Marketing Lessons from #AprilFools Day Pranks

This April fool’s day, brands have pushed the limits to create pranks. One of Gmail's prank even backfired badly when someone said they lost their job due to it and eventually Google retracted the prank. In the crevice between hilarious and notorious prank lies few marketing lessons, here are my takes.

Virgin Australia's Kids Class: If red eye flights are not bad enough, there are high chances that you'll be welcomed to cries of wailing babies, and inconsolable toddler throwing tantrums for not wanting to wear seat belts.  This prank by Virgin stems from that insight, but if it came true? As a dad, i'd sign up for it at a premium!

Marketing lesson: Brands try to either address a problem or create delight, but if you  observe closely, you may be able to do both.

Trump Free Zone by GroupOn Australia: The debate and speculations of Trump winning US election is becoming intense, Google search for 'how to move to Canada' is reported to have surged by 350% in US!

What GroupOn has done here is clever, in the guise of a prank; they have brought Australia under the consideration sets to people who are seriously contemplating to move out of US if Trump wins.  Win a Four-Year Island Holiday and Escape a Trump Presidency

Marketing Lesson: When there's gold rush, sell shovels.

 Deliveroo TeleOrder Tech: UK based online food ordering company Deliveroo has an idea to avoid Smartphone and apps to order food, this video demonstrate how their telepathic food ordering works. While this is a very geeky prank now, it won't come as a surprise if this happens in near future, thanks to increasing usage of wearable devices.

Marketing lesson: Whats sounds impossible today become a norm tomorrow. In 1999 there were 1 million websites, today there are over 1 billion.

 Emoji License Plates by Honda: The internet digs emojis, Kardashian even makes a living out of it. In a world where there is an increased use of emoji to perform real transactions (you can order Domino's pizza or buy groceries from Terraa app using just emojis) it's only a matter of time until the Honda's dream comes true. After all, their baseline is 'The Power of Dreams'

  Marketing lesson: Watch out for change in culture and adapt, if not, you maybe a Kodak soon.

Grow your own organic condoms: by Pasante is too obvious a prank but the worldwide awakening for health and wellness is evident when you try finding a yoga instructor, or the rise in demand for organic foods.

Marketing lesson: Greatest shift in consumer behavior maybe often hidden in plain sight; it's up to the marketers to notice it.   (See how FMCG brands in India are having a divine intervention)

Drop Mic by Gmail: Google has a reputation for pulling off amazing pranks, from AdBirds to Google Mobile Wallet ATM; you can read it all here. This year they made a prank called 'drop mic' a send + archive button that also inserts a minion GIF in your email. But when billions of people are using your service, this is not a harmless prank but a breach of trust. (to add something on sent item without confirmation).

Google retracted the drop mic option after chaos broke out in their product forum and on social media but the damage was done.

Marketing lesson: Trust is earned, never bought or demanded. It is not enough if brands don't 'think evil’; they also have to 'not act stupid'.

What other pranks got your attention? Let me know in comments below.

4 Reasons Why You Need Bookkeeping & Accounting

Bookkeeping is an aspect which most entrepreneurs don’t like to involve themselves in. On the contrary, financial management is very crucial to sustaining and expanding a business. For a business whether small or large, bookkeeping is such a remarkable activity which defines how far the graph of your success will move. Here, we have mentioned four reasons why you needbookkeeping.

Decision Making

When you run a business, it becomes necessarily important to know on which ground you are, in terms of finances, so that you can make the future decisions. You must have a clear idea where your business would be down the line. Bookkeeping bestows you with the exact figures of errands so that can step forward on a right path. It is highly indispensable for financial modeling.

Monitoring Your Business Financially

Accurate information administers the financial health of the company. You must know if there are customers in arrears, or if you have outstanding balances on your lines of credit. The cash flows are managed with only accurate information hence, it is really important to keep them in books regularly.

Precise Taxing

Whatever be your business entity, you must file an income tax return and pay income taxes. A good record book will help you while filling for the return. Poor recordkeeping may sometimes lead to overpayment of the tax. If your CPA prepares your tax return, poor record keeping may result in higher accounting cost. 

Obtaining Funds/Loans

Funds are obviously required when you plan to start a business or even when you want to expand your existing business. A detailed book of records becomes a milestone when you resort to outsourcing funding. This is an instrument for businesses to determine how much risks they are dealing with. Of course, the investors need to know if they are spending in a business which would surely return the fruits.

Failure to observe acceptable bookkeeping practices may lead to significant monetary fines, penalties, or in severe cases, imprisonment. As a business owner, you need to avoid such critical conditions through fine bookkeeping & accountingmanagement.

C’mon Think Outside The Box

You must have heard, or looked at giant guerilla footprints on the beach in Los Angeles and those smashed cars at the time prior to the release of King Kong 3D. It was nothing but a kind of superb marketing called Guerilla Marketing. It worked surprisingly well and created a bang for the buck for the director.  This is what I actually want to convey.MARKETING TECHNIQUES should be such that not only hit a person’s mind but also make him your customer.

Now, when you go out of the box, you are certainly being noticed by everyone. This is what Guerilla Marketing is all about; “Thinking something really different”.  Businesses invest a lot on marketing but what if doesn’t generate favorable outcome? All the efforts would go in vain. So don’t just market your business instead market it efficaciously.

The best thing with this MARKETING TACTICS  is its low cost. This technique causes maximum impact with a minimum cost. The best example to justify this could be the “Nivea Bench”. At Miami fashion week, skin and beauty care company, Nivea promoted their skin care product called ‘good-bye cellulite’ by placing sofas which were half tufted to show the cellulite and the other half was really smooth. After that, the product sold like hotcakes.

Guerilla Marketing is a tactic that you must incorporate in your MARKET PLAN. It has proven results. What made the Swiss Cancer League a grand success was its “Post-It-Man” campaign. So, just go for a Guerilla Marketing Strategy and see the result. I am sure you won’t regret.

Infocrest caters whale of amazing MARKETING STRATEGIES that would put a feather in your cap of business. For more such ideas contact us at Infocrest.in

9 Devious Psychological Marketing Tactics

It’s a 50% SALE on REISS. Let’s grab it all!! This is what maximum people think when they hear such lines. You must have seen a bombardment of sales at various big brands every now and then. It’s in human nature that they get fascinated towards such offers. And trust me these sales are nothing but the psychological tricks which the businesses play on the people. And yes, they win.

Here, I will let you introduce with 9 such marketing techniques which companies use to make you buy their products.

1. The Decoy Effect- Companies sometimes just raise a third option to make you think that you are getting a better deal choosing the one among the other two. Several times you must have found that Westside offers 1 t-shirt for £10, 2 for £15 and 3 for just£17. People rush for the third option as they found it the best deal.
2. Priming- People have the tendency to view the related things with the same perspective. Hearing the word “tasty” will water your tongue with an imagination of a delicious meal you had rather than a garbage dump. Similarly, companies know that advertising with a hot cheek with an awesome physic in a Jeans ad would generate more sale than with a thin school boy.
3. Reciprocity- According to a psychologist, you probably do something in return if someone does something to you. You offer more to the ones who have done at least a bit for you. Marketing Researchers found that when a restaurant server brings the check with one mint, people will tip 3.3% higher than normal and with two mints; they’ll tip a monstrous 20% more.
4. Frequency Illusion- Have it ever been with you that you started seeing similar things again and again? If it has been then you have gone through Frequency Illusion. It is the effect where you see something once and suddenly you start seeing it everywhere. Market Planners use this as a tool to market their products. It might have happen with you too. When you have purchased a car, you might have seen the same car everywhere.
5. Anchoring- It’s a seasonal sale!! Flat 50% off on all the products..!! 60% people make up their minds to visit the shop as soon as they see this. This is what we call as anchoring. When people will make a decision that relies maximum on the first piece of information they get. And the companies take advantage of this like what I said above.
6. Social Proof- It is human behavior to follow what the others do. They go along with the herd. Companies often buy “ghost followers” to make others think they have a large following. Impressed with a huge fan follow, people start following these companies and starts talking about them. And this is how companies tract the genuine towards them.
7. Loss Aversion- Have you ever thought why companies offer free trials? Do they love to suffer a loss or is there any marketing strategy behind it? Of course, the latter one is obvious. They knew that people are more likely to act when they have something to lose, as opposed to gaining something. And results show that the maximum people continue to subscribing after the trial period is over.
8. The Illusion of Scarcity- We run after the things which are limited. Whether it is apparel or a dwelling, people opt for those which are less in number. Companies are very cunning at this point and they take the advantage of this human psychology to benefit their trade. Therefore, you might have watched various townships advertise with a statement-“Hurry up!! Only few flats left”. Today this tactic is used by many companies especially the airlines where they say, “Only a few tickets left at these prices”.
9. The power of anecdote- People gets influenced by stories. They love to read them and relate them with their livelihood. They get transported by the stories to a place where they love to live. And here comes the reason why businesses use testimonials on their websites. Because testimonials tell a story people identify with.

These were some tactics which are planned to play with the human nature. People automatically get tempted towards these marketing strategies. Just put these in your market plan and you are done. You will instinctively generate leads.

4 Steps For An Effective Market Research

Whether you are a startup or an existing business, Market Research is the key source which will lead you to flourish in the industry you are in. It is a technique used by everyone to gather and analyze the information about the market their business operates in. You must have a sharp market research in order to know the know-how of the industry.

 

Here, we have mentioned some steps that will give you a keen market research to make your business’s competitive edge sharp.

 

Plan your Market Research- Planning is essential before you start with your research. An under planned research will lead you nowhere. You must have answers to some of the questions before you start your research work. These question include-

• Who are your customers?
• What do they buy now?
• Why do they buy?
• What will make them buy from you?

 

Getting Useful Data- From where you will get the relevant data is foremost important to be known. You must go in the right direction. For this, search first for the government sources and then go to data from trade associations, publications, academic institutions, and then ultimately go to third-party sources.

 

Primary Research- Primary Research is an important part of Market Research. Living with the situation makes one better understand the market. In order to know the market deeply, one has to jump into it. We here at Infocrest, conduct our own research. We do so by using available data, conducting surveys, and one to one interviews.

 

It’s Time To Analyze The Result- Once you are done with all the above steps, you must step to the last and the most important one that is to analyze what you did. It is very important to have a clear idea about your results. You must be in a position by now to answer the questions with which you started. You must conduct a SWOT analysis to outperform it. And you must find a new target market for your business.

 

This was just a glimpse of how we conduct our research. Infocrest’s marketing research department is highly dedicated and provides you with the best research . We here at Infocrest Finweb LLP provides you with innovative and highly competitive market research, an important aspect of business planning which helps you to grow your business and makes you stand one among the toppers of the industry.