Paul Writer Leaderatti Club - Power Breakfast - 22 June, 2012

Paul Writer concluded a successful first event for our exclusive club - Leaderatti which had over 25 marketing and business leaders participating in New Delhi on 22 June, 2012 at the Olive Kitchen & Bar. 

A lively discussion on the subject of Marketing to Generation C: The Connected Customer led by Suparna Menon - Practice Lead, Customer Experience & Market Strategy, IBM GBS. Then an equally engaging chat on C-Tips for the next generation of CEOs and Strategists with Llyod Mathias - Founder of GreenBean Ventures, followed by a sumptuous breakfast made for a good way to wind down after a busy week for our guests.

Present at the event were business and marketing leaders from Tupperware, Dr Lal Pathlabs, NIIT-Tech, SAP, Motorola, Cleartrip, Oriflame, Religare and many more.

Updates and pictures here...

Why Lust Sells? And When?

Put a baby or a babe in the ad and it will sell better.

This has long been propounded as a universal truth in the ad world.  And with varying degrees of relevance you'll see this in ads across every category. From women plonked into ads for rather staid T-shirts and family cars to babies selling Evian water. 

And then there's the whole 'booth babe' phenomenon. What's the relevance of having scantily clad women promoting some totally geeky tech product at shows like CeBit? Though for some it seems to be their life's work to collect the photos. 

Deodorant ads by Wild Stone and Axe were considered so steamy that the government intervened to get them off air 

And this is not a new phenomenon.

Read on for more on the subject...

How to Identify and Engage your Brand Influencers

There has been a lot of discussion around social media influence lately:

• Why are social media influencers critical to a brand strategy?
• How do you identify the right influencers?
• Why is it important to maintain engagement with these influencers so they support your brand?

While there is not a one-size-fits-all strategy for identifying and engaging with social media influencers, analyzing the dynamics of a high school class can actually provide insight into the makeup of the players in the vast social media space. 

Recruitment as the Window into the Organization Culture

As a marketing professional, I know that branding is important for recruitment success.  In my current firm, I have strived to build a strong employer brand image through various measures and campaigns. These included among other things, preparing an employer value proposition, developing a communication program, mobilizing employees internally and externally and being featured in many "best employer" surveys.

However during the interview process that I went through, I realized that to attract a person, many of the above things that typically companies focused on were less significant. While the recruitment teams generally focus on selling the organization and the exciting future that is in store once someone has joined the organization, the candidate is evaluating the organization based on the experience she is going through.  And often, very little attention is paid to the journey of the potential candidate before she joins the organisation.  All the great things that are waiting are just a dream, they are an abstraction. What one experiences through the recruitment process is real.  Hence the personal experience of the organization through the course of the recruitment process, in my opinion, has the greatest say in the decision making. 

Read the blog here...

5 Recommendations for Improving the Impact of Social Media on Your Solutions Business

Social communities are changing how we have traditionally created and supported our brands in the minds of consumers.   Started by the internet and accelerated by the smart phone, the ever present location based and persistent connection to the internet makes today's B2B consumer no longer a solitary target.  Rather, consumers are connected and empowered with mobile devices, information from the internet, and two-way communications with their peers and it's changing forever how we market our brands and solutions.   

Studies have suggested that over seventy percent of a B2B consumers purchase process is completed before a sales person or company is ever contacted.   Regardless of the exact percentage, its clear B2B consumers are forming opinions and assessments as they research their business problems, examine potential solutions and consider recommendations from their peers.   By the time they engage with your company solutions directly they most likely have  formed opinions about the solutions they think will work even if those opinions are misguided.  The result is your sales team has an even bigger job in solutions selling:  while dealing with value and pricing issues, they need to reshape the buyer's view of the solution.

Read some great tips here...

How Your Company can Assess Customer Experience Intuitively

Providing a great customer experience is not a well-kept secret that only companies like Amazon can access. In fact, the best customer service I get today is at my local hardware store.

Let me describe my experience here. Every weekend I find in my email inbox, an updated online catalogue of new products, mailed to me by my hardware store. When I drop by at the store, the single clerk at the register is non-intrusive but attentive to answer any questions. Aisles are labeled correctly and goods organized according to categories with little scope for confusion - customers can pick up what they need, independent of a sales person.

Features of every product are described on charts along with the pricing. A Wi-Fi enabled computer kiosk in the store helps shoppers who want to look up reviews of any product online. And that's not all, if I have to wait in the billing queue for more than 5 minutes, I am offered a discount on my next purchase - and complementary home delivery. And post my purchase, I can call the store for free help any time.

To me, the management of this store knows exactly what their customers want at every stage. Week after week, I leave the store with a smile on my face and the store has earned itself the loyalty of a customer who remembers it above competition.

Why has this small corner store gone through so much end-user value addition focused on keeping a customer happy? Because they know something that organizations across the world are beginning to understand: the value of retaining customers through good customer service.

Read on for the complete article...

Job Listings on Paulwriter.com 

Watch this space for new job listings on Paulwriter.com every week for mid to senior level marketers. Or post a job here...  

VP Sales & Marketing - Pepper Square - Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Job profile is to develop new business & market opportunities. Conduct market research to identify opportunities for existing as well as future service lines and implement sales and marketing plans. Manage, monitor and report on all sales and marketing activities and outcome. Manage the Sales and marketing team

Target markets are India, USA, UK and the middle east. 5-7 yrs experience in sales and business development from the services industry preferably Digital media industry

The Bhartiya Group is diversified with a global footprint in fashion, design and real-estate.Reporting to the Group CEO you will program manage the marketing activities for the Bhartiya Group ( 

http://www.bhartiya.com/). This includes controlling the marketing budget, managing the external communications of the senior executives, and ensuring that the multiple creative partners executing the marketing program adhere to predetermined timelines, guidelines, and deliverables.  

Paul Writer is advising the Bhartiya Group on marketing and is assisting with the search process in this capacity. 

Owner for all technology activities (People, research, strategy, ideation, development, quality, implementation) Resourcing, mentoring and training

Project management. Improving performance by implementing measurements and standards. Monitoring and Assessing performance. Client communication: Regular liaison with the clients, Partner communication, Creating new service line & practices. Set up Center of Excellence for technological services

Software Developer - Gaglers - Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Gaglers powers the messaging backend for online marketplaces. We connect the sellers and buyers in marketplaces via chat and email. Sellers in the marketplace can interact with anyone looking at their product, right from their cellphone.

You'll report directly to the Founder. You'll also be working with the web user interface designer and developer to implement new features of the product. You'll be working out of Bangalore, India

Apply Now...