Posts

Customer Service: Nirvana or Necrosis?

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Hello, and that after an incredibly straight jacketed last article (I realized it later – was that me?!). Image source: http://goo.gl/Ck1P4B Today, we discuss about that component of the organizational value chain that is incredibly critical – and that can single handedly impact the end users’ perception and experience, and that can affect the profitability, credibility and the sustainability of any customer conscious organization in the long run – Customer Service. Suppose you buy a product off an internet portal, the said product doesn’t work as intended, you call up customer service. Now right there that is one function that can straight-away transform your customer experience. Post your conversation, you can leave feeling elated, dejected or angry, depending on how serious is the customer ethic within the organization. Sometimes, even with a good customer service team, you can be left feeling disappointed – but then, there are marks for trying. Even with a gr

Are brand ambassadors passé?

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Image Source: http://goo.gl/dDhld5 Are brand ambassadors passé? At least for some product categories – yes. Brand ambassadors can bring to life the values, images and emotions associated with a brand 1 . Choosing a brand ambassador is an extremely critical choice – as you are transferring the essence of the brand to a living being, with his/her characteristics, attitudes and personality traits. Choosing the right celebrity can act as a financial force multiplier for the brand 2 as consumers equate and synonymize the brand with the celebrity – putting the brand at peril if there is incongruity between the brand and the brand ambassador. Published research in 2011 3  proves that brands that engage with top celebrities generate on average $10 million in additional sales annually and nearly a 0.25% increase in stock returns. In light of the incidents of negative celebrity news impacting brand endorsements, is a brand ambassador still relevant today? Is there evidence th

Event Social Media Marketing: How Not to Go Crazy Series: Facebook Marketing

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Hello, And that, after a long time. So, you decided to take the plunge, after all, with social media for your event marketing. Okay - so you did the initial assessment of which platform is the right to be on for your event. And Facebook it is. Then what - are we going to be trigger-happy? Absolutely not. Thou shalt post with caution. First, we need to understand the entire Facebook marketing landscape available to us. In case you are starting right off, and you don't have a company Facebook account or an events page (sounds unbelievable, but that's where we were 4 years ago - no account, no page), then please create one . That is going to be the bedrock of your Facebook marketing strategy. On how to create an account or a page, visit here . Your account is created, your page is done. So what do we do now? 1. Announce Yourself Announce yourself - to the world - and the competition that you're here. Update your profile photo with the event banners. As outli

Press Release Dos- & Don'ts

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Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/362187995007337523/

Event Social Media Marketing: How Not to Go Crazy Series

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Social media marketing? Ha -- I can do it -- No problem! I was born social. Most fatalistic way to begin social media marketing Unfortunately - I realized it the hard way. This was year 1 of the event, we were struggling with a multi - headed hydra monster - mega event marketing. We thought social would be easy. After all, how difficult can LinkedIn posts and Facebook likes can be? And isn't that something that we do all the time? Good thing that we learnt in year 1 -- there is nothing easy about social, except perhaps the name. Why do I say there is nothing easy? I've got to be kidding - right? No, unless of course it doesn't bother you that your posts have 4 likes, no shares and no engagement. Then, it is okay. But if you have sponsors to answer to & potential event delegates to reach out to, you can't take social lightly.  So how to build a massively successful social media marketing campaign for a giant event? This is just the strategy

Event Publicity & PR: How Not to Go Crazy Series

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As promised, I am back with info on the series "Event Marketing". I am starting with what seems to be the ultimate hair - tearing, coronary - causing, maniacal element of any major event -- Event PR/Publicity. Event PR assumes a life of its own -- sometimes it is bigger than the actual event ( oh yes , especially if you are also managing an agency -- and that is why, coronary-causing). Source: https://ouimpressions.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/eventatriumpeople.jpg So at this point of time, when your event is fleshed out and the finer details are in print, you can start with the following: 1. Do You Need PR or Do You Need PR? But wait -- we need to answer this question! Do you need PR? Of course yes! If you care about attendees, if you care about (and you are answerable to) sponsors, and if you do not wish to relegate your event to event - hell. (Not to say that doing PR might prevent that). But on a serious note, PR can help you with the hard deliverables for your ev

How Not to Go Mad in 45 Days: Event Marketing Perspective

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For those of you wondering where was I, (and I do hope this is the case), I was in the midst of organizing an event -- which happens in 3 months time now. As every marketer knows, event marketing is the ultimate acid test of any marketer. You've got to generate PR (and yes, news hour worthy PR, no less), invite delegates (and get them to confirm), generate promotion and word-of-mouth, conduct massive social media marketing activities, ensure that the event format is robust and fault-free, secure partnerships, alliances, sponsorships -- no wonder I was missing for 2 months! However, loads of lessons and insights-- and how-to-s, will be back with a post on event marketing soon. In the meantime, this image pretty much captures my state over the past few months!