Innovative technologies influence logistics and its marketing in many ways. Advancements in the digitalization of supply chain including automation of logistics process such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), smart sensors, big data and Artificial Intelligence has paved the way forward. Technological advances such as these are effectively being used in both internal and external logistics processes.
I have long enjoyed, even loved my job, but one of the things that often bothered me was the definition of PR as spin. It rarely seemed to align with the work I have now done for almost two decades.
Building strong tribe with positive vibe
“It costs much less to build strong community with influencers vs traditional marketing approach”.
In digital first economy, consumers have multi fold increased their search online before stepping into the physical retail world.
Amidst ongoing challenges gripping us with the theory of lock & unlock we all have been continuously chasing new ways of getting back to live our normal life. Numerous stories on revenge watching(IPL), revenge shopping (The big online sales)
A lot goes as investment to create a product or service. But do you know that between 70% to 90% of these either fail or derail from the pre-decided plan. Either the offering doesn’t meet requirement of consumers or they don’t find requisite value which probably leads to this situation.
“You sell it and they may forget you You serve well and they may remember you always.”
This has been source of great inspiration for me as Sales & Marketing person working to create great memorable experiences in lifecycle journey of customers.
Post pandemic curves coupled with spike in unemployment has led to quite an uncertainty. There has been cuts in discretionary spends and people are more conscious of what to buy and consume.
It was 2015, I was at Chandigarh sitting in a plush office of Mr Juneja. Mr Juneja was the promoter of a hair oil brand Kesh King. The brand was launched somewhere in 2008 and within a short span of 6-7 years attained a turnover of Rs 250-275cr. Mr Juneja believed that it was beyond his means to scale it up further and therefore had put the brand up for sale commanding a valuation of Rs 1800- 2000 cr. It was amazing that a brand worth 250-275 cr could demand such high valuation. But such was the brand strength that all the major FMCG companies were ready to pay that price. (Finally Emami bought it for close to 1600 cr).
So, I was sitting in the conference room which overlooked the cabin of Mr Juneja. Mr Juneja was busy meeting with some people and we were told that they were large distributors who had come seeking distribution of Kesh King and guess what, they all had hefty advarice payments ready with them. I was quite stunned to see the brand power. Typically for a strong company like Dabur, finding a decent distributor was never easy. Here I was sitting witnessing something magical, distributors lining up to take up distributorship. On further inquiry I was told that there are a lot of areas where distribution is indirect through wholesale and for those areas Mr Juneja is finalizing distributors.
I have been since time memorial mesmerized by the game of soccer. It’s such a thrilling experience watching a fast paced, action packed soccer game. In almost 90 minutes flat while watching the game, one can enjoy the game and also pick up so many valuable lessons in Sales Management. There are several common touch points that the game and sales per se share in common; it’s absolutely enticing. A few key attributes are jotted as under:
By industry definition; sales has to sell and getting numbers is their KRA; getting more profitable business is Sales KRA. Marketing on the other side is responsible to create that demand, the hype and the pull for enabling sales. So who calls the final shots? Who is more powerful? Marketing or Sales?
An Expectation of sorts
Marketing expects sales will give them all the credit for their success viz. improved revenue and profitability to Marketing and the reason for failure as “their inability” to sell effectively. Sales expects marketing will build the brand so strong that customers will queue up to buy the product. Marketing will ensure that we get 100% “qualified leads” that will help sales guys to close more deals. This is true in every situation whether its BFSI, FMCG, Automotive, IT ar Consulting. Marketing is supposed to be the more glamorous role of sorts with “corporate” location and functions; while sales is the classical “feet on street” role where you meet real people and real consumers.