the information is shared among the population. But one thing is taken for granted that the reach of spread of information has now increased manifold.

 

Any one, with a good story can tell that to the world, and if the world likes the story, the person becomes a celebrity (even if for s short time). Such persons have been termed as “social influencers” and these days well established brands have started promoting their products through these social influencers.

 

Therefore it becomes critically important for the market stakeholders to cope up with the emerging trends of the modes of communication and re-align their market strategy. This increased access to communication will only grow in the future, and it is for the best. At the end of the day, it is providing a voice to all those who were not being heard in the past.

 

How to make a Visume

We all appreciate the importance of a CV. A well formulated CV can make or break a job interview. It is very important to follow a proper structure and use the right power words while designing your CV. One can say it is an art form.

But it the present times, a video resume is gaining popularity. In the world of globalization, people are sitting in far off places and applying to jobs in other cities. Many times it becomes difficult to come for interview. A video resume is a good alternative for an impersonal CV.

I feel that a video resume offers a chance of forming a more personal level connect with the interviewer than a bland sheet of CV. A visume offers a chance to showcase your personality and interpersonal skills. It allows you to show your emotions on your passion. To depict your enthusiasm.

These are some of the positives of making a video resume.

There are multiple ways a person can make their visume. The basic steps involved are:

1. Writing a script
2. Recording the video
3. Post record editing
4. Publishing it on media platforms

Writing a script is very important as it provides content you your visume. The content should be organized in a structured format. You can start by showcasing your most important achievements first, or you can follow a chronological/reverse chronological order. That is starting from your school to the college or going back from your college to your schooling achievements. Whatever structure you follow, try to maintain a consistency and avoid jumping from one era to the next without any connections. It should not be confusing to the listener.

The content should be crisp and the delivery should be articulate. A visume should not go beyond 3 minutes. People do not have patience to listen beyond the first 1.5 minutes ! So you have to make it really interesting.

 

Next step is recording yourself. These days all mobiles are equipped with a good enough camera to give a decent output. Just be comfortable and don’t read from a script. You can use prompters or cues to keep track of the content but speak while looking straight in the camera. If it appears that you have memorized the script or a reading off a paper, it will send a negative impression.

 

After recording yourself, some post editing becomes necessary. You might want to trim out some parts. It is a good idea to add a pic of your detailed CV, your social media handles and a starting welcome slide to the visume. A soothing but non disturbing music can also be added, but at a low volume. Many professional video editors are available. Free softwares like OpenShot are a good alternative. Even some mobile applications can be used to edit the videos.

The last step is publishing it on the internet. You can upload it on youtube and send that link out to the recruiters. This is useful in keeping a track of who has watched your visume. People might give constructive feedback for your efforts !

Making a visume proves that you are comfortable with technology and are motivated enough to embrace any tech change that a company might face. It shows that you can be an enthusiastic and proactive employee who is not afraid to try out new things.

Try making a visume for yourself if you are interested !

The Visume

In the present times of increasing digital penetration, it has become very important to create a digital presence. A Visume or a Video Resume is a digital CV where a person can watch a video and analyse if a candidate is suitable for employment. 

Here is my attempt to make my first Visume. Please share your suggestions and comments. 

In the video, I have tried highlighting my achievements and my capabilities. I have described the work I have done in the construction industry. I have also talked abount my hobbies and my coding passion.

By watching this video to the very end, you can get a gist of all the areas I am experienced in and if I would be a suitable employee in your organization.

Thank you.

Video: Gorakhpur Terracotta !!

To create more awareness about the unique Terracotta from Gorakhpur, we have made the following video. This video will be displayed at #SwadeshiMandi, the famous and now digital event at NITIE Mumbai.

The video showcases how exactly the terracotta is sculpted into its final stunning form. It provides a glimpse into the intricate process and also showcases the wide variety pf products that can be made by it.

In the narration, first Shubham introduces the product, then I explain its uniqueness and environment friendliness.

We all should promote it and ensure that it gets the national and international presence it deserves !

PLEASE BUY this product the next time you see it in the market !!

Evacuating excess inventory: Marketing Management

Having an increased amount of inventory in warehouses can be very detrimental. It has an adverse impact on the morale of the whole company. The workers feel that they have produced something that they cannot sell.

Excess inventory also increases the holding cost. Plus a shortage of space is generated, meaning, you cannot store other products. This prevents the company from building up inventory of other fast moving goods, thus hampering the profitability.

Inventory held for long time deteriorates in quality. Products like cements have a very short shelf life and if stored beyond a few months, would become unusable. 

Technology products too face an obsolescence cost.

There are a variety of ways to reduce the accumulated inventory.

1. Pay As you use:

This method can be suggested to big buyers. The company pushes out its inventory to the buyers warehouse without asking for a payment. After a period, the company sends a person to take measurements, and based on them, the buyer has to pay according to the inventory he was able to sell.

This is a quick way of doing distress sales. The buyers are interested as they don’t have to pay upfront and hedges them from future supply disruption. They would have to pay only for the sales that they can make, thus hedging their forecasting risks.

This model is not very popular in industry, as the company does not get immediate cash flow, but is quick and effective way to evacuate inventory in a short time.

 

2. Promotions:

This is a short term measure to temporarily increase the sales and clear out old stock. But we should also address the root cause of the problem. The sales and manufacturing departments should coordinate effectively to run a successful promotion.

 

3. Bundling:

Bundling a slow moving product with a fast moving product also helps clear the stuck inventory. It can be suggested to small retailers. Slow products that are still within their expiry dates can be cleared out in this way. In retail, we have seen many examples of this strategy with: buy one get one free deals.

4. Match Supply and demand:

This is the core reason why inventory builds up. If the production does not stop when the sales have lagged behind, an inventory build-up will occur. So proper coordination between the sales and production teams is necessary to ensure a smooth flow. The forecasting department should also function effectively to prevent this issue.

Setting SMART Goals

 

Setting goals are very important to ensure success. Goals lend a direction to our life. They make our lives meaningful. Success is measured by how many goals we have achieved. And this brings us to todays topic of setting SMART goals.

 

SMART Goals mean:

• S - Specific
• M - Measurable
• A - Achievable
• R - Relevant
• T - Time bound

 

Unless the goals we set have these quality, we would never be able to achieve them. These lend a concreteness to our goals.

 

Specific:

Our goals should not be vague. They should have a simple and to the point objective. Something that we can actually work towards. It helps clearly defining our target.

 

Measurable:

Our goals should be defined in terms of exactly how much of a thing we want. Like a person trying to write a book can say: I will write 100 pages per month. If this component is lacking, tracking our progress becomes very difficult.

 

Achievable:

Our goals should be realistic and within our grasp. Only then can it motivate us to work hard. Setting unrealistic goals like I will become the next Warren Buffet in 1 year is a fraud on ourselves.

 

Relevant:

Our goals should be in synchronous with who we are. What we really want in life. They should be relevant to our current purpose. They should be a reflection of our current priorities.

 

Time Bound:

This gives a deadline to our goals. Vague goals will never be achieved. Setting a self imposed deadline will motivate us to work hard in achieving it. It will also help measure and track our progress.

 

Our goals should be determined by the above formula. Next we have to work hard to achieve them. I remember the lines by our beloved APJ Kalam: “Dream is not that which you see while sleeping it is something that does not let you sleep.”

Guest Lecture: Communication in Consulting and Personal Branding

Hi folks !

Today, we had a guest lecture by Mr Nikhil. He spoke on the finer aspects of Business Communication and how he had used it effectively in Consulting and Personal Brand Building. It was a very informative lecture on the practical aspects of communications. He introduced us to the exciting world of consulting and what people do there.

The lecture started with an introduction of Mr Nikhil Kulkarni. He used to work at KPMG before quitting and starting his own travel website company. 

This website is available at tripdarwin.com and focuses on the niche segment of holiday planning. It has recently been opened to the general public, before that it was catering only to the B2B clients. The website offers the integrated experience of planning a holiday, generating the itinerary and makes booking everything an easy experience.

Business Communication in Consulting

Then we moved on to discuss how to effectively communicate our ideas to our superiors, our teams and to our clients. He told us that 80% of the consultant’s work is based on communication. Research and Relationship account for only 5% and 15% of the whole job description.

He explained how the business proposals are presented using Power Points and Word document. The reports are also done in that medium. But for executive briefing, presentations are more apt. For work papers, Excel sheets or Word are the right tools. So these Microsoft Office programs are our best friends for effective communication.

The Pyramid Principle

Next he spoke on the pyramid strategy and how to use it to design the content. We should structure our communication in the form of an Introduction -> Contents -> Conclusion. We should be mindful of what is the objective of the work, who is the intended audience, have we covered the problem exhaustively and have we provided the solutions to all the problems ?

MECE

He introduced the jargon MECE: Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive. It signifies that all the points we are using should be relevant and should not repeat themselves. This increases the impact of the report. Our points together should exhaustively cover the whole content. If we follow this approach in writing a report, we shall have a higher impact on the audience.

For effective communication, he mentioned that we should start with a key message. Multiple supporting arguments should be provided for our case. These arguments should be individually supported by Ideas, Data, Facts and Logic. Every point should be MECE and unique. At the end, we should use a strong summarizing statement. This approach will help us communicate our idea better to the audience.

Impact in our works

He recommended that we read the book: “How to write Reports and Proposals” by Patrick Forsyth to improve our communication styles. He mentioned multiple ideas using which we can stand out in a crowd. Like we should start our presentations with a statistics or an image. It immediately captures the attention of the audience. 

An image speaks louder than a 1000 words. Our slides should be focussed more on an image rather than having lots of text. Text usually bores the audience.

Personal Brand

Then he talked why it is important to have a personal brand and how to build it. Our personal brands means who we are to the world. It is largely influenced by the type of contents we post on the digital platforms. We should keep updating our image through variety of ways to increase our visibility.

The tools available to us these days are the blogs, Youtube channels, Twitter and Instagram posts. We should properly curate the contents we post on these sites. We need not be celebrities to become famous. The content we post should be of high quality, and people will automatically start following us.

At the end, he showed us examples of how people had build their brands around their digital personas. He also gave his own example of starting a blog around 15 years ago. 

This was a very interesting lecture that had very useful takeaways. I hope to use the content that I have gained in improving my communication style. 

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it. Please mention it in the comments below !!

Zayka ka Tadka

 

On the occasion of independence day, #MandiSir had arranged a webinar with 2 important persons.

1. Shri Abhay Jere, who is the Chief Innovation Officer, Ministry of Education, GOI
2. Ms Apeksha who is the Founder Zyka Ka Tadka

Both of them gave important insights on how entrepreneurship is the new trend and how everyone should contribute towards making India more Atmanirbhar.

Zayeke ka Tadka is a LIVE Cooking Website which hosts cooking shows with moms. It is the only platform in this niche and is becoming very popular. It was started by Apeksha maam, who is our senior and her mother. This example shows us that nothing is impossible. All we need to do is to come up with an innovative idea and stick to it.

Apeksha maam had earlier joined the prestigious company P&G. But later realized that having a startup was her dream. So she quit that job to start this cooking platform. She encouraged us to follow innovation as a career option.

A lot of entrepreneurship endevours take place on campus. We even have a dedicated e-cell for it. It also resonates with 1/12 Mandi Sir’s idea that we should earn atleast 1Rs for every 12 Rs we invest in education. So a lot of startups are being opened in NITIE Mumbai.

She described to us how idea can be generated. We just have to look around us, and think about what things can we change and improve. Doing so will generate multiple ideas. The next step becomes executing those ideas by assembling a proper team.

We have seen countless examples where due to the covid pandemic, the supply chains got disrupted. People took advantage of this and set up services to cater to the local demand. These people showed that an innovator’s mindset is very essential during the time of crisis

She also emphasized that we should never stop dreaming. It was her dream to become an IPL manager. To a normal person it would seem a very far fetched dream. But it needs courage to dream that big.

She was constantly supported by her mother in all her endeavours. Her mother had once addressed a large crowd without any preparation. And it is the mother-daughter bond that has made Zayeke ka Tadka so popular. It is their secret recipe.

For her efforts, #MandiSir even called out that her mother is nothing less than a professor because she has taught and led countless persons. Being a housewife did not hold her back in any sense. She is a true example of women empowerment.

Jeere sir also emphasized on the point that there is no dearth of ideas. We are a nation of 1.3 billion people. We only need a few of them to start a successful company. He emphasized that we need to focus more on R&D in the country.

He advocated the Prime Minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar bharat. He asked that we should become self reliant on ourselves. Why should we need to look to foreign countries when we ourselves have an immense capacity ?

He explained to us how it was the local products that helped us tide over the disruptions in the supply chains during the lockdown. It was the local kirana shops that kept delivering while the big giants failed to fulfill their orders. 

Therefore we should promote the use of local products. We should become more Vocal for Local and use and advertise the local products. This will be a great boost to our artisans and small business owners. Our PM Modi's call for being #VocalForLocal is a call in the right direction.

Our Swadeshi Mandi initiative is also geared to achieve that goal.

We would need to show more entrepreneurship to achieve the target of 5 trillion dollar economy. India has a great business potential. We should use our young demography and catch hold of the opportunity while it lasts. It could really propel us to great economic growth. 

Instead of being Job Seekers, we should become Job givers. This would boost our economy on one hand and will solve our unemployment problem on the other hand. For this we need to invest more on our physical and educational infrastructure.

Various government efforts like the New Economic Policy, including coding in the curriculum, setting up entrepreneurship cells throughout the country, Skill India mission are a step in the right direction. We all should contribute towards making India a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2025.

Thanks, please like and comment :)

The Poster Process

Happy Independence Day to all !

Let me describe how we came up with the poster for the #MahaMandi.

It all started in the Business communication class, when our #MandiSir asked us to be more Vocal for a Local product. Soon we started looking for partners from the same state as ours as that would help in selecting a common product.

Thankfully, I found Shubham Pathak, who hails from Gorakhpur. We discussed 2 products. I suggested the Daulat Ki Chat while he suggested the Gorakhpur Terracotta. We decided to go with the pottery as it is directly related to the local kumhars and any advertisement of their product will directly benefit their lives.

(Daulat ki Chat)

Now started the task of designing the poster. The 1^st step was to gather all the design materials. The Mandi Logo, NITIE logo and MIG logo were available on mail. For the terracotta designs we searched on the internet. 

The 1^st draft poster was conceived. It depicted potters hands holding the Mumbai in his hand. This was in sync with out title “Kumhar se Corporate tak” ie: the potter holds the key to our economy. 

But we were unable to properly bring out this theme. Also we needed to place the terracotta work in the center. So we decided to centralize a terracotta horse instead. To make the text at the bottom more prominent, we added a green background. Then we had an idea to add a red background to the top so that it looked more patriotic !

We implemented this and the final poster looked like this:

Then we changed some text colors which were not showing up properly on the background and added the 74^th Independence Day text. We also added the #VocalForLocal hashtag to it.

Thus, we arrived at our final poster. Hope you liked the result ! Write in the comments below :)

Kumhar se Corporate Tak

Hello friends !!

Independence day is just round the corner ! 

To celebrate this occasion, we the students of NITIE Mumbai have pledged our support for #VocalForLocal. This was the idea of our #MandiSir and each of the students have selected a local product from their hometowns and in the coming few days, we shall be promoting it on the various platforms. Its going to be a really exciting experience !! 

Me and my friend Shubham Pathak have chosen the “Gorakhpur Terracotta” as our local product. It is a grassroots product that is manufactured in a decentralized fashion by our Kumhars (Potters). 

They are not getting their due in terms of price ! Please help these potters get what they deserve !! 

I humbly ask you to buy the local potters artifacts the next time you seem them by the road. Lets keep our heritage and art forms alive. 

Do show your support in the comments !!

 #74Independence Day #VocalForLocal