Marketing stuff that I didn't learn in FMS

You might be wondering what I am talking about?

Let me take you through a time machine journey to find the answer to this question.

Way back in 1992, I was sponsored by my employer Rockwell Automation (RA), where I was working as Manager Projects, to do MBA in Marketing at FMS (Faculty of Management Studies), DU ( Delhi University).

I was one of the five candidates, RA sponsored for a Part time MBA program at FMS.

I was the only one who got selected through the interview board consisting of 15 persons.

I was surprised how I got selected.

I was not good at English.

Later on one of my professors revealed in one Marketing class that selection was done based on the student's confidence and not the way he converses in English.

Today I am writing this article because I have enrolled myself in DDIP (Digital Deepak Internship Program) (https://digitaldeepak.com ) .

I have now understood Marketing stuff and will take you through this short journey.

I hope you will enjoy it.

Fasten your seat belt!

We will pass through a few stations and take some time out for breathing exercises.

The Fundamentals of Marketing-Learning from MNCs

I was considering Marketing as the subject of creativity, but now I have learnt it is Science.

I always wondered which comes first--product or its Marketing.

Now I know Marketing comes first before a product has taken birth.

Marketing is the Science of sending the right message to the right person at the right time.

Marketing is not only for selling a product but also retaining a customer by building trust.

I worked for 15 years in RA and I remember the greetings I used to get whenever I used to visit customer sites.

Allen - Bradley (AB) is one of the well-established PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) brands of RA in Automation World.

AB Brand has earned its reputation because it is one of the best products on its quality front.

Quality sells by itself.

For the AB brand of RA, we used to get a 10%- 15% premium in the market. Sometimes even more.

Automation world was divided into segments such as PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) & DCS (Distributed Control System):

PLC:?It was an answer for replacing relay based Logic.

DCS: It was an answer for replacing Pneumatic based Logic.

RA decided to launch its new product which had power of both --PLC as well as DCS.

RA gave it a new name PAC (Programmable Automation Controller) and Logix family was introduced in USA.

After doing my MBA from FMS, I became Industry Business Manager in RA, wherein I was part of the Marketing team and actively participated in marketing events.

We used to call those Marketing Events as CAoTM (Complete Automation on the Move).

It used to be a whole day event, starting from 9 am till 6 pm.

We used to cover one or two prominent cities in India and used to design theme of CAoTM event keeping the target audience in mind.

CAoTM agenda used to have product presentation as well as demonstration.

So we designed CAoTM for promotional activity of the Logix family in the Indian Market in such a way that PAC was positioned in the minds of RA customers much before its official launch and prospective customers waited eagerly for the launch of Logix family.

I had experimented with fundamental marketing concepts during 1998 to 2003 when I was in RA and now share with you my findings:

?Marketing is a game of perception.

?Never let Marketing become more important than the product itself.

?A great product sells itself.

?Marketing starts before the launch of a product.

?Try to be a leader in the market so that you can earn a premium.

I left RA in Dec 2003 and started the Indian Representative office of ProSoft Technology from 1st Jan 2004 as Country Manager.

ProSoft Technology, a small company of about 100 employees all over the world, was an Encompass Partner company of RA having Head Office in Bakersfield California USA.

ProSoft was incorporated by Doug Sharratt in 1988 and became a renowned company in the field of Industrial Communication on account of its product quality.

My sales and marketing territory was South West Asia (SWA) and I used to operate from my Home Office.

I also worked for 15 years in ProSoft and raised its business from USD 92 K to USD 852 K in 2012 single handed.

That was the peak.

I traveled extensively throughout India and it helped me in building trust among my customers.

During travelling I used to interact with customer’s engineers and try to understand their needs.

Then I used to convey those needs to the ProSoft R&D team in the USA through my monthly reports.

It helped ProSoft Management to decide about new product development.

ProSoft being an Encompass Partner of RA always sponsored the marketing activity of RA and took active participation in CAoTM every year.

ProSoft was also an Alliance partner of Schneider Electric and also participated in their marketing event too.

We have understood marketing fundamentals and now let us explore how they work?

Traditional vs Digital Marketing--Learning from own experiences

Marketing is not a new subject.

It existed with the birth of business.

Now we are talking about two categories of Marketing:

1. Traditional marketing
2. Digital Marketing

Exhibition / Banner / Flyer / Newspaper Ads / Television Ads --these are all part of Traditional Marketing.

Digital Marketing became more prominent in the world with the rise of internet connection.

While every product, we come to know through the internet, is part of Digital Marketing.

I used to give feedback to ProSoft HO at Bakersfield USA about the needs of customers so that they can produce required commercial modules.

ProSoft launched the RadioLinx (RLX) brand in the Industrial Wireless Communication field in 2005.

I had to increase my sales in India so I decided to establish the RLX brand in the wireless communication field.

ProSoft Marketing team was in the USA.

They implemented SEO and RLX brand became top brand while customers used to do Google search to find Radio for their moving application.

I started my sale with 25 radios / year in 2005 and it rose to 300 radios / year in a 5 years time frame. Price of each radio used to be Rs. 1.5 lacs in 2005 and later on when competition increased it was brought down to Rs. 1.1 lacs / radio.

I used both marketing techniques Traditional as well as Digital marketing to increase my sales in the SWA region.

I became instrumental in getting BusBar communication replaced in Automotive Industry Segments with Radio communication in Assembly line / Paint Shop etc.

Tata Motors / Mahindra Vehicle / Ashok Leyland / Daimler were few customers who bought 100’s RLX radios.

Now when I am studying Digital Marketing in DDIP, I am able to appreciate the power of Digital Marketing over Traditional Marketing.

?As the internet spread in India is gaining momentum, Digital Marketing is gaining more

?????strength over Traditional Marketing.

?During the Pandemic era, we have realized that Traditional Marketing will be dead soon

?????and Digital Marketing will be the winner.

?One of the important aspects of Marketing is building trust, which I think is lacking in

?????Digital Marketing at present.

Direct connection with customers is more when a person talks to another person directly because we are basically social animals.

Here I feel 4G / 5G technology is improving video communication and hence sales people will be able to win trust easily in near future.

?Another disadvantage of Digital Marketing is that attention grabbing is less effective

?????during webinars, while it is better during seminars in Traditional Marketing.

?That means Traditional Marketing is the winner over Digital Marketing in this category.

?Maybe when the internet with more bandwidth will become easily available, Digital

?????marketing will take over Traditional Marketing.

?In my opinion both Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing are relevant for

????business.

It depends on how we can harness their power.

In Traditional Marketing, data gathering is done manually and then its analysis is also done manually or with little use of computers.

While Digital Marketing consists of many concepts such as:?

--Content Marketing

-Copywriting

--SEO

--Analytics

--Google Ads

--Facebook Ads

--Social Media Management and many more.

Can we say that all the above mentioned parts of Digital marketing define Digital Marketing really?

Well, I will say that Digital Marketing is basically connecting with the target audience digitally.

Now we get a query in our mind.

Is there a formula to market a business?

Yes--we have found a solution.

CATT marketing Funnel--A revolutionary formula

Funnel is the solution.

Why should we use a funnel?

We generally use funnels to control flow of liquid.

It is the same in the case of Marketing.

The difference is here we control the flow of buyer’s interest.

We provide the proper value of the product to the buyer in order to keep the buyer's attention on the product with the help of funnel.

One such marketing funnel is the CATT funnel which has been invented by Deepak Kanakaraju.

CATT stands for

C: Content

A: ?Attention

T:?Trust

T: Transaction

In Digital Marketing it is famous as “Content is King.”

I was not aware of this fact when I was studying in FMS but now after attending 2nd class in DDIP, I understand and fully agree with this phrase.

?Content helps in building credibility in the eye of the buyer.

?Content also helps in grabbing the attention of buyers.

I have experimented with this concept while I was looking after sales of Industrial Communication products in ProSoft India.

I used to listen to the pain point of the customer and suggest to him or her proper solution architecture.

Even I used to make a live demo and demonstrate it right after my presentation.

It used to nail down the concept of communication and grab attention which resulted in building my trust with customers.

And once he or she is convinced about the solution, my offer used to get converted into a transaction of order.

This is what is the secret of generating wealth.

Using CATT as a pipeline we can build our brand in the most competitive market.

Deepak Kanakaraju has given us a very useful formula:

Wealth = n ^ (CATT)?

Where n = my niche (i.e. the problem I am solving.)

I have even checked this formula myself.

Content??---I was going through content written by Deepak in his 100 days lead

??????????????????????generation course which he offered me as complementary.

Attention --- It was written so well that it grabbed my attention and I wanted to know more

???????????????????????about Deepak.

Trust -- Then I happened to attend his live webinar and it mesmerized me. And I started

???????????????developing trust in his brand DigitalDeepak. He offered me a few free courses

???????????????such as Digital Marketing Basic Course, FB Ads etc. and it helped in building

???????????????my trust level in Deepak and I continued my learning journey with his courses.

Transaction -- Then one day, I got a mail invitation from Deepak to attend DDIP

?????????????????????????????batch 13. I attended it and made the decision to join it. I initiated my

?????????????????????????????payment process through credit card but to my dismay, due to internet

?????????????????????????????power dip my payment didn’t go through and I lost the opportunity to join

?????????????????????????????the course.

But after a few days, I again got another email from Deepak inviting me to join DDIP batch 14.

Everything went well in this webinar and I joined the course and now I am writing this article for my assignment 2.

I think CATT is the most scientific way of influencing the target audience to finally buy our product.

We have learnt basic concepts of Digital Marketing.

We have explored how to build our wealth utilizing the CATT framework.

But now a new question arises in our mind.

Is there any best way to get sales?

Its answer is loud and clear. Use all the basic concepts.

Integrated Digital Marketing

When I was in RA, I was introduced to a concept called Integrated Architecture.

?A three layer Architecture of Automation where data flows from Shop Floor to the Top Floor i.e. Board room seamlessly to get Smart Manufacturing.

Once again in Digital Marketing, I have been introduced to the concept of Integrated Digital

Marketing. ?

It has six different models:

Email Marketing

Paid Advertising

Sell & Convert

Content Marketing

SEO

Social Media

DigitalDeepak.com

Anyone can use only one specific model of Digital Marketing like SEO to build his or her business but if he or she decides to make use of all the models of Digital Marketing then he or she stands a better chance of achieving success in his or her business.

But is it difficult to or does it seem impossible to manage all of them?

Yes or no?

Since we do have an automated system at our disposal to take care of all aspects of Digital Marketing.

?We can use software to automate our email sending system depending on response

??????received from customers.

?We can automate social media posts.

?We can automate our blog posts.

?We can even track our customer’s journey through our website and show concerned

??????Ads to them.

When we use all modules of Digital Marketing to promote our business then we call it we are using Integrated Digital Marketing for promotion of our business.

Let me explain it with an example.

My wife wanted to buy a saree.

She was looking for it on the Meesho website.

She found it and put it on the cart. But decided to look for some more options.

Within a few hours, she was getting to see it on Facebook Ads, and even received recommendations from Myntra / Amazon.

She felt surprised.

I explained to her the power of Integrated Digital Marketing.

Companies are using Integrated Digital Marketing and that is what is boosting company’s sales.

The good thing is that it helped my wife in her decision making process and she could buy her saree with ease.

I learnt that the best way to make sales is to go for Integrated Digital marketing.

Is this correct?

Or is there something bigger than Integrated Digital Marketing?

What is the broader goal of Marketing??

Peter Drucker has said:

“Aim of Marketing is to make selling superfluous.”

That means one of the broader goals of Marketing is to stop being the main factor in getting sales.

We should not rely on Marketing for our sales however our customers should act as our ambassadors and sales should happen through their word of mouth.

This happens when we use the goal of Marketing to create a strong brand.

We can use marketing to project ourselves as our brand.

Because brands are always unique.

We are talking about Personal Branding.

Personal Branding--Be the Hero ?

Let us look at the profile of Elon Musk.

I do not know much about Tesla or SpaceX but I know about Elon Musk.

If Elon Musk invests in any Cryptocurrency, people immediately go for that.

Let us look at Narendra Modi or Ratan Tata or Anand Mahindra.

They have all created their personal brands which have become bigger than their party / company.

Modi brand is bigger than the BJP itself.

BJP always tries to use the name of Modi for winning elections.

If Ratan Tata invests in any project, people decide to opt for that.

Similar is the case with Anand Mahindra.

Deepak Kanakaraju has become a very big brand in the Digital Marketing education arena.

But there are pluses and minuses to having built a personal brand.

-ve side---A personal brand can not be invested also it cannot be sold.

+ve side---People have more trust on personal than on corporation.

If I get mail from Digital Deepak directly, it will have more impact than mail being sent from any other employee of his company.

?A personal brand can give rise to many brands from his or her influence.

?A personal brand becomes an influencer and a brand ambassador for the companies ?that they run.

Deepak Kanakaraju and Sanjay Shenoy, using their strength of personal branding have made their company Pixel Track to be known as best Digital Marketing agency in India. Their brand names have brought Pixel Track to get clients such as Nikon, YourStory and Mercedes-Benz just to name a few.

Pixel Track has earned a big name because of people’s trust on the names of personal brands such as Digital Deepak.

I have learnt that the best known will always be the best.

Mass Trust Blueprint?

Now let us look at the evolution of personal brands.

Deepak Kanakaraju has invented a concept of Mass Trust BluePrint which explains clearly the evolution of a personal brand.

Learn--We learn a new skill through concepts, facts and procedures. We understand and

remember it and practice the procedures. This is the foundation of personal brand

or the first step in the Mass Trust Blueprint.

Work--after learning new skills we put them in work for example in doing job or in

freelancing or doing own projects so to say we implement them in the real world and

it gives us better understanding.

Blog--once we use our skills in the real world we can share it with others by writing in our

?????????blog. It helps in making our knowledge stronger and in turn helping in building our

??????????personal brand.

Consult--after building a personal brand and having a blog we can start giving

????????????????consultation to others instead of working for them.

Mentor--now after consulting one person we can start giving consultation to many in a

??????????????group. That means we can act as mentors. This helps in scaling our knowledge

??????????????level to a very high level.

Startup--we can now start our own business once our knowledge level or skill level goes

????????????????up.

In short, we can take up the Mass Trust Blueprint invented by Deepak Kanakaraju as a model for our journey after completion of DDIP.

To run our business successfully, we need to keep on learning new skills and then put them into work, blog our experience, give consultation and do mentoring which helps in running a startup efficiently. This way Mass Trust Blueprint operates in a circle.

Conclusion-Takeaways?

My journey now comes to an end and hence I would like to conclude with a hope that it will be a worthwhile reading exercise for you all.

What are the takeaways?

Let me summarize:

?Marketing comes before a product is born.

?Marketing is more of science than art.

?It begins with understanding the needs of customers and then creating products

??????accordingly.

?It requires a lot of experimentation which involves failure and success both.

?Once we have understood customer needs and we have created our product or service

??????we can devise our method of market to showcase our product or service.

?It can be either through Traditional Marketing ways like TV / Newspaper etc. or through

???????Digital (using the internet) marke. Both of these methods have their merits. It depends on the

?????????product or service which we have to sell.

?While we decide to use Digital Marketing, it is advisable to integrate various Digital

??????marketing methods. We can automate the system to serve our target audience to their

??????delight.

?We can use marketing to build trust among our target audience. And for that we can use

?????ourselves as our brand. Our personal branding will result in building our credibility and

?????that will boost trust level; in order to get more sales.

?Finally the evolution of personal brand can lead us to Mass Trust Blueprint. It starts

??????with learning new skills / putting them into work / using a blog to share experience / give

??????consultation / do mentoring / use acquired knowledge to begin a startup and again begin

??????with the learning phase and go around in a circle.

This is what I wanted to convey to you through this article.

I hope I have done justice and I would like to have your opinion in the comment section: ?

“What do you think about Digital Marketing and Mass Trust Blueprint?