Month: February 2012

“Sometimes you just can’t get what you want, but you always get what you strategize for” this came to my mind during class where we discussed positioning and strategy. Positioning is an idea to “stand-out” in the eyes of customer. However, sometimes one wrong step can ruin the reputation a company builds with millions of dollars.

Vs

Standard Chartered—winner of Bank of the Year Awards, Global Band Awards, Best Bank Awards and the list goes on and on. How did Standard Chartered manage it? The answer lies in Standard Chartered’s strategy. They positioned themselves as the bank for everyone (corporate clients to minimal income saver) and designed their marketing strategy that lives up to this positioning through flexible services offered based on specific customer needs. In one sentence Standard Chartered “fits everyone”.

Now on a different scale: RIM.

David Hyunh in his blog-post “RIM still thinks Marketing is Advertising” mentioned that RIM’s marketing strategy to reposition them has backfired (evident from the reactions of customers and RIM stakeholders). I completely agree with the idea that the whole repositioning idea for RIM blackberry from a “corporate-preference” to “social device for everyone” worked against its image. Comparing RIM’s marketing strategy with Standard Chartered’s strategy makes it evident that the consistency and meeting the bang-on target market requirements is required for any company’s success.

However, RIM needs to follow the footsteps of Standard Chartered by being steady in its marketing strategy, redefining the target-market needs and building the product based on the need. I believe, RIM needs to stop fighting back with its own image and must focus on sustaining it strengths by building on the strengths and NOT play around the image.

Have you ever wondered why did you buy a particular product? What made you choose that specific product among countless alternatives? Psycho tactics have been used on consumers for more than 5000 years and, today, it’s proving to be one of the key success streams for large corporations, such as Apple. Even the colors used in marketing materials signifies something:

Red: excitement, strength, sex, passion

Green: nature, fresh, cool, growth

Gold: prestige, expensive

White: pure, virginal, clean, youthful…and so on

Products not only come with its own features but also with a tag line: American Express (Don’t Leave Home Without This). Others include Apples 1998 slogan: Blow minds, not budget. It shows that the product is for everyone, which is likely to be under the budget. It not only boosted sales but prompted customers to opt for the product: both psychologically and instinctively. It makes consumers relate themselves with the product as if it’s a replica of oneself. So why do we decide to buy such products? For most of us, to follow the social norm and for most of us, a means of representing ourselves. In this battle of need and want, large corporations extract a large chunk of our disposable income for a product, which we may not actually need.

Concluding the overall context, I would suggest that consumers must think twice before making a purchase and decide whether it’s a need or a want.

Sources:

http://www.psychotactics.com/

http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2008/06/color-psycholog.html