Resurgence

Last couple of months have been quite challenging for us as a family. Despite taking all the precautions, we (my wife, the little one and me) were brought down by the mighty corona virus. I was hit particularly hard and had to be hospitalized for a month (yeah, a month!! and a significant portion of that stay was in ICU). I am still recovering and the path to recovery is a long one. My brother, who had come to help us, also became Covid positive while I was hospitalized and had to stay in hospital for a few days. My sister-in-law (my wife’s sister), who is a doctor, had also come to help us tide over the tough times. Remember, this was the period when the registered cases and death tolls were at peak and the health facilities in the country were stretched beyond their limits. While I was facing my own challenges in the hospital, I could not even imagine the mental trauma that family underwent during that time. I used to video call them everyday and they did their best to put up a bra...

I thought of writing this just to preserve some cherished memories of my kid. I have been a terrible father especially in the last 1 year (since the Covid 19 pandemic). I have not been able to give my son the time he deserves and demands. It is his benevolence that he still loves me. Another reason for maintaining this is to let him know, when he grows up, that he was like this. He should know that he means a world to us and makes our world beautiful every day.   To tell the story of my little one, I would need to recreate his world. As more and more of these delightful conversations lit this space, you would be slowly introduced to some very special people who form his little world.   This incident is just a couple of days old. It was getting late and I needed him to go to bed. However, he was in no mood to leave the company of his friends (Cartoon being played on my phone – This is a bad habit and we are working on cutting his screen time). After a bit of cajoling wh...

Why would you even want to read this? Because this is the second and last installment of our discussion on how the concept of Brand fits in the EAR model of Consumer Decision Making. If you have read the first part then you would not want to miss the conclusion. If you have not, still it is worth delving into a matter which poses daily challenge to marketers across organizations and geographies. While I would try to briefly put all the key takeaways of previous articles in this article as well, it would be great if you visit the three previous articles written in this series viz. EAR Model, Brand, Brand & Decision Making – P1 to get a detailed understanding on the topic. My Approach: From last few articles, we know that while making any purchase decision, a consumer, evaluates the available options on a mix of three parameters: Emotional (E), Aspirational (A) and Rational (R) . The weightage given to each of these parameters are dependent on many factors including ...

Why would you even want to read this? Because organizations/ brands are built and destroyed in the consumer’s mind. It is for this very reason that most organizations try to create a favourable impression of their offerings in the Consumer mind space. However, very few brands have been able to create a consistent and time tested relationship with their potential Consumer base. And this mere fact highlights the enormity of the challenge faced by organizations across sizes, categories and geographies. In this and the next article, we would try to understand what goes into the Consumer Decision process and how does the concept of Brand fits in it. There is a reason for breaking this topic into a two part post. I have written it before cramping everything in a single article. It was a classic example of ‘neither here nor there’ – I was neither able to explain everything nor I was able to keep it simple for your understanding. My Approach: The last two articles were act...

Why would you even want to read this? Because the question ‘What is Brand?’ may make you uncomfortable and send you looking out for answer. You may be aware of the importance of Brand in the ‘Corporate Jungle’, role it plays in the ‘Marketing Strategy’ and its seeming impact on the ‘Consumer’s Life’. However, this most basic question usually evokes a very text bookish response. When I graduated of my MBA College (a very respectable one, I must say) with the ‘Best Marketing Student’ tag, I was very comfortable in what Philp Kotler had to say about brand: brand is defined as a "name, term, sign symbol (or a combination of these) that identifies the maker or seller of the product." And though it is perfectly okay to look at ‘Brand’ through the prism of the above definition, I have come to conclude that this is not the only truth or the version out there. This belief has come from interacting consumers of all hues and colours in my career of last one decade. Why see...

Why would you even want to read this? I have often been asked about the Consumer Decision Making process. Questions like ‘What would make a consumer buy this product/ brand?’ OR ‘Why are consumers not buying our product?’ are pretty common. Think through and you would realize that this should be the most important question for any marketer as the ultimate objective is to make customers/ consumers buy your product. If you search the Internet, you would find a wide variety of literature ranging from theories on Customer Involvement, Need and Motivation, Influencers and beyond; You would even find literature suggesting that human mind is too lazy and hence use shortcuts while taking purchase decisions. So, which one is correct? Well!! Consumer Decision Making Process is like a Holy Grail of Marketing – People may have misconceptions about their knowledge but I am yet to meet or read someone who has all the answers. Why the Confusion? Don’t get me wrong. I am not s...