Astute marketing in Nikhil Kamath's Statement

Yesterday media was abuzz with Nikhil Kamath's statement that "Ather has sh*t marketing, but a great product." Having consulted EV startups for quite a while now, here's my take.

YES. Ather does have crap marketing.

This is the ad they printed on the front page of Times Of India.

• They spent ~5-10 Lakhs ($12k) and the thing that strikes me is a Model of theirs, which is 'new again'. Just to be clear facelifts are very common in the auto industry. I'd bought one of the first 1000 'Tata Nexon' in 2017 & even today, it's called 'Tata Nexon'. So this is nothing new.
• None of these EV scooters is a full view of the vehicle! One of the most important reasons why people buy Ather (or for that matter any vehicle) is 'styling'. Ather has one of the best (in my opinion), so not putting it here, is bad marketing.
• The image is like a factory setting. I got no connection with the vehicle at all. This is the reason people usually use people to form the connection with the vehicle. They should probably have given 2-3 images with different demographics riding the scooter.

Best of all, let's look at how Ather responded to Nikhil Kamath's statement. Nikhil added on that he bought it at MRP with no discount. This was the founder's response:

Do you see the challenge?

In which company, does marketing ever give discounts ??

It's always a Sales decision. This simple tweet actually shows what most founders understand of marketing! So here's another example.

COUNTRY DELIGHT

They paste "Founded by IIM Alumni" on the back of their milk packets. And their ads (which I keep seeing on a freemium app like SleepWatch) are absolutely pathetic! There was one where a lady gets a coconut and she's trying to insert the 'thing' they provide for about 4 seconds on camera!!!

And before you go "C'mon Kaushik, it's just 4 seconds", I skip the ad after 5!

I find it unbelievable that they are using such ads as paid media! Watching marketing ?s going to waste like this is painful. Let's strive for better, more strategic advertising that actually resonates with our audience and drives results. Please.

It’s crucial for founders to truly understand how to leverage paid media effectively. And these are IIM Alumni who've studied marketing mandatorily in their first year!

But there are exceptional marketer founders too...

LIKE NIKHIL KAMATH.

We are working on Season 19 of our podcast (Episode 91) & over the past 3 years, I've never seen a bigger push towards making it mainstream than when he launched "WTF Is".

Yes, I'm not a big fan of the 3-hour long format (I tell you why in details in my podcasting course) but he suddenly became an 'influencer'.

And let me tell you from personal experience, being a 'responsible influencer' is the way forward. (Topic for a different newsletter)

But back to this message. Nikhil Kamath himself lapped up 5.3% worth stock about a month ago for an inferred valuation of 5,636 crores! Genius marketing.

Second, he states the disadvantage the company has. AND it's very much fixable. It's like how my answer to the interview question "What's your biggest weakness" was "I work too hard!" (I've used this a lot in the initial days)

Having blamed startups, let's face it. I've spent 3 years with IBM, 6 years with their exclusive UAE partner (both stints in Sales) & none of the $50 mn I'd have cracked was due to their marketing. It was (perhaps IS) crap.

People just don't understand the value of a personal brand. Nikhil's statement just showed it being used strategically. That's why we are focusing on Distribution.

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At Brain Box Catalysts, we offer comprehensive branding & marketing services, featuring our in-house podcast studio, post production & distribution of over 125,000 per episode of our podcast, which was voted 9th pan-India by Spotify in 2022.

We've also consulted over 50+ startups for their GTM & marketing strategies.

Our personal branding clientele includes former and present Fortune 500 CEOs, who leverage our expertise to showcase their ‘Thought Leadership' through meticulously crafted videos and written content.