Causal Marketing: A Great Marketing Initiative

"Marketing is what you do when your product is no good". What do you think of this quote? I came across this marketing quote while browsing the net and was flabbergasted to comprehend it. My inference of this quote is that there is no great product on earth as there is hardly any product that is not marketed.

If you do not market your product, it will not sell. Remember, consumers do not buy your product, they buy the benefits associated with it. If you do not communicate the benefits of your product, your competitor will..and you will loose your potentials.

When I talk about marketing in contemporary era, it is taking new forms and dimensions with each passing day. I would like to talk about marketing for social cause.

If you see the latest commercials of Aircel and Nokia, you will very well realize that these companies have resorted to a known but merely implemented form of marketing, Causal marketing. Nokia takes up the much talked about issue of deteriorating vegetation while Aircel picks up the sensitive issue of meager population of tigers in India.

You may say that these companies are committed to their Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR). Well, probably yes, but if you think that is the only reason for their current marketing campaigns, cerebrate for a while.

Companies are in business to earn profit and not for social work. However, Corporate Social Responsibility is a factor that increases the goodwil of companies and the brand in the minds of consumers. In this competitive era when companies are resorting to comparative and anti-advertising campaigns, hampering the goodwill of the brand, Aircel an Nokia are on the right track.

There is no element of abashing competition, rather, the brands attempted to showcase their CSR and have registered in the minds of consumers, which is what these brands aimed for. These are already known brands, but consumers may forget these brands if not advertised. As such, Causal advertising to stay on top of mid of consumers and build goodwill is a great strategy to beat competition.

Value Added Services or only Value ?

The telecom services providers are pondering over ways to enhance sales and market share in the Indian market with intense competition. The number of players is increasing with two new players namely Virgin and Aircel. How does the players in this industry strategize so as to attain their objectives?

These companies are resorting to various means in order to gain market share. Vodafone came up with the much hyped Zoozoo campaign while Idea came up with a new idea during the IPL season 2 (Click here for more details). All these companies are now trying to sell their Value Added Services or VAS.

Well, I really don't think that it's a great strategy to promote VAS now, when the world economy is hit by recession. The common people are struggling to avert receiving pink slips. Analysts are working hard to speculate the after math of recession. As such, there is a lot of uncertainity around and the entire financial structure of the country isn't in great health.

As such, who cares about getting beauty tips or cricket scores? The masses now want to stay connected in the cheapest possible rates with absolutely no inclination towards any kind of value added services. They rather want value for money.

In this context, the attempts of several players is laudable. Airtel, which is positioned around knitting relationships, lowered its STD tariffs some time back. Virgin mobile, which is the fastest growing mobile operator has further lowered the STD and local call rates to 50paise per minute.

Well, I think revising the pricing strtegies is the need of the hour and not VAS. Let us see how these VAS providers and promoters fare against those who could feel the pulse of customers based on heinous market scenario.