There are some products and services
in the world which have been marketed so awesomely that they have become cults!
Harley Davidson, Nike, Mountain Dew, Enfield and McDonalds to name a few. Honda
is also one such name. I fell in love with Honda long ago after watching its
“Impossible Dream” commercial. That’s just it! One commercial! Isn’t that just
like love at first sight? I knew nothing much about Honda at that time, still
that one commercial made Honda my favorite automobiles company. After that
started finding more about Honda just like lovers slowly discover about each
other, the goods and also the bads. I grew in love and discovered more and more
about it. This is a one sided love but I hope one day I will work in Honda
before I die
So, I was motivated to write and
elaborate about this experience in a Marketing Management perspective and give
a different approach to it. I have just started reading Marketing as a subject
so I cannot say I am good at it, but I strongly believe one is born to be a
marketer or not to be one. I pray I am the former kind J
According to me Marketing is about love. It is about falling in love with the
product or service you are selling. If you love your product you would surely
market it better than anybody else. If I am given to market a Honda I would
surely give my better than the best effort. I would surely try more than
anybody else! Yes marketing is also about skills and technical knowledge and that
is necessary for success.
But Success comes only after efforts
have been put, at first efforts matter. the most If I love my product blindly I
would defend it against anyone! Even if I know the competitors are better, the
blind love would keep the fire inside me burning to fight for my product! Just
like Love!
Just like one knows all (or most
) about the one he/she loves, a marketer should know all about the product. The
lovers know all the good and all the bad about each other but highlight only
the good and hide the bad. A marketer who has fallen in love with the product
would also do the same, highlight the good and hide the bad. Again, lovers
don’t hide those bad things which would be harmful for the other and they speak
about it and try to change for good. In the same way a marketer who has fallen
in love with the product knows about the shortcomings of the product, keeps
working for its improvement. If it is harmful for the society then he speaks
out.
Isn’t it obvious that a marketer
will always love his product! Well, I feel it’s not as obvious as people think.
It’s easy to fall in love with the cult of Harley or the Attitude in Pepsi or
the culture in HUL, but it’s very wrong to extrapolate this to all the products
and companies. How would a marketer find it easy to fall in love with a newbie
company manufacturing only soaps, or a Facebook app making small IT firm? I
believe it would only come with time, the more the marketer reads and finds out
about the company, the more he knows about the product and the people and the
culture the more he starts developing affinity towards them. If a person
changes job frequently he might love his job but not his product or company!
Why
is it necessary to love? Well, It doesn’t has to be just any love, It has to be
Unconditional Love! Marketing and Sales is about hard work, dedication, blood,
sweat and tears. Yes Blood, Sweat and Tears are used not just to add to the
effect. In reality I know marketers who have been through really tough
situations, they hung on to their products just like unconditional love! Came
out as winners soon! We read famous cases about people turning around the
fortunes of companies; taking a falling product and restoring it back to its
rightful place. It is because they believed in the product.
All this is also important because
this love should also transcend to the customer. Only if you love the
product/company you would be able to make the customers fall in love with it.
Believing in the product is
something which comes from heart. It is about intuition or something or some
kind of trust. No reason involved. That’s unconditional love! Soichiro Honda
said that none of his products will use the tagline “Power of Dreams”
specifically for them. His products will sell because of their quality. Not
using such a beautiful tagline is a intuitive decision! That is because he
believed in his product and company.
We need driving forces. When the
path is tough to tread we draw strength from that “something”. Love is one such
“something”. If one loves the product one markets it’s a driving force to see
that product at the top. To see that product become the best and is accepted
and liked by all is also a joy in itself. I am not preaching to stick to a
product and add to the escalation of commitment but only to bear in mind that
sometimes it is the "gut feeling" or "feeling from the
heart" too which brings better results.
Marketing is about many things. It
is awesomely diverse and so versatile that innovation in it just cannot seem to
reach a saturation point. It will keep improving, incorporating the knowledge
in the world for its benefit. There is so much to be learnt in Marketing and so
much to be drawn from different shades of life. Love is one such lovely shade
of life. I hope I was successful in highlighting the similarities. Now
Marketing also is a subject with heart. Love cannot be induced, lucky me that I
got a product to love but I’d still say, Go Fall in love with your Product!
Nitish Raj Subarno
Class of 2012, IIM Kozhikode.
in the world which have been marketed so awesomely that they have become cults!
Harley Davidson, Nike, Mountain Dew, Enfield and McDonalds to name a few. Honda
is also one such name. I fell in love with Honda long ago after watching its
“Impossible Dream” commercial. That’s just it! One commercial! Isn’t that just
like love at first sight? I knew nothing much about Honda at that time, still
that one commercial made Honda my favorite automobiles company. After that
started finding more about Honda just like lovers slowly discover about each
other, the goods and also the bads. I grew in love and discovered more and more
about it. This is a one sided love but I hope one day I will work in Honda
before I die
So, I was motivated to write and
elaborate about this experience in a Marketing Management perspective and give
a different approach to it. I have just started reading Marketing as a subject
so I cannot say I am good at it, but I strongly believe one is born to be a
marketer or not to be one. I pray I am the former kind J
According to me Marketing is about love. It is about falling in love with the
product or service you are selling. If you love your product you would surely
market it better than anybody else. If I am given to market a Honda I would
surely give my better than the best effort. I would surely try more than
anybody else! Yes marketing is also about skills and technical knowledge and that
is necessary for success.
But Success comes only after efforts
have been put, at first efforts matter. the most If I love my product blindly I
would defend it against anyone! Even if I know the competitors are better, the
blind love would keep the fire inside me burning to fight for my product! Just
like Love!
Just like one knows all (or most
) about the one he/she loves, a marketer should know all about the product. The
lovers know all the good and all the bad about each other but highlight only
the good and hide the bad. A marketer who has fallen in love with the product
would also do the same, highlight the good and hide the bad. Again, lovers
don’t hide those bad things which would be harmful for the other and they speak
about it and try to change for good. In the same way a marketer who has fallen
in love with the product knows about the shortcomings of the product, keeps
working for its improvement. If it is harmful for the society then he speaks
out.
Isn’t it obvious that a marketer
will always love his product! Well, I feel it’s not as obvious as people think.
It’s easy to fall in love with the cult of Harley or the Attitude in Pepsi or
the culture in HUL, but it’s very wrong to extrapolate this to all the products
and companies. How would a marketer find it easy to fall in love with a newbie
company manufacturing only soaps, or a Facebook app making small IT firm? I
believe it would only come with time, the more the marketer reads and finds out
about the company, the more he knows about the product and the people and the
culture the more he starts developing affinity towards them. If a person
changes job frequently he might love his job but not his product or company!
Why
is it necessary to love? Well, It doesn’t has to be just any love, It has to be
Unconditional Love! Marketing and Sales is about hard work, dedication, blood,
sweat and tears. Yes Blood, Sweat and Tears are used not just to add to the
effect. In reality I know marketers who have been through really tough
situations, they hung on to their products just like unconditional love! Came
out as winners soon! We read famous cases about people turning around the
fortunes of companies; taking a falling product and restoring it back to its
rightful place. It is because they believed in the product.
All this is also important because
this love should also transcend to the customer. Only if you love the
product/company you would be able to make the customers fall in love with it.
Believing in the product is
something which comes from heart. It is about intuition or something or some
kind of trust. No reason involved. That’s unconditional love! Soichiro Honda
said that none of his products will use the tagline “Power of Dreams”
specifically for them. His products will sell because of their quality. Not
using such a beautiful tagline is a intuitive decision! That is because he
believed in his product and company.
We need driving forces. When the
path is tough to tread we draw strength from that “something”. Love is one such
“something”. If one loves the product one markets it’s a driving force to see
that product at the top. To see that product become the best and is accepted
and liked by all is also a joy in itself. I am not preaching to stick to a
product and add to the escalation of commitment but only to bear in mind that
sometimes it is the "gut feeling" or "feeling from the
heart" too which brings better results.
Marketing is about many things. It
is awesomely diverse and so versatile that innovation in it just cannot seem to
reach a saturation point. It will keep improving, incorporating the knowledge
in the world for its benefit. There is so much to be learnt in Marketing and so
much to be drawn from different shades of life. Love is one such lovely shade
of life. I hope I was successful in highlighting the similarities. Now
Marketing also is a subject with heart. Love cannot be induced, lucky me that I
got a product to love but I’d still say, Go Fall in love with your Product!
Nitish Raj Subarno
Class of 2012, IIM Kozhikode.