We know the power of marketing as the God work for creating brands. Be it then anything it can craft; fortunes ofcompanies, personalities, places, products and services to make them inspirational. Leading the pack of brands are Google, Microsoft, IBM, Coco Cola, McDonalds, Apple, Nokia, GE and Wal-Mart for customer ownership and brand loyalty.

Conceptually, marketing as a function is about creating or enhancing awareness for a product, service or brand in a competitive marketplace. It entails enhancing reach and winning customers by sustaining recall, positioning and shelf space. Companies generally appoint professional agencies, earmark budgets and identify ways to outplay competition and gain customers. The approach is typically a trench war fare defensive mechanism deployed against the opponent to sustain or hold ground.

Quiet ironically, the real marketplace conditions are more dynamic and demand combative techniques of high order to gain customers. Perhaps, it is the asymmetric combat tactics that deploys psychological mechanisms and propaganda techniques, to exploit vulnerabilities of space, time, effort and contingency rather just physical combat…

If that is the case, then it means impacting the mind set, triggering the untriggered with forceful stimuli to consummate an impulsive movement in an affirmative response of the target audience. Thanks to the over entrenched media be it the print, digital, outdoor, internet etc., that provide excellent logistics which if smartly deployed may foil competitive forces.

In an age of knowledge, while global distances are truncating to ever expanding markets, companies have limitless opportunities to market global customers and expand business. At the same time, see sawing the prospect of growing the customer base and handle fierce some competition means painting the promise of value delivery and articulating the same during course of the process.

Smart companies those gain aspirational status appear to follow a market growth strategy which by design keeps customer in context and competition in perspective. Interestingly, such a market growth strategy apparently identifies clearly the customer and focus sharply on the same. Broadly companies align the marketing strategy focus on first time users, existing customers and new customers (of competitors). Such customer classification helps in developing markets, manage PLC and bring customer centricity necessary for gaining market leadership. Many argue that such a strategy with definitive focus gives meaningful insights on aspects like costs of acquiring and retaining customers, competitive landscape and so on.

Latest research reports on brand studies indicate towards the growing interest of smart companies in acquiring the new customers (of competitors). Thematic studies of the marketing strategies adopted by such companies clearly exemplify the growing interest in gaining new customers.

Specific references were possible to witness in the marketing strategies adopted globally by companies from Telecom, CPG and aviation industry yet the trend needs to be studied with structured and reliable data as the days to come.

Industry experts infer the following to be some of the reasons for the emerging trend:

• Best strategy to foil competitive forces and business risk mitigation
• Gaining or sustaining market leadership
• Significant additions may mean strong positioning for customer centricity

Acquisition itself may lead retention and loyalty after a period

If such a trend is established the need and greed to gain every customer of the competitor would proverbially be at its peak thereby acting as a major change agent. It may also mean change in the viewpoint on customer, redefine marketplace, & competition, re-set brand portfolio and re-examine consumer behavior patterns.

Hence, companies swiftly move ahead of times in reading the emerging paradigm while calibrating their marketing strategy would appear to gain early momentum in the journey of becoming a brand with inspirational status.

To summarize:

1. Customer is quiet often a known goal and marketplace never a no-man’s land
2. Customer and competition are key in marketing strategies of smart companies
3. Swift movements in the marketplace can be done by companies who are ahead of times
4. Existing customer (of competitor) doesn’t appear to be just in focus by companies operating in saturated markets
5. Evaluating cost arbitrage of acquiring new user or existing customer (of competitor)
6. Psychological mechanisms, (asymmetric war fare) techniques are the order of the day
7. Innovation and marketing together can only create the big leap
8. Buy decision as an affirmative response is a result of forceful stimuli and craft involved in painting the promise of brand
9. Loyalty is a product of promise to deliver value and the real value delivered
10. Finally, customer make companies “the brands” if espoused well

David Ogilvy in Confession of an Advertising man quips “Unless your campaign has a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.”

Author:
Kazim Ali Khan,
Site Head Bangaluru and Head Business Development
Ma Foi Randstad

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