perceptions

Perception is reality- in marketing

arrogance, Customers, ego, Marketing, Product Management

I was watching Shark Tank a little while back . There was this young lady who came with a business model which she called as an Ed-Fintech model and she started rattling some numbers from different global agencies on why they are in such a good space. They had not even started on revenue.

What happened – young person, giving “gyaan” with no revenue – suddenly with every statement that she made, most of the “sharks” pounced on her.

Problem perception- those sitting on the other side of the table thought she was acting as a “know-it-all”. They felt she was arrogant and that hurt some egos. No one ended making her an offer. From her perspective maybe she was just being confident with the research that she had done. Net outcome no investment

I remember about 25 years back there was a Korean company called Daewoo which entered India and launched a sedan. It was an extremely well engineered car which the Indian market had not seen till then. Now some of the early users of the car did not understand the way the fuel gauge was calibrated and they got the impression that it its a fuel guzzling car.

That perception got created with some users but the competition took advantage of that and blew it out of proportion. Eventually the car was a huge looser and whatever forecasts were made went south.

As a product manager or a marketing manager you have to keep an eye on the perception that is getting created and handle it, because once its made, it is not easy to brush off and it becomes reality.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Selecting a Niche Part IV

differentiation, Marketing, Positioning, Product Management

Joe Polish has this wonderful example of a kaleidoscope and telescope. If you look into a telescope you can zoom into a specific object and identify this out it.

On the other hand if you look through a kaleidoscope, you see a lot of beautiful patterns but you can’t find one specific thing to focus on. As you keep rotating the kaleidoscope the patterns keep changing and keep mesmerizing you, diverting your attention from good pattern to the next.

When you niche, you not only find what you need to focus on, but you also find what you don’t need to focus on.

As marketers we are always seeing opportunities like the patternsin a kaleidoscope. A marketer is fundamentally positive by nature and therefore see opportunities all the time. This however is the downside for us, it tends to distract us.

By creating a niche and sticking to it, you put the blinders on for everything else. Then your messaging to your audience improves, you are able to identify all the different nuances for the audience and therefore slowly start owning the space in the mind of the customer.

Once you can own the space that’s when the game starts and you make profits.

Till next time.

Carpe Diem!!!

Eating A Yellow Watermelon ….

Financial Independence, Uncategorized

Today is the first time in my life, which is now more than half a century, that I saw a yellow watermelon

My first impression was – this is a problem – do watermelons really come in yellow colour, hope this is not poisonous, hope it is not gone bad

I checked with one of my neighbour’s – who is our Grand old aunty, she had also never seen one.  Then I called up one of our friends who has seen the world much more than me to check if they had seen a yellow watermelon, but even he was not able to comprehend a yellow watermelon

I was about to throw the whole watermelon even though it was testing sweet like a watermelon but the colour drove me crazy.

Just before throwing it, I thought of checking Google the ultimate knowledge base

And lo-behold right out there was a query on yellow watermelons and there were photographs of yellow watermelons which were exactly same as the watermelon which I had bought

Based on the input Google provided, my perception of the whole situation changed – where first I was about to throw the watermelon, I cut the whole watermelon and put it into the refrigerator.

Perceptions are such mind blocks.

I keep telling my team members about avoiding mind blocks and today I was myself in a mind block that watermelons are supposed to be red

Imagine I would have wasted such a sweet honey flavoured watermelon just because of my mind block

This same situation also happens, when it is hard earned money for service class people. Only because people say Bank fixed deposits are safe people don’t want to invest in anything else. They do not realise the risks that they take in the long-term with the bank deposits

So till next time look -for red colour muskmelons and blue colour grapes – you don’t know what life offers – but enjoy everything with an open mind

Carpe diem!

PS: If you have eaten a yellow watermelon do let me know….will like to know if I am the only person who thinks water melons can only be red.