MARKETING MANIA

FACEBOOK vs GOOGLE+: WAR..IS IT?

2011-09-16T04:43:00.000-07:00

Post launch, google+ created a snowball effect in the market. I found the following picture in infographic's social resource, which very correctly describes "The facebook vs google+ struggle" - If I may term it :). Would you guys call it a war or just a healthy competition?

Take your call.

Happy Reading!

SOCIAL MEDIA: AN ADDITION TO SUPPLY CHAIN?

2011-09-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

Streamlined supply chain has become a necessity for most sectors today. But, the scenario was very rightly put by Brad Little from NM Incite at the Nielsen's 360 conference in Germany. According to him, in the current demand driven economy the companies need to be more closer to customers which is not achieved even through a streamlined supply chain. The supply chain leaves out the most important part: THE CUSTOMER.

Social media was used by a famous FMCG company to reshape baby diaper via research. The snapshot of the result is given below

To read more on the story check out Nielsen wire by clicking here

References:

1.http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/using-social-media-to-ask-the-right-questions/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NielsenWire+%28Nielsen+Wire%29

MOST LIKEABLE FACEBOOK PAGES!

2011-09-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Hi guys

I found some very interesting facebook fan pages today. Below are some of my favorites. Notice the creative aspect and the activities done on a particular page. The important thing to note is the variety of activities done to increase traffic and promote positive word of mouth. Most of the pages operate as micro-sites and give more than a glimpse of their main websites. So go ahead and enjoy :)

1. KIT KAT

2. COCA-COLA

3. VICTORIA'S SECRET

4. WINDOWS

5. PIZZA HUT

6. BLACKBERRY

For more click here

References:

1. www.facebook.com

2. http://www.dreamgrow.com/22-inspiring-examples-of-facebook-page-designs/

GUERRILLA MARKETING SERIES - PROMO 5

2011-09-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

Where: Bangkok

What: P&Gs Rejoice Hair Conditioner

A very innovative marketing tactic by Procter and Gamble for their new hair conditioner done through a comb tangled in wires (which resembled hair) that read - 'Tangles? Switch to Rejoice Hair Conditioner'

The idea though was innovative, but the strategic locations used for advertising were also of prime importance. I just wonder - What would have been HULs answer?

GUERRILLA MARKETING SERIES - PROMO 4

2011-09-02T02:34:00.000-07:00

Where : Miami Fashion Week

What : Promotion of Nivea's GOOD-BYE CELLULITE product

Advertising Agency : TBWA\Chiat\Day, New York, USA

Creative Director/Copywriter : James CheungArt

Director : Peter Unger

Production Manager : Joni Adams

Account Supervisor : Emily Stanford

Furniture Builder : Dune

Hand Lettering : Andre Trenier

For more click here

Reference: http://www.ibelieveinadv.com/2008/08/nivea-goodbye-cellulite-sofa/

GUERRILLA MARKETING SERIES - PROMO 3

2011-09-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

Well, next up in the line is the unique promotion of plastic bags. In the winter season when tress lost lost their leaves, the make of freshness bags decided to promote the product by sticking green plastic leaves on trees and then wrapping giant promotional bags over the bright leaves. It really made an impact that Rubin created the freshest bags. A really fresh promo, one must say !!

Reference:http://www.guerrillapromos.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=50

GUERRILLA MARKETING SERIES - PROMO 2

2011-08-31T03:47:00.000-07:00

The above marketing promotion was used as a tool by an organization named Dignity in Death in a very subtle manner, to support the rights of terminally-ill individuals to choose euthanasia rather than suffer unnecessarily under prolonged, expensive hospital treatment. They were very sensitive towards the issue of voluntary euthanasia. However, they wanted to raise awareness about living wills as a means of making one's wishes known to loved ones and healthcare professionals in case of mental incapacitation. This was a very difficult subject to bring up and the unconventional guerrilla method did help. These "memorial" customized plaque benches - simple, subtle, yet chillingly effective - treat their subjects with respect while highlighting the horrible suffering that voluntary euthanasia has the ability to prevent. This unconventional promotion allowed the organization to treat a sensitive subject with respect while making sure it was noticed.

In-your-face promotion has long been seen as the best way to reach those markets that have become jaded and almost immune to traditional advertising. But some subjects require a degree of subtlety!

Reference: http://www.guerrillapromos.com/2009/12/surprisingly-subtle.html

GUERRILLA MARKETING SERIES - PROMO 1

2011-08-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

The pizza might leave you in a very uncomfortable stage, giving you an ehhhhhrrrr..feel. But, it’s not the same for “The Man v/s Wild Fame” - Mr. Bear Grylls.

In fact it does grab your attention and hence, fulfills its purpose :).

The picture is a creative for Man vs. Wild, a survival show on the Discovery Channel. On a quick look, the pizza seems edible, but on second glance you realize that it is a limerick to the show's survival tactics. The insects and the other stuff shown are the food choices available in the remote locations that Mr. Grylls goes to. For a video of the show click here. An interesting creative, I must say!

A little information on Guerrilla Marketing

What is it?

Guerrilla Marketing aims at achieving conventional goals, such as profits and joys, with unconventional methods.

To know more click here

Another interesting read: Click here

My next 5 posts will feature some of the most famous guerrilla marketing campaigns.

Happy Reading :)

Reference: 1. http://www.gmarketing.com/
2. http://www.guerrillapromos.com/

ARE RECESSIONARY SENTIMENTS AFFECTING THE CONSUMERS THIS QUARTER?

2011-08-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

According to the latest Nielsen Survey, the consumer confidence index has seen a drop in Quarter 2 of the current year. What does it mean for various countries and sectors? Is there a need to panic? The picture below gives a snapshot of the global online consumer confidence index

Dr. Venkatesh Bala, Chief Economist at The Cambridge Group, a part of Nielsen said “There wasn’t enough positive news to inspire confidence among global online consumers in the second quarter. Weak economic figures, slowing manufacturing performance and inflation in Asia, an intensifying debt crisis in Europe and continuing political instability in the Middle East combined with rising household expenses in the U.S. have taken their toll on consumers’ fragile confidence. Hopes for full global recovery in the next 12 months substantially weakened in Q2 as the majority of consumers around the world remained in a recessionary mindset.”

Read the full story here

3 POINTERS FOR EVERY 'MARKETER'

2011-08-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

1. Think: When was the last time you listened to your customer?

I realized this within the first week of my first job (a little quick realization, huh!!). I was witnessing one of the project launches, learning my lessons of real estate marketing, observing the consumers as closely as possible. I was trying to observe and grasp the maximum possible and also trying to bring out maximum inferences. Then came the first lesson given to me by the CMO of my organization. He said that you might work across industries for several years; you will do the focus groups, the talking to customers and conduct satisfaction survey and need analysis just the way they are supposed to be done. But remember, do not start taking things for granted. Make sure you really are on top of what your customer needs.

Do talk with all the departments in your organization that are connected to marketing regularly – social media team, advertising, online, loyalty, customer care, design, planning etc?

Do listen to what the internal employees tell you

Do read discussions on social media and seek important information

2. Make sure that the marketing plan is integrated with all the elements of the mix
If, Marketing and sales complement each other well, then good business results are expected. There’s a big difference between marketing that creates opportunities, and sales which transform those opportunities into making money for the organization.
I believe that marketing begins much before advertising, PR and outreach. Many businesses contact marketing agencies after they are done with their web plan which signifies their amateurishness towards marketing.

While many companies have a marketing plan, it does not account for every touch point by which an organization reaches its customers. Thus, branding is fragmented across different target audiences, and cohesive messages on what a company stands for and the value of its products or services aren’t always delivered.
One needs to understand the overall strategy that drives the machine rather than jumping to the plan. Marketers need to go back sometimes and remember the brand they have tried to build. A brand is a promise. To foster loyalty, it always has to deliver on the promise. An integrated marketing plan will always work.

3. What about the contingency plan?
Remember it is not always about sales, sales and only sales. Perhaps the best purpose of a clearly articulated strategy and plan is involving everyone who must implement it during development, and obtaining buy-in as you go ahead.

Reference:

ASAE's Marketing Insights, March 2011

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS

2011-08-24T07:35:00.000-07:00

While writing the last post, I wondered why is this buzz about Social Media catching up? What is more than Facebook that it inculcates? What are the trends all around the world?

Pondering over it, I found the following stats

Internet Users in Select Countries Who Have Created a Social Network Profile as of 2009

TOP SOCIAL MEDIA SITES

Before you begin to read, a few lines on the rating terms used would help:

DmR: Domain mozRank

DmT: Domain mozTrust

What is Moz Rank?

MozRank represents a link popularity score. It reflects the importance of any given web page on the Internet. Pages earn MozRank by the number and quality of other pages that link to them. The higher the quality of the incoming links, the higher the MozRank.

How is MozRank Scored?

We calculate this score on a logarithmic scale between 1 and 10. Thus, it's much easier to improve from a MozRank of 3 to 4 than it is to improve from 8 to 9. An "average" MozRank of what most people think of a normal page on the Internet is around 3.

How can MozRank be improved?

A web page's mozRank can be improved by getting lots of links from semi-popular pages or a few links from very popular pages.

For more informationvisit http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/mozrank

The top social media sites are:

MEDIA	RATING	MARKETING TIPS
	Category :Social Networking Primary Value:Strong Profile Ranking Community :5 DmR : 9.22 DmT :8.7	With more 750 million members Facebook is a tremendously popular social networking site. Its massive reach provides compelling opportunities to connect with customers, both current and future, through fan pages, news feeds, groups, and throughout the site.
	Category :Community Primary Value:Promote link-worthy content Community :5 DmR :9.08 DmT :8.6	Twitter has quickly become a popular platform for consumers and advertisers alike. For brands looking to communicate with customers in real time, the micro-blogging service is a great way to carry on conversations in 140 or fewer characters. The media is though currently not very popular in India.
	Category :Professional Networking Primary Value:Strong profile ranking Community :5 DmR :8.29 DmT :8.14	LinkedIn could be a very effective resource for both you and your company. In addition to setting up a basic profile (with a followed link), you can also utilize groups, events, and answers to connect with a large online network
	Category :Video Primary Value:Strong profile rankings Community :5 DmR :9.32 DmT :8.66	A well executed video with the right title and content, can have huge viral impacts for your brand, especially if your video reaches the most viewed pages. There are also numerous other ways to optimize your videos, but coming up with an interesting concept and being aware of title, tagging, and thumbnail image, should each be key components of your strategy
W	Category :Strong Networking Primary Value:Strong profile ranking Community :5 DmR :7.61 DmT :7.46	Wikipedia has an active community that’s quick to remove self promotional or spammy content, but for those who have relevant, authoritative content, it can be a great place to acquire new visitors to your site.

NOTE:

Strong Profile Rankings: Sites often rank well in search engine results, which is great for reputation management and branding.

Strong Profile Rankings: Great to use for the promotion of interesting or relevant content.

References:

1.http://efreedom.com/Question/8-7622/DmR-DmT-Means-Terms-SEO

2.http://efreedom.com/Question/8-7622/DmR-DmT-Means-Terms-SEO

3.http://www.seomoz.org/article/social-media-marketing-tactics#top-25-social-media-sites

Is a facebook fan page necessary to Brand and Market “EVERY” business?

2011-08-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

Most of the businesses today are considering a Facebook fan page or a you tube channel or one of the many so called “social media elements” to promote their business. The question that strikes me most often is: Do they really know what they want or are they just following the herd?

The answers for the following can be thought of before entering the foray of social media

1. Why? Just “Because everyone else is” cannot be an answer

1. What is the objective

2. Who is your target audience?

3. What would be the judgment matrix?

4. How is it going to help your business (profits in the long run ;) )?

The energies and time of every resource in the organization is important; especially in the times of cut-throat competition. Hence, the question of spending these on SMM (social media marketing) becomes important.

2. How will it help your distribution channel:

Facebook is a great way to distribute information and can be used intelligently to create a whole lot of popularity but at the same time it requires data handling and planning.

3. Execution and implementation:

There needs to be a proper team for the job. You need to be sure what information you are going to share and at what frequency. Who will be handling the posts and the categories of posts that you target.

4. How will you manage online reputation?

How will control random posts? Will you write back and defend or simply delete or ignore? Each will have repercussions that you’ll want to be aware of before you even start. On the positive side you can even take it up as a platform to provide solutions to most of the problems. The best example would be of Jet Airways. The used their Facebook fan page to resolve customer queries and created good word of mouth.

5. What would be your contingency plan?

DIGG AND INFOGRAPHICS

2010-11-08T03:44:00.000-08:00

How Digg Got Pwned By INFOGRAPHIC

Source:

http://www.datadial.net/blog/index.php/2010/08/03/how-digg-got-pwned-by-infographics-infographic/

PRIVATE LABEL BRANDS: MUCH MORE TO COME!!

2010-11-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

These days when you make a visit to Tata’s Westside, Kishore Biyani’s Big Bazaar or RPG Group’s Spencer’s or even a Vishal Mega Mart, you find that everyone is betting big on private labels for they are fast becoming one of their major revenue spinners and a cost effective deal for the consumers at a comparable quality.

What are private label brands??

Often referred to as in-house brands or store brands, private label brands are those that are owned by the retailers themselves. For example, Shoppers Stop has several in-house brands such as STOP, Kashish, LIFE, Vettorio Fratini, Elliza Donatein and Acropolis, Wal-Mart’s Great Value, Reliance Fresh sells grocery such as pulses, rice, tea, noodles under the Reliance Food brand and the dairy products such as its curd is sold under the Dairy Life brand etc. In fact, Wal Mart has more than 5000 such brands in more than 100 categories. Not only are private brands now found across a spectrum of products -- from groceries and staples to apparel, consumer electronics and mobile handsets -- they are considered brands in their own right.

After recession, consumers have become more aware and careful before choosing what they want to purchase and at the same time there has been increasing pressure on retailers for margins. Initially, for the retailer, the private label was one more way to earn a little extra. As quality improved, though, customers became more accepting, and retailers began to change their attitudes. For retailers, gross margins on private labels are, on average, 25% to 30% higher than on those of manufacturer brands. In fact many private labels recorded profits during recession when many of the known and established brands failed. All the whey is such a private label brand which saw returns in excess of 250 percent during the recession period.

Storing a private label brand has become more of a differentiator for the retailer these days. If a store brand becomes popular enough to become a destination brand, it has implications for customer loyalty and profitability. As these brands create an identity for the retailer, there is a lot of work that goes into the pre-launch phase. These brands are then re-invented every year through consumer and competitor surveys. The core strength of a retailer still remains retailing and has a very important role to play in the success of private labels which really don’t use the advertising aids as other brands.

According to a FICCI-Ernst & Young 2007 report, as quoted in The Marketing Whitebook 2009-10, the retail sector in India was worth $280 billion, of which organized retail comprised 5% at $14 billion. According to Images Retail Report 2009, as quoted in "Indian Retail: Time to Change Lanes" by KPMG; private label brands constitute 10-12% of organized retail in India. Of this, the highest penetration of private label brands is by Trent at 90%, followed by Reliance at 80% and Pantaloons at 75%. Big retailers such as Shoppers Stop and Spencer’s have a penetration of 20% and 10% respectively. Globally, store brands constitute nearly 17% of retail sales. In fact, international retailers such as Wal-Mart and Tesco have 40% and 50% of in-house brands in their stores. In North America and Europe, private label goods have experienced strong growth, especially during the recession. What’s more, consumers in those regions say that they expect to continue buying private label goods even after the recession is over. The story is very different in Asia. The private label concept has yet to make a significant dent in sales, and only in Hong Kong do they have above 5% share of sales. Retailers across the region have been investing in the development of Private Labels but still have a lot of work to do to convince shoppers of the quality and value of these products compared to leading brands.

What’s Ahead?
The changes shaping the retail scene in Asia Pacific go beyond store size and format. Nielsen has identified a number of trends that will affect retailers and manufacturers in the next decade, including:

· The growing role of the male shopper – An increasing number of men are becoming involved in grocery shopping. Only in India and Indonesia do housewives dominate, and Korea and Vietnam also still strongly adhere to traditional roles. Across the region, 22% of the “main” grocery shoppers for households are now male, up from 14% a decade ago.

· Hypermarket growth stalls as multi-format strategy gains – Smaller formats that offer shoppers a more convenient way to “top-up” shopping have gained in popularity, many being opened by the leading hypermarket chains themselves.

· Shopping outside the store – Shopping done via the TV or Internet is gaining traction in Asia Pacific, with Korea leading the online shopping sector. Koreans have embraced this “format,” with 4% of shoppers saying they use the Internet for the majority of their grocery shopping and 71% saying they use it regularly to purchase groceries and personal care items. An additional 30% say they use TV shopping.

All of this apart, can private labels unseat the number one player in any category? Would they be able to take the position of leading category brands that help set consumer expectations and drive in the traffic? Well I won’t answer this question now but with conclude the post with the words of Santosh Desai, CEO of Future Brands: "If you are in the business of retail, your religion is making money for every square foot. Building brands comes only after store-level efficiencies are achieved."

Sources:

1. http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4432

2. http://www.dare.co.in/opportunities/retail-franchising/the-growth-of-private-labels.htm

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTw57mf0IXQ

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg4CkXIDrK8&feature=related

5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arf4VXI3CS4&feature=related

6. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/asia-pacific-retail-a-decade-of-massive-change-with-more-to-come/

BEHAVIORAL TARGETING AND VIDEO SEARCH MARKETING WITH ALMONDNET

2010-11-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

Behavioural marketing in simple terms can be described as delivering an experience online based on what you know about the previous behaviour of the visitor.

One of the most common things tracked, just to cite an example is category affinity. A very interesting example from one of my classes here could probably describe it in the best way. Suppose an online music retail store is using this method to determine the music affinity of its customers. It could try to get in certain details about the person like the pin code and email before he begins to browse or/and buy. And then just record his behaviour visiting the website. Such an exercise can help the marketers to know that people of which locality like which type of music. And probably they can present the same taste on the home page when the user logs in next. Of course, this would be a hypothesis that needs to be tested. This can very well be tested in the retail stores as well. Merchandising mangers are now merchandising on home page which was earlier a rare phenomenon. The point here is that “Rule of thumb” in this case might not always be “The Rule of Thumb”. The experience must be relevant to the visitor.

One of the big challenges for video marketers is finding the means to track the browser’s purchasing intent after their initial video experience, and serve them up with targeted content even when they visit other websites.

So, what is “behavioural targeting?”

According to Michael Benedek, VP of the behavioural marketing firm Almondnet, behavioural targeting is the delivery of content or other user experience to a person based on their observed, previous online behaviour. Often this is done by implementing a cookie when a person in on a participating site, which then follows the person’s browsing activity after that initial point of contact.

Behavioural targeting can be used to provide marketers with information on the types of video of interest to consumers. Using this information, they could, in turn, select videos for the site which they’re working on that appeal to consumer interest and select content that would also reflect the video’s subject matter for the purposes of optimizing this site’s content for search engines.

The AlmondNet process - how behavioural advertising is done with video ads

AlmondNet, like most other companies in the behavioural targeting space, deals with “behavioural advertising”

Here is an overview of AlmondNet’s behavioural targeting with search and video:

A visitor arrives to a website that contracted with AlmondNet.

Once that visitor demonstrates some form of valuable commercial intent behaviour (search, etc) on the site, they have a non-persistent cookie placed on their web browser and their behaviour, the date on which the behavior was collected, and the identity of the data-providing site are recorded. (The search query is also placed into one of “40 relevant behavioural categories,” which will be used to match the user with targeted video advertising the next time they visit an AlmondNet partner site.)

The cookie allows AlmondNet and its partner ad networks to identify the user upon the user’s arrival within one of AlmondNet’s partner ad networks’ ad space, thus allowing the ad network to provide the user with a relevant, targeted ad on the video content being watched.

Michael says that AlmondNet’s role is to serve as the intermediary, or “trader,” between data-owners and media owners to “provide consumers with relevant, privacy-sensitive, ‘Post-Search TM ads’ – wherever they go.” Websites that owns commercially-monetizable data contracts with AlmondNet to have its data monetized outside its own website.

With privacy and security issues being a major concern for browsers, Michael says that user search behaviour is recorded by AlmondNet “only on partner search engine sites and other sites owning purchase-intent data that contract with AlmondNet and provide users with a link to the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) site which includes an opt-out option, and not on other sites where the user happens to browse.”

Video ad example – behavioural targeting with search

Here is an example scenario of a user’s video experience without and with behavioural targeting involved.

Say person that searched for “health insurance” on a search engine or other website, views video content on a large site or ad network site a few days later…

Viewing an untargeted ad...

Viewing a targeted ad..

As you can see, a health-related overlay ad plays right on top of the video content. Mike explains the delivery of the targeted video ad is enabled either directly or in cooperation with an AlmondNet distribution partner (ad network, publisher, ad exchange, etc.)

Challenges with behavioural advertising, search and video:

Reach – for it to be effective, the user first has to visit a website that is an AlmondNet partner where they conduct their search; then, they eventually visit a website where the partner ad networks’ video advertising actually appears.

Infancy – Top social networks such as MySpace and Facebook have introduced behavioural targeting systems to help advertisers zero in on certain audiences, but such efforts are still in an early stage

Implementation and Standardization – Technical and marketing challenges such as scalability, video player and ad server standardization, and video content categorization are some of the more pressing challenges.

Pricing - behavioural advertising, especially with video, may well be outside the range of small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs) to participate in at the current time.

Marketers working to use video to drive visitor engagement are primarily concerned with the events that occur after the first clip has been viewed, tracking whether visitor click through to the web site, whether visitors watch additional videos, and whether these visitors exhibit different behaviours than the non-video watching population interacting with the site. It is thus, important to pay attention to what happens after the search and click. It can be done in two ways:

Basic, on-site behavioural tracking: utilizing your website video analytics program (Google Analytics as the free version, Overture as a recommended paid version), and measuring event tracking within your video content. This also works very well with funnel activity (where your visitors most commonly start off and end up on your site, all the way up to exiting). When you can see patters and trends with use activity from entry to exit, this will give you a better idea of what video content may be most relevant to their purchasing intent.

Advanced – off-site behavioural tracking: Setting up your site to implement cookies, which will allow you to follow what the visitor does after they leave your site. Because this can be very complex, an easier way of controlling it is to just go with search engine referrals, and categorize those searches however you wish. So when the visitor returns, you can now serve up the returning visitor to a special landing page with video content (that matches any of your pre-set video categories)

As you can tell, behavioral targeting vendor solutions may be out of reach for most businesses today, but online video marketers and especially video SEO’s can learn a lot from how to better optimize websites and video content with do-it-yourself strategies, just by matching search activity with engagement analytics.

I am neither supporting nor criticizing behaviour targeting. A lot of people consider this method as an opportunity to grow revenues and minimize advertising costs. This might be so, but I just fear that it might also turn out to be a very dangerous trend for the advertising industry. There are issues of privacy and law and customer honesty to deal with which eventually increases the risks. Well, how is it going to help or harm the marketers and the businesses out there..only time will tell!!

Source:

1. http://www.reelseo.com/behavioral-targeting-video-almondnet/

SEGMENTATION: MALCOLM GLADWELL ON SPAGHETTI SAUCE

2010-10-30T13:27:00.001-07:00

I have always believed in sharing knowledge and when I decided to share something about marketing I just wondered where to start from?

I thought probably the best way to start would be as they say from the basics and I decided to go ahead with segmentation.

A marketer can very rarely satisfy everyone in the market. Not everyone out there has the same liking for food, cars, college, movies or even partners. Marketers identify and profile distinct group of buyers who might prefer or require varying products and services by doing the usual demographic, psycho-graphic and behavioural analysis among buyers. Especially, after my classes on conventional methods of segmentation and the value based methods for the same I realized that it wasn't that easy and could be really confusing. I came across this very interesting video by "Malcolm Gladwell" and realized that it gave the essence of segmentation in the most simplistic manner. In the video "The Tipping Point" author gets inside the food industry's pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce and thereby makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.

I will present the learning through the framework most commonly used in my school, the K.A.S.H. framework.

Knowledge: In embracing the diversity of human beings a marketer can find a sure way to true happiness.

Attitude: The attitude while doing any research is to challenge the conventional methods and not to blindly follow them. One should have the guts to challenge and then test. The idea is to get the relevant data and information.

Skills: The real skill is to find out the right questions to ask at the right point in time to the right people. People including researchers find it difficult to implement the same and it becomes a point of confusion.

Habits: Most of us are habitual of following the usual conventional methods. In fact it is right way to go ahead when you are starting or you are confused. This habit is fine. But a marketer should try and go a step out of the box and try and see if he can present a third perspective.

I won’t write much and keep it simple and hope that people reading this learn a great deal from the video and the man himself.

Source:

1. http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html

2. Marketing Management by Kotler, Kelly, Koshy, Jha; 13th Edition