Marque, The Marketing Club - March Edition by Marketing Club

FROM THE EDITOR I am glad that the marketing club got the opportunity to use its monthly magazine as a platform for all the young marketing enthusiasts who are curious to let out their views on various topics. It gives me immense pleasure to write this message as Editor of this unique edition of the magazine. The theme of January's edition revolves around experiential marketing and the usage of artificial intelligence in marketing. The theme gives a sneak peek into the marketing practices of the new age. This edition has a lot under its umbrella, from bringing forward automation, psychology, and a blend of digital and physical experiences while drawing hidden inferences of marketing. I extend my warmest gratitude to all the authors for their interest, enthusiasm, and well-documented submissions of excellent articles and participation in this magazine’s building. I firmly believe that no matter how your magazine is delivered; either at your doorstep or to your computer, printed on glossy stock or on cheap tabloid paper, appearing on your iPad or your cell phone screen, it is still the work of an editorial team for a discerning audience, a beautiful and meaningful (we hope) package of ideas, words and images put together by a group of experts for its readers. While technology efficiently delivers new stories to our desktops, laptops, and mobile devices, magazines are all about context – how ideas and images are presented in relation to one another and spanning a broader perspective. We, the editors, will always strive to keep you engaged.

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CONTENTS 01 How Omni-channel marketing is helping retailers expand?

05 The Gambit of Customer quisition and Retention: 09 at Should Marketing Focus ADVERTISING IN TODAYS On? WORLD: A GAME OF FATE 11 Buzzfeed

15 Planting Seeds with Stories

17 Marquing The Moments

How Omni-channel marketing is helping retailers expand? Author: Sameer Shaikh S.P. Mandali’s Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research (WeSchool), Bengaluru

The more technological aadvancements happen, the more they get integrated into our daily lives. The lines between what we do in real life and online have begun to blur. As customers change their behaviours, marketers, sales professionals, and customer support reps will need to react. Instead of thinking of a mobile experience, a desktop experience, and an Apple Watch experience, they’ll need to follow ONE, holistic approach — an omni-channel experience that can be used by customers whenever they want. In this article, we’ll go over what omni-channel means and how retail is using omni-channel experiences to make profitable marketing, sales, and service strategies. What is Omni-channel? Omni-channel is a lead nurturing and user engagement tactic that helps a company to give access of their products, offers, and support services to customers or prospects on all channels, devices and platforms. Example: Instead of just offering support on its desktop website, a company would offer support through phone, Facebook messenger, live chat, and email. What is Omni-channel Experience? The omni-channel experience is all about marketing, selling, and serving customers or prospects on all channels to deliver an integrated and unified customer experience no matter where or how a customer reaches out.

Let me exemplify: A customer can be shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, or by call, or in a bricks and mortar store and the experience should be equally integrated & seamless. Omni-channel Retail Omni-channel retail refers to the approach of placing your products and services up for sale on all channels and platforms to increase reach, reduce friction, and boost sales. An omni-channel retail experience will consist of app-based options, brick-and-mortar stores and online platforms. To exemplify, a clothing brand might sell its products in its brick-and-mortar stores, as well as on website, app, Instagram’s “Shopping” tab, and Amazon. Omni-channel retail can be mainly seen in retail-based business-to-consumer (B2C) industries such as clothing, consumer goods, food & beverage, and others. Business-to-business (B2B) brands can put on an omni-channel retail environment by letting prospects to ask for quotes, request demos or schedule consultations across various channels and platforms.

on-the-spot, precise, and updated product information. The iPad also works as a cash register, making it easy for associates to call you up from anywhere in the store. And the cherry on top? If it seems that product is out of stock, the staff can promptly place an online order for you to have the item shipped directly to your home. Plus, shoppers can download Oasis’ app to supplement its in-store shopping experiences, too. If that’s not customer service, I don’t know what is.

For example, a brand could create an application that allows prospects to tour its product on their phone, it could also add a “Request Consultation” button on its Facebook profile, and further, it could use Facebook Messenger to provide quick quotes. Whether in a B2B or B2C industry, omni-channel retail is most influential when paired with an omni-channel marketing strategy. Companies use an omni-channel marketing method to align their goals, messaging, and objectives across each channel and device. Omni-channel marketing 2. Starbucks can be a treasure for brands that are looking to deliver a better customer experience. If you have a quick look at the Starbucks rewards Omni-channel Marketing Campaign? app, you’ll understand why many consider it one of the top omni-channel experiences out there in the An omni-channel marketing strategy includes conmarket. sistent messaging, positioning statements and visuals across all channels, devices and platforms. It deFirstly, you receive a free rewards card which can be livers a unified brand experience for customers by used whenever you’re purchasing. However, unlike ensuring that your brand is presented in exactly the traditional customer loyalty programs, the brand has same way everywhere. made it possible to check and reload your card via app, in-store, phone, or website. Any changes to the Remember, that omni-channel marketing campaigns card or your profile get updated across all channels, positively affect your sales and service departments, in real-time. too. Why? By showing customers that you’re on all of the channels they’re present on, they’ll know to Imagine, standing in line to get a coffee and realizing expect a similar experience for their shopping and customer service experiences. Omni-channel Marketing by Retailers Examples 1. Oasis Oasis is a U.K. fashion retailer that’s combining its brick-and-mortar stores, ecommerce site, mobile app, and into a simple shopping experience. If you walk into its stores, you’ll find sales associates equipped with iPads that are available to provide you

3. Orvis

they walk into a store and provide more insights to their marketing team who are looking to deliver more effective promotions.

Orvis, a sporting goods retailer, has won many awards for its omni-channel strategy. How, you might ask? Orvis understands its target market and knows the 4. Sephora most effective ways to communicate with them. Sephora, a beauty giant, delivers an omni-channel exIt used first-party data to discover that its target mar- perience that connects its shoppers’ online purchasket consisted primarily of affluent customers who es to their in-store visits. In addition to services like were age 50+. The company understood that this de- beauty workshops and complimentary makeovers, mographic hasn’t fully adopted technology yet, how- customers can use in-store tablets to access their ever, they have shown a genuine interest in using “Beauty Bag” account. modern tools. This account allows them to look up product details So, Orvis gave their employees tablets that had CRM and virtually try out products using digital software. If and ecommerce tools pre-installed. These tools can customer like a product, they can add it to a wish list order out-of-stock offerings to the store as well as and purchase the entire list using the app. charge customers for both in-store and online purchases. If customers need assistance with a product, Sephora recognizes that its shoppers have a wide vathey can find an associate and use their tablet to learn riety of products to choose from when they walk into more about an offer. its stores. By integrating its Beauty Bag feature with

While this not only improves experience, its market- its in-store communication channel, Sephora is helping team also benefits from the information they gath- ing customers narrow their options and keep track of er from customers. The CRM tools record customer products that they want to purchase. information (shopping habits, purchase history, etc) so that employees can recognize loyal customers when

As a marketer, I don’t think we’re that far away from a world where omni-channel is accessible to brands of all sizes. Technology has come a long way over the last decade, and there’s no doubt that future advancements will make it possible for even the smallest of companies to engage customers directly — no matter where they are, what they’re doing, or what device they’re using.

The Gambit of Customer Acquisition and Retention: What Should Marketing Focus On? Author: Maanya Oberoi SCMS Pune One is often left at the precipice of many binary choices in life. From a marketer’s point of view, one of these conundrums constitutes whether to focus on customer retention or driving penetration through customer acquisition.

can generate up to a 125% increase in profits. This implies that an acquisition-based growth strategy cannot yield results unless it is complemented with adequate customer retention as it would lead to an increase in the churn rate or the percentage of consumers who discontinue to provide you with their In the purview of marketing, both customer acquisi- patronage within a given period, and the marketer tion and retention are critical drivers of growth and would end up spending a fortune on acquiring cusact as the two wings of a bird, wherein without either, tomers who don’t yield repeated sales; which in turn the flight is impossible. However, the bird may glide erodes profitability. and swerve per its volition to maintain its height and navigate different circumstances. Much akin to the Facilitating Market Penetration Through Customer bird, a marketer needs to acquire and then retain Acquisition: customers for her business to take and hold its flight as both contribute differently, albeit significantly, to As explicated in the Ansoff Matrix, driving penetrathe bottom line of the company: On one hand, cus- tion is a process to build a systematic and sustainable tomer acquisition or penetration leads to a more acquisition strategy that can develop agility with new extensive customer base and on the other, customer externalities and trends that culminates with sales retention adds to a customer’s lifetime value (CLV). conversion and hence a more significant share out of the serviceable addressable market (SAM). ThereAccording to Bain and Co., the cost of attracting new fore, customer acquisition is vital for any business at customers is seven times greater than the cost of re- all stages of its life cycle. We usually still see a lot of taining existing customers. Furthermore, research focus acuminating solely towards driving penetraindicates that a 5% increase in customer retention tion. Several factors contribute to this trend; howev-

-er, two of the biggest motivators are:

Brands like Apple employ intensive strategies to maintain or increase their market share by servicing their customers with a wider range of products and achieving more sales by adding more authorised sellers to their current markets, thereby increasing penetration in all market segments through expanded influence and scaling. Enabling Customer Retention Pareto’s principles direct that 80% of the revenue is created by 20% of its current customers.

1. Customer acquisition leads to a boost in vanity metrics. Businesses can isolate such statistics and one-off sales as markers for success. However, these metrics don’t provide actionable insights into future strategy or revenue. Furthermore, it indicates traction for outside parties that increases the brand’s equity. 2. The results of customer acquisition campaigns get evident faster, whereas customer retention is a long-term process, with results that may take years to come to fruition. In contrast, effectively driving penetration offers quick and easy measurements of success. For instance, the number of new customers, and consequently, revenue generation are simple matrices that can be seen and quantified immediately. Alternatively, many companies renew focus on driving penetration as the marketing equivalent of “Instant gratification.”

Simply put, customer retention refers to a company’s ability to retain its customers over time. Business models that don’t thrive on subscriptions or repeat transactions may be better served by focusing on acquisition initiatives. However, for instance, SaaS companies should prioritise retention, as research The process of customer acquisition can be visual- by ProfitWell indicates that the average churn rate ised with the help of the customer journey funnel, for SaaS companies is about 4.8%. Additionally, as which highlights the stages of a buying process: previously mentioned, customer retention yields a higher ROI on marketing spend, adding to the credibility of taking this route in instances that operate under constrained budgets or long-term target growth. Moreover, the trends of CLV dictate that the value added by a customer increases over time when supplemented with a robust retention strategy that encourages them to engage in repeated transactions! Furthermore, retaining clients can reinforce the sustainability and stability of a company, for recurring revenue allows for a more precise allotment of resources and forecasting, leading to more efficient planning. Relationship marketing improves the customer experience and allows for dynamic product improvements led by customer feedback and con-

-sistent interactions via two-way communication 2. Freemium and Inside-Driven Sales and customer relationship management (CRM) sys- Many leading brands like Grammarly, Spotify, and tems. DropBox aim to facilitate the endowment effect by letting potential customers use a sample of their The Best of Both Worlds: Customer Retention as an product or service for free and getting them interAcquisition Strategy ested in their offering. An inside-sales-driven model thus enables companies to achieve the dual-fold Thinking of customer retention as an acquisition objective of converting and increasing the value of strategy can enable the attainment of the dual ob- potential leads who’re motivated to avail an upgrade jective. In an ideal scenario, non-abidance to binary after having first-hand experience of your product. choices and laying due emphasis on both goals tran- In a competitive environment, it is necessary to prospires in synergistic, symbiotic, and mutually rein- vide more value to loyal customers and raise their forcing growth outlets. value by upselling them with premium products, cross-selling them with similar items, or expanding Some strategies thus enable marketers to reach new deliverables. customers whilst retaining existing ones! 1. Leveraging Referral Marketing

3. Personalised Outreach

Referrals create a ripple effect that turns satisfied customers into persuasive advocates. Studies postulate that 92% of global consumers trust the referral of an acquaintance over any form of corporate advertising. Growing a company’s customer base through the networks of its existing customers by providing incentives not only ensures repeated sales via the current customers but referred leads convert 30% better and have a 16% higher lifetime value than leads acquired via other channels. Consecutively, word-of-mouth impressions drive around five times more sales than paid impressions. This increases market penetration by manifolds and results in a vicious cycle in which customers acquired through referrals spend twice more and make twice as many referrals themselves. In effect, the retentive efforts feed into customer acquisition.

Consumers react better to relevant content. In the contemporary landscape of predictive analytics and big data, which provide in-depth customer insights, personalisation is the key to driving penetration and retention. Personalising outreach initiatives like ad, email, and social media campaigns directed toward both existing and potential customers is necessary to invigorate and engage them. Conclusion Customer retention and acquisition have their merits and warrant particular emphasis according to the company’s unique goals, needs, and circumstances. Acquisition generates a foundation of customers, while retention creates customer-centric relationships and maximises revenue derived from each one, resulting in long-term sustainability. Marketers must ultimately acquire a steady stream of new customers without losing or via existing ones by leveraging retention strategies that supplement efforts of driving penetration through customer acquisition.

ADVERTISING IN TODAYS WORLD: A GAME OF FATE Author: Jayasankar S TAPMI, Manipal Today, we are at a point where customers have all the power. It is now up to customers to decide how they want to be served ads and other marketing materials. Today’s marketing sector is entirely reliant on the customer, with a strong emphasis on quality over quantity. Marketing to such a demanding crowd has become difficult and requires you to stand out from the competition. This is because our Twitter feeds and Facebook homepages are bombarded with what appears to be an endless parade of promotions, marketing content, and other noise. Pitching to folks in person is simple, but in the age of a digital outreach, communicating a company’s branding has grown more complicated. Another key consequence of this increased consumer power is that practically all sales opportunities are now fragmented. The market now typically consists of a number of sub - markets, with its own set of characteristics and requirements for sales. Developing a marketing approach geared at the “typical customer” is a huge mistake for most businesses. Today, a firm that is not aware of its consumers’ demands and the shifting complexities of markets is setting itself up for failure. So, we can say that it is actually a ‘Game of Fate’, but with a twist. Here, you have the power to decide your fate.

value that your company can deliver, the needs that you will be able to meet and to channel in what sets you apart from the competition. It helps in setting the tone of your brand by displaying a little personality. So, how did some of the best brands fail? One simple argument is that advertisers just forget who they’re promoting to. Making unique campaigns is a crucial part of the process, but designing to impress the crowd should never come at the expense of losing your customers. Some organisations simply do not have reasonable campaign goals or have misjudged the timing of their initiatives. A campaign can, indeed, fail due to sheer bad luck. If your campaigns don’t have the goal of elevating your brand and attracting customers, they’re bound to fail.

Next is the moment of truth; lets call this ‘The Toss’. A “message” to the world can sometimes be like a coin, or more like a coin toss. Heads, which is the message that is intended to be conveyed; and Tails: the message that is perceived by the receiver but has strayed away from the original meaning. Your best bet is that the coin always lands on Heads and here, the only difference from a coin toss is that your bet is not based on probability, rather, it’s based on sensibility. Let’s take the example of two failed campaigns in India. Tanishq Jewellery crafted a beautiful ad that tried promoting unity with a Hindu and Muslim wedding and back fired as love-jihad, Zomato’s “Har Customer Let me explain, have you noticed how nature al- Hai Star’ portrayed every customer to be equally imways sides with the hidden flaw; humans tend to portant and back fired as abuse of delivery executives. do it too. What you thought was a brilliant concept has the possibility to go terribly wrong in Here, sensibility failed and the common denomways you can’t imagine. The end result, wheth- inator of these campaigns is that all four of them er it’s how it’s done or how it’s perceived, can landed tails in this toss. Simply put, the “Heads” on be a complicated mess that harms your brand. these campaigns are Unity, Diversity, Peace, UnderMarketing efforts are designed to convey the standing, Oneness, Pride, Dignity, and Equality.

The coin landed “Tails” that irked the people and caused widespread uproar and blamed the brands on trivializing social issues, accused them of racism, abuse, love jihad, division, sexism and more.

search. Organizations that skip this crucial stage risk delivering content that isn’t relevant to their target audience’s interests. This essentially means that even if all the other elements in their plan are flawless, they will still struggle to attract new clients. It is important to take considerable time developing marketing personas for separate areas of your intended audience to prevent this. Consider not only your potential consumers’ demographics, but also their requirements, values, and interests. This will help your marketing team relate to them better in all elements of your campaigns.

But who is to be blamed? The marketing teams? the CEO? The viewers? The trollers? The social media warriors? When nature speaks, it’s difficult to hold one person responsible, but an organisation should always pause for a moment when disaster strikes. Unfortunately, both the advertisements are tone-deaf. It failed to capture the pulse of their audience and unintentionally With a good understanding of your crowd, brands stirred their emotions. Now, all you’ll ever have also need to be well aware of what they are working is a finger without a ring and an order unplaced. towards. When everyone on your team understands precisely what they need to be doing, they’re more So, how do we understand the gameplan and likely to follow through. Having clear, long-term avoid such disasters? It can start with learning goals in sight can also make your team appreciate the from mistakes, not just yours, but others too. value of minor activities throughout the day. The key Analysing a failure can teach you a lot of things. to effective goal-setting is to ensure that they’re both Marketers frequently lose sight of the objective clear and attainable. This may seem excessive if you’re and focus on being “original” or “unique” rather not used to establishing hyper-specific goals. Howthan addressing their target audience, which ac- ever, this degree of precision is required for success. counts for a lot of disasters which can be incred- Finally, be it jokes, debates, or pop culture referibly costly. It is important to have a lot of eyes to ences, always think about the implications of your

message. Make sure you know what your reference is talking about. If you are talking about a sensi tive topic, you have to be extra careful because you risk causing a backlash that will harm your brand and its reputation. Common sense will see straight through your tactics to figure out what you’re really chasing. Therefore, a campaign to be successful You need to know who you’re marketing to before requires a lot of creative manpower working with you can design a successful marketing strategy. a lot of research. The bottom line, know your auThis means that one of the first elements in your dience, know your goal, and know your message. strategic planning process should be market re scan for these hidden flaws and to help in looking at them from all possible angles. It’s easy to point fingers and pass judgement on people who have made mistakes in the past, but it’s important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for a successful marketing campaign.

#BUZZFEED #BUZZFEED

Operations suspended in Russia Zomato offers Rs. 25 lakh for consumer created ad

Airbnb Inc and Booking Holdings Inc are the latest prominent global corporations to halt operations in Russia as Western sanctions pile up against Moscow for invading Ukraine.

Microsoft has halted new product and service sales in Russia, the computer beheZomato is proofon thatMarch they can4th, turnthe criticism a super innovative conmoth stated latestinto repercussions from marketing Moscow’s campaign. invasion After of Ukraine. sumers. After consumers expressed their growing boredom with Zomato’s monotonous YouTube Business softwaew giant Oracle has also suspended all its operations in Russia andafTV some users took toofsocial media to criticize Zomato’s chicken ad. However, ter ads, Ukraine’s minister digital transformation tweetedbutter at the company asking Zoamto for support. seems to have played its cards well by coming up with a smart idea to help it come up with fun campaigns whileIKEA engaging with their in customers. Nike and closed outlets Russia as trade restrictions and supply constraints contributed to political pressure for firms to discontinue doing business in Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine. The firm went all out, proclaiming that the ads do suck. So now, it has opened the floor for creative ideas fromhas customers. was any commendable was that, apart from the novel they also sharedAcNetflix allegedlyWhat placed future projects and acquisitions fromidea, Russia on hold. the feeling with their customers that made them win many hearts. cording to Variety, the streaming service had four Russian originals in the works, including a criminal thriller series helmed by Dasha Zhuk that was filming but has since been canceled.

#BUZZFEED

Amazon: Bookstores to be closed Amazon has confirmed that it would close all of its bookshops, as well as its 4-star shops and pop-up locations, as the online retailer restructures its physical footprint. The Seattle-based business announced on Wednesday 2nd March, that the decision, which affects 66 locations in the United States and two in the United Kingdom, will allow it to focus its efforts on Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, its Amazon Go convenience concept, and its planned Amazon Style stores. Amazon Style, which will retail apparel and accessories, is planned to launch later this year in a Southern California mall. According to the firm, the shop closures would also allow it to focus on growing its physical retail technologies. Amazon established its first physical bookshop in 2015, nearly two decades after it began selling books online and drove a number of stores out of business. Amazon’s 4-star stores, which debuted in 2018, feature a limited selection of best-selling goods from top Amazon.com categories such as gadgets, consumer electronics, toys, and games. The move comes as Amazon.com Inc.’s overall revenue growth slows, and the company is seeking for new methods to boost sales.

#BUZZFEED

Planting Seeds with Stories Author: Saira Martha Philip T. A. Pai Management Institute Story telling has remained as one of the oldest yet powerful communication tools available since the origin of mankind. Every human goes through a tunnel of experiences during their lifetime. Stories are meant to keep these experiences alive and exciting, at par to the original experience. The various backgrounds of people, cultures they are exposed to, religions that they follow, everything, plays the role of an invisible hand in these stories. Story telling is an effective way to bring a sense of unity within the community. Every time you share a story which is close to your heart, you are letting the other person step into your shoes to take the journey to your wonderland. This leaves us with a reality check, how many brands out their use storytelling to bond with their customers? How long would it take before brands realise the true magic of this method?

The Power of Narrative. A game of Feelings. Story telling in Marketing hits the nail right on human emotion and aids in building a strong connection with the brand. It is important that a viewer is able to relate to the story in the ad till the end. If brands are able to do this, they are in a way succeeding to generate a positive association in the mind of the viewers. Be it the structural elements in the narratives, the role played by the main character in the story, how the plot revolves, actions of the character, all these tiny elements play a big role in gluing the viewers to the seat and creating a deep connection with them. This connection promotes vicarious learning through the main character’s feelings, thoughts and beliefs. The increasing popularity of such storytelling advertisements has also sparked a lot of interest in the field of narrative persuasion research.

If we observe the content that was included in TV commercials and other advertisements between the period of 1990 to 2010, we can notice that it was extremely product oriented. Commercials revolved around a person appearing on the screen just to proclaim that “Product X is the best product available in the market for curing body pain, buy it.” In an attempt to directly convey the features and benefits of products brands essentially forgot the main trump card. This was to generate content which customers could associate to. Content that would speak to the customers beyond the 15 seconds of the advertisement. Content that would leave behind a footprint in the sands of positive association with the brands. A paradigm shift was observed post the year 2010, which paved way to brands using commercials to tell stories. In storytelling, though your product plays a subtle role, it has been proven to be persuasive enough.

An engaging story should essentially comprise of five main elements: •Hook •Character Transformation •Connection with audience •Authenticity •Structure Hook The hook resonates to the story’s core theme. It is more like the word bait with a positive association. In other words, what is it that will pull people in and urge them to watch what is about to happen? To immediately grab the audiences’ attention, hook should be something unusual or unexpected. Character Transformation After capturing the attention of the audience, it is important to pave the way that helps to embark them on a journey. Stories have the power to transform people. As a result, it's critical to consider the following questions

during this stage: What is the message we hope sharing stories as a hospitality company that encourages the to express, and how will this advertisement af- guests to travel through the eyes of the local. In 2016, Airbnb fect a change in the consumer? launched the feature of “Experiences” on their app. The main purpose of this new feature was to focus on authenticity, and Connection with the audience travel experiences through the eyes of a local. Airbnb has It is essential to know your audience to be able published the tales of their guests and hosts on a regular bato craft the best content tailor made to capture sis on blog, social media, YouTube, and their own Airbnb their interest. Audience can only feel a connec- magazine. I am reminded of an interesting commercial by tion if the story is something that they can relate Budweiser which came out in 2014, promoting responsible to. A strong comprehension of factors such as drinking in a simple yet strong way. The commercial, titled the audience values and motivators are critical "Friends are Waiting," featured a man named Luke and his for building the connection. gorgeous yellow Labrador. The one-minute video tells a very emotional story, with a strong emphasis on developing the Authenticity pet's relationship with Luke. The ad promoted safe drinking Consumers are often leery of being advertised not for the sake of the drinker, but for the sake of those who to, thus it's critical to communicate something may be waiting for them when they arrive home. As a result, that stems from a kernel of truth, based on long- the audience empathises with the pet, Luke, as well as their term insight, rather than something that feels own friends and family, spreading the message far and wide. contrived. This is just one example that showcases the beauty and power of advertising through storytelling. Rather than directly Structure focusing on the message of “do not drink and drive”, BudFinally, the manner in which the story is con- weiser took efforts to build a connection with the audience. veyed is crucial for its success. Simply put, struc- They wanted every viewer to understand the feeling of the tures in narrative that include a set-up, conflict, pet dog. A feeling which each viewer might have felt at some and pay-off are seen to be the most effective. point in their life. Successful Story Telling Which each passing day, the power of story telling in marAn understanding of how some brands out there keting and advertising just keeps growing. This is mainly have been doing exceptionally well in building because the impact it creates on customers could be eterthe connection will help the budding marketers nal. As humans we are primed to remember stories. Looking in us to think from a different perspective. One back at our childhood we can picture ourselves listening to such brand is Airbnb. the stories that parents shared with us patiently. These stories still seem special to us, and it lies treasured in a corner of our heart. Marketers should focus on storytelling around important messages and calls to action. This will enable you to build memories that insight action in your customers. Another perk of adopting story telling is that it helps in building relationships. Relationships are like gold in the world of marketing. People who connect with your brand are more likely to not only buy from you again, but also to tell a friend Airbnb has been proving that sometimes, the or two about it! Having a clear map of each of your consumer best brand stories don’t come from brands at all. groups is key to finding stories that your ideal customer can Instead, it come from a passionate community relate to. Story telling is a natural motivator and also makes who support the brand. Airbnb has been build- the content more exciting. Stories tap right to the emotions ing its global brand by relaying stories from the and motivations of the target group. Stories are an easy, natucommunity. In 2013, Airbnb decided that they ral approach to create engaging content that encourages your needed to change their brand story and came up audience to take action. Well, I believe it is quite clear to now with a new mantra: belong anywhere. They want- understand why story telling has become the buzzword over ed to change the perception that Airbnb was all the past decade. As quoted by Seth Godin, “marketing is no about renting houses to a place where you feel longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories home, a place where you belong. Airbnb started you tell.”

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Marque - The Marketing club, IIM Rohtak

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MARQUE - THE MARKETING CLUB INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT ROHTAK

marketingclub@iimrohtak.ac.in

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