When the humble kaapi met the affluent Latte!

I wonder, when the co-founder of Starbucks, Zev Siegl recently visited Bangalore's heritage shop - Vidyarthi Bhawan for a quick taste; he must have done this thousands of time;sampling coffees across continents and soaking in how consumers sip coffee everywhere.

With glocalisation, it's important that brands offer consumers to taste the best of both worlds - signature stuff the brand stands for globally as well as modification or new products lines keeping local sensibilities and flavours in mind.

#Starbucks this year has launched filter coffee & masala chai in their menu along with stuff like chole kulche in India.

#McDonald's has been selling Aloo tikki burger for years now in India and it has been adopted in the global menu under vegan options.

#Snickers introduced the veg version in India only (eggless).

#harleydavidson recently launched tough turbans in thier range of accessories considering a lot of sikhs community drive thier vehicle.

But for all that thing to happen, understanding consumers by immersing themselves in the market is what is a must!

#consumerbehavior #marketing

Top 5 ways to build habit forming products?

Top 5 ways to make your product a habit-forming one?

'Hooked' by Nir Eyal is a must read on the subject. My picks from the book -

1. Become a Guru.
Thats what most brand build - a library of great Content on thier transactional apps - like #Zerodha varsity.

2. Become a Friend.
Personalize. Recommend. Valuable reminders. That wife's anniversary tip. #Cred saves the day on bills.

3. Become a Community.
Standing for a common cause in the category & solving consumer pain points. #Nike+, Redbull have embraced this so well.

4. Dont build point programs for loyalty. Build VAS, consumer will pay for. Like #Amazon Prime.

5. Don't make a super app to build frequency. Cut confusion. Retain focus.

What would you add there?

#product #marketing  #growth #book

Peak End Rule - Whats more memorable - Dhoni's six Vs Gambhir's 97?

More memorable of 2011 world cup - Dhoni's hitting 6 in 2011 world cup (91*) or Gambhir's above the order 97?

You went to a movie. The beginning and the middle was boring. But the end was awesome. Your mind will still rate it - awesome. (Bruce Willis's Sixth sense?)

Apart from the end, we also remember some of the extreme scenes in the middle; those peaks that were unusually good or worst. (Kashmir Files' 2 extreme scenes!!)

That's peak-end rule at play. 

When we remember something, our brain ignores most of it. It picks only the 'peaks' and the 'end' more than anything out of a story, movie, #content..any experience; and makes an assessment of it, based on that only.

Despite a poor #experience throughout, if the brand makes it sweetest at the end, your #NPS rating would still be 8-10/10. 

So, its important that as marketers, we build those peaks in our content or experiences along with pleasant endings. 

That unique mouth freshening pouches in a restaurant. Or that peak moment clicked at a Disney ride given at end!

Any relatable examples?

#marketing 

Strategy is God?

Strategy is God.

It pervades everywhere.

From man on the moon strategy to how to tie shoe laces strategy.

Basic strategy. Sophisticated strategy. Winning strategy. Losing strategy. #Marketing strategy. Sales strategy. HR strategy.

‘strategy’ derives from the Greek strategia, = ability to employ available resources to win a military conflict.

Simply put, strategy is a cohesive response (analyses, concepts, arguments, policies and actions) to an important challenge.

Not a standalone decision.

Not a goal.

It’s important to distinguish and use the word. 

Richard Rumelt in his book, Good Strategy Bad Strategy; talks about -

#Strategy = Diagnosis + Guiding Policy + coherent action

Diagnosis = Identification of problems/obstacles

Guiding policy = Specific approach selected to solve problems

Coherent action = detailed how to ( policy, resources,actions) to carry out Guiding policy.

Do the below sound okay as strategy?

-Our strategy is to grow 10X in 3 years. 

-Our game strategy today is to go out there and score!

#execution 

How much is that connected TV costing you?

Smart Idiot box draws 25% of waking life!

Our attention is the biggest resource to be managed, along with the time we fill for it.

Series on Apps like #netflix increasingly use ‘peak end’ rule, to leave you wanting more after each episode & making you binge watch.

How to get out of it?

Fix the time slot and pause after it to resume later next day, vs binge watch.

Connected TV means control is with you vs with the now smart idiot box.

Don’t lose control.

On of my favourite speakers, Jim Rohn mentions a story - When he asked his friend on how much did this grand ultra sized recently purchased TV costing him, his friend mentioned proudly the price tag.

Later jim told him, that the cost is actually several million dollars over the years, of the time that it will suck perenially.

Who much is the smart idiot box costing you?

#smart #entertainment

Psychology behind 'I know'

Psychology behind 'I know' 

Generally when asked about something, our default response (despite having a very hazy idea) is that 'I know'. 

In an experiment, people were asked if they know 'how zippers work?'

And then asked to rate themselves on a scale of 10 on how well they know it.

Then they were given a pen and paper to explain. And again asked to rate. 

Their scores plummeted.

This phenomenon is called the ‘Illusion of Explanatory Depth’.

The illusion that we understand things better than we actually do. 

We think we understand how things work. Even when we don’t.

This often leads to - 

☝️ end of conversation as the other person stops and doesnt explain further 

✌️ you remain poorer under this mirage that you know.

How to counter this?

👉Convert 'I know' to saying 'I want to know'.

👉Be the last one to speak, if you really want to educate yourself.

Have you caught yourself in a conversation saying 'I know' when somebody just started saying something?

 #work #life #tips #growth 

1000 true fans?

Power of 1000 true fans > Power of mass media?

In times of efficient and ROI driven #marketing, power of #community is a big lever.

Kevin kelly wrote an essay in 2008 stating the power of first 1000 fans -

"A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book and so on.

If you have roughly a thousand of true fans (also known as super fans), you can make a living — if you are content to make a living but not a fortune."

And here is how it works. You need to meet two criteria -

1. You have to create enough each year that you can earn, on average, $100 profit from each true fan.

2. You must have a direct relationship with your fans. That is, they must pay you directly.

If you keep the full $100 of each true fan, then you need only 1,000 of them to earn $100,000 per year. That’s a living for most folks.

Earlier this phenomenon was difficult to achieve because of lack of direct relationship/transaction with customers, but with #ecommerce, D2C and p2p digital payments, this concept is the backbone behind many brands globally.

Thats why brands of today aspire global demand because they now have this power of a connected world!

These brands focus on direct contact with customers to leverage this principle of true 1000 fans!

And yes, more often than not, you dont see these brands spend on mass media because the community helps them grow. They dish out challenges, rewards, parties first to those fans and then to the world at large!

#D2C enables efficiency in marketing and #sales and business!

Have you experienced the power of thousand true fans yet? Not customers, but fans.

Book Review - Good to Great by Jim Collins

Books worth enough to share your life with -

"Good to Great" by Jim Collins

This is like a book '7 habits of highly effective people' applied to companies! It traces progress of ~1500 companies to come up with 11 which beat competition consistently for 15 years in his research.

And filtered the 'reason why' into a behaviour model of 'Good to Great' shown in the picture split into disciplined people, desciplined thought, desciplined action. 

Apart from doggedness to keep at doing things, he defines discipline around 'clarity and focus' which is a gem nuance. wavering strategy or doing multiple things, back and forth is example of indiscipline.

The #audible version has voice of author himself and the way he narrates the book, he is so passionate in his work, it seems as if you are part of the discussion! Must listen.

However, apart from the company's behaviour aspects; i felt same can be applied to individuals in thier lives & careers -

1. Level 5 #leadership - A humble but firm leadership behaviour. Not flamboyant, not charming but simple people with no egos dedicated to the objective. None of these companies have those celeb leaders!

2. First who, then what - While embarking on a vision, its important yo figure who is on the bus (like-minded) & then decide to what to do next. Else, you falter easily as people leave the bus if mis-aligned.

3. Confront the brutal facts - Running away from reality doesnt help. And quoting future vision without confronting reality is like ostrich with his neck under sand.

4. Hedgehog concept - This is crux of this book. We should figure the intersection of 

-what we are passionate about, 

-what are our skills/talent that we are good at, and

-what is our economic engine ( how we can make money out of the two by figuring a matket and a metric that uniquely drives us to the vision)

5. Culture of #descipline, not hierarchical. Descipline by auto mode vs forced; enabled by disciplined thinking and disciplined control. No bureaucracy.

6. #Technology as accelerator, not as 'the' thing to change fortunes. First figure hedgehog concept and then apply technology if it helps you accelerate the focus via hedgehog. For eg. Clarity of thought boosted by tech is a dangerous thing.

7. #Flywheel - The good to great transformation is not like a revolution, its like slow and steady evolution. It builds up turn by turn on a steering wheel till you pass through a breakthrough. Its like a decade long overnight sensation!

Loved it to the core. Become a fan of Jim Collins. Its like those re-reads kind of books.

Which #book have you loved recently? Share your recommendations for a business book for my next read.

How to remember things for ever?

How to learn, to apply forever?

‘Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.’ – Benjamin Franklin

We all accept that learning is the no 1 #skill to grow - in #life, #career; everywhere. But have you thought about right model of learning? Learning that sticks with you, vs a hazy memory that I did read something about this but currently it’s failing me. Learning should result in a skill adoption that doesn’t require conscious thinking - like in case of riding a cycle. Once you learn it with deliberate practise, next time you just need a cycle and your brain takes over.

A model by trio authors (McDaniel, Roediger and Brown) of ‘Made to Stick’ suggest 3 steps to such learning -

1. ‘Encoding’ - is the first stage which is about conversion of perceptions into meaningful patterns in the brain. Like drawing rough sketches in the brain, giving you a hazy silhouette of what you are trying to learn.

2. ‘Consolidation’ - is like the process of tidying up the notes you scribbled during class—typing them up neatly in a document, adding examples and charts for clarity. With this stage, brain strengthens the hazy silhouette by rearranging the earlier patterns to make sense of them.

3. ‘Retrieval’ - is accessing the learnt information using cues that help us recall it. Methods such as quizzing on the material, teaching the concept to someone else or applying in a real-life situation help strengthen this stage. Every time we retrieve and apply what we have learnt, the skill and associated memory become stronger until it is almost effortless.

So, now you have a model to learn sth for permanency!

If you realise, my #linkedin posts are part of the stage 3 of this model. And that’s how small efforts like posts, add to my #learning!

Thanks for being my audience and helping me learn, everyday. 🙏

50 years of Eno in India - From antigas to dhokhla

50 years of ENO in India - A tale of Acidity & Dhokla!

#ENO antacid dates back to the 19th Century, when James Crossley Eno first introduced it as a “fruit salt” to help sailors stay healthy on long journeys.

The pharmacy from where it was sold was situated on a seaport with a lot of sea traffic. This was a boon for ENO as sailors used to eat large quantities of food on return and faced acidity issues.

India is the largest market for ENO. We know it as the no 1 remedy for acidity issues thanks to its ‘fastest acidity solve’ claim, hammered over the years into consumer psyche via brilliant #advertising. Lines like -

ENO ON, Acidity Gone.

ENO gets to work in 6 seconds.

ENO ON, gadbad Gone.

show that the consistency on #positioning and great creative executions have ensured that consumers can’t think anything else. 

Do you remember the no 2 brand in quick relief antacid salts?

Its a great legacy brand known worldwide for its 100+ years of history and its focus on consumers acidity issues.

But if you dive deep in India, the kicker is the use of ‘lemon’ ENO in a dish called dhokla. As per popular recipes for the dish, one can use lemon ENO in place of baking soda + citric acid for this popular dish. Not sure how much sales it commands for this end use; but YouTube is replete with recipes of eno Khama dhokla. Statewise per capita sales share might validate whether in states where the dish is popular, is there any correlation or not. 

As a composite result of all, it commands ~45-50% market share, with ~600-700 cr sales and is now celebrating 50 years in India!

#marketing #brand 

Pic credits - tastecooking.com