Branding is a personality

A brand means a symbol of identity of a product or a company or a person. A brand speaks a lot more than the concerned product itself. For example, in one of the National Surveys conducted for cars, people were ready to buy a car for one main reason – Its brand.
An example of Experience Brand :
A Brand is not only what the company projects but also what the people perceive or experience. For example, the “Thai Airways – Smooth as Silk” claims to provide a hassle free journey. But unless a consumer does not experience the journey, a brand ‘Thai’ has no significance.
An example of Image Brand :
A mere slogan, a logo, or any other branding element becomes a brand over a period of time when people relate themselves to the product and the branding element. For example a Mercedes Car has the symbol identified throughout the world, the reason being the quality and prestige that the company has been delivering throughout.
An example of Functional Brand :
Google! The name is synonymous to ‘Search’. The brand value the company has created is the absolute satisfaction of its users in finding what they want. It is not the experience nor it is the image that it is famous for. It is famous for what it was developed.

What the Customers don’t want?

“Customer is King” is the motto of the Marketing world. The companies have to do everything to satisfy the customers else the product will be least noticed in the market-ocean. Though this may not be the only objective of the Firm, everything boils down to the needs and demands of the customers. So how do the companies reach the potential customers spread across the globe? How do the companies know what the customers want?
All the companies need is a right kind of marketing to target people based on the product and infrastructure available. Instead of going about what the consumers what which would be a comprehensive data, let us see what customers do not look for most of the time

Low Price: Customers do not always want the product to be cheaper than the lot. All they want is the value for their money. They see what more a product can give them if they pay more.

Style and Novelty: Though products gather attraction for their novelty and fashion, what does a customer want ultimately? Comfort and user-friendliness come well ahead of Fashion. So companies make products not only to be novel, but also to be comfortable with the customers.

Quick Service: Speedy service is the order of the day. But customers prefer Quality service to speedy service. What is the use of an incomplete service which makes the customer come again with another problem? Customers need products that are durable with fewer problems to complain about.
So Beware of the misleading trends that are likely not followed.

Consumer Behaviour

One of the most confusing influences on a Marketing person is to analyze the Consumer Behavior. It is sort of a Chicken-egg problem. The consumer behavior may be because of how the sales person positions the product in the consumer’s mind. It could also be such that the sales person projects the product to the consumer, making certain assumptions on the consumers’ buying patterns.
It is always better for a sales person to make the first move on garnering information on the two components of Consumer Behavior. 1) Buying motives and 2) Buying habits

Let us take an example of a consumer choosing apparel.
The motive for choosing apparel may be its:
1) Brand, style, comfort, usage (sports, formal, etc), durability and several other factors.
     

The habits may be how often a consumer buys apparel, where from, why does he or she go for the same kind of buying.
1) What patterns do women prefer in summers?
2) Why people go to Boutiques and not showrooms?
3) Why people buy certain brands?

To study the consumer behavior, surveys are undertaken. But, unless the right questions are asked, a sales person is not going to get a fairly accurate picture of this complex scenario.

Image and the Mind

What is the most complex machine in the world? The answer is simple, it is the one you are using at this very moment, to understand this sentence! So as a marketing person how do you try to understand something as vague and complicated like the human mind? It is a major task at hand but it can be achieved by careful scrutiny and by being alert to the changing needs of the people. So it is here, the stage of positioning comes into play. It’s a stage where an image is created in the minds of the customer. For example, a Ferrari represents pure speed and adrenaline combined with style and class. So when a person thinks about a Ferrari car, he or she usually paints a picture with the above characteristics. This kind of perception by a person is not by a mere accident but through a serious of well thought out incidents. The understanding of how people perceive your product or brand is very hard to understand but once understood, more than half of the marketing job is done. For effective marketing to take place, get the right image and make a mirage out of your competitors. Branding a product with a right image is the key behind every good product.

Salesmanship is an Art

Just imagine, you see a beautiful curtain through a glass of a huge shop and you decide to go in to inquire about it. Will you expect something from the shop? Or you just select the curtain, pay for it and leave?

Well, Any customer expects some salesperson from the shop to guide them into choosing an item because a customer is always confused as to what will be good, will the item worth its price, etc. It is the showman skill of a salesperson to flaunt what they offer in his shop. It may be just exhibiting a curtain or make the customer feel the curtain or make them imagine the curtain in her windows. Basically it needs good presentation skills. Any of the above methodology might work. It depends on how comfortable the customer is with the suggestions provided.

So can the salesperson tell whatever he feels like telling about the product? He should be proactive in understanding what the customers might ask about the product and be ready to answer everything (Sometimes even before asked).

The most natural salesperson emerges as a winner because he is so well-versed with the product that he can handle any situation as and when it comes.

I Disclose

I disclose that: Retail,Sales and Marketing is a personal blog written and edited by me. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own. This blog accepts a few forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation but not all insertions are paid.