What are the keys to marketing success?

Keys to marketing success can be summarized in below mentioned points:

a. the foremost important point is to satisfy the customer.

b. A company should have a clear image in order to achieve marketing
success.
c. Thirdly work should be clearly distinct from other business activities in an
organization. It should be central to the entire organization.
d. Fourthly business should develop a unique strategy that is consistent with
the circumstances that it faces.

Mention the various components of marketing

management

Marketing management components can be divided into following points:

a. Corporate level : It consists of companys mission and objectives.
b. Functional level : Non marketing and marketing institutions are included in it.
c. Marketing level : It consists of situation analysis, objectives, strategy,
implementation, budget, and evaluation.
d. The marketing mix consists of product, distribution, promotion, and price.

What were the different approaches used in marketing

earlier?

There were three marketing approaches used earlier:

a. Production orientation: An organization which focuses on production

specializes in producing most of the given services and products without
considering the quality.
b. Product orientation: An organization which focuses on product orientation is
mainly concerned with the quality of the products.
c. Selling orientation: An organization which uses sales orientation mainly
focuses on the selling or promoting a particular product, and not determining
new consumer desires as such.
Explain Service marketing. Also explain what is a service

a. Service marketing can be defined as marketing of services. Its not same for
tangible products. Services if compared with goods then neither all products are
purely goods nor services. In more clear words service can be defined as
b. use of the service is not separated from its purchase.
c. A service can never be in material form and therefore it cannot be touched,
seen, heard, tasted, or smelled.
d. The use of a service is inherently subjective, i.e. if many people are
experiencing services then each of them will experience it uniquely.

What are the current approaches used for marketing?

Current approaches used for marketing can be categorized in four categories:

a. Relationship marketing: This approach basically deals with customer

satisfaction. The whole emphasis is done on the relationship between the
suppliers and customers.
b. Business Marketing: It does not focuses on consumer products rather it
focuses on industrial goods. All sort of marketing techniques are like promotion,
advertising, etc are used.
c. Social marketing: It focuses on marketing a product socially i.e. online.

What is an International marketing plan?

a. It involves the organization in making more then one marketing decisions

across the nations.
b. There are many reasons to enter an international market led by large market
size and diversification.
c. There are also several reasons to avoid entering international markets,
including too much red tape, trade barriers, and transportation difficulties .
d. The stages of going international are as follows: exporting, licensing, joint
ventures, direct investment, U.s. commercial centers, trade intermediaries, and
alliances .

What is marketing communication?

Marketing communication can be defined as the efforts made by the seller to
convey his message to his buyers and to accept it in retrievable form. The main
point of communication process is persuasion. It is totally goal oriented. It is not
an haphazard activity. Each of its tool consists of specific complexities and
potentialities that justify managerial specialization.

What are the various types of marketing research?

Various types of marketing research are:

a. Field research: It is related to the research for a specific purpose.

b. Desk research: Usually it is conducted for one purpose initially but gradually
it is used to support another goal.
c. Xploratory research: It investigates an assumption..
d. Predictive research: This type of research is done to predict any future
occurrence.
e. Conclusive research: This type of research is done to derive a conclusion
of a research process.

What is real-time marketing? How it became important?

Real time marketing can be defined as marketing done to a customer in a

particular time and place. It is the kind of marketing which seeks the most
appropriate offer for a particular customer. Real-time marketing is the outcome
of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions in major companies.
When former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, in a debate on British colonisation in
India at the Oxford University, argued that Britains prosperity in the 18th and 19th
century was built on resources taken from India, among other things, undoubtedly he
became a viral sensation on that day. Amul stole the day with its timely visual
captioned Owe Oxford. The twist to the tagline Bread par tharoori hai!
What is the difference between Interruption marketing
and permission marketing?
Interruption Marketing
Interruption marketing includes most traditional marketing: you pay money to advertise and
interrupt people from what they are trying to do with your message. Take a TV commercial
for example. Someone trying to watch a program is interrupted and forced to watch your
commercial, because you paid money. It doesnt matter if your commercial is interesting
(people are forced to watch it) it only matters that it sells your stuff.
Tide laundry detergent commercials are the perfect example. They are boring, nobody is
interested in them, but they sell a lot of Tide.
Permission Marketing
Most online marketing is permission marketing, where people have to give you permission
to market to them. People choose to follow you on Twitter, subscribe to your email or visit
your website. They make the choice to connect with you (and allow you to market to them)
because you provide great content. You must be interesting or useful for people to agree to
your interruption marketing, or they will just ignore you.
Permission marketing is about providing value so that people choose to view your
marketing.

Here are the Key Challenges for Marketers shifting from

Interruption Marketing to Permission Marketing
Change your mindset: Stop thinking about selling, and start thinking about how
you can create value for the people that you want to reach (in a way that links to
your business and marketing strategy).
Change your message: Your message cant be so advertising-ish. Your message
must be something that people actually want to read (again, while at the same time
growing your business).
Evaluate all of your channels: What is interesting is that even traditional
marketing works better when it meets the difficult bar of both selling your product
and being interesting to your customers.

Explain diversity marketing.

Customers in different cultures have different values, experiences, expectations, and ways
of interacting. Even within a culture, such differences will be apparent between different
subgroupsnot just ethnicity, but also age, gender, profession, religion, family size,
physical environment, and more.
Diversity marketing involves acknowledging that marketing and advertising must offer
alternative ways of communicating to these diverse groups. With that knowledge, diversity
marketers aim to develop a mix of different communication methods, in order to reach
people in each of the diverse groups present in the market
What is ethical marketing? Explain in brief.

Ethical marketing is a process through which companies generate customer interest

in products/services, build strong customer interest/relationships, and create value for
all stakeholders by incorporating social and environmental considerations in products
and promotions

Ethical behavior in a competitive environment includes supporting fair competition, competing on the basis of

accurately representing your products and services in the marketplace and fulfilling your obligations in good

faith.

Pricing

Following ethical guidelines in pricing means prices have to be clear without hidden charges

Ethical sales and marketing offer only safe products that are suitable for their intended use.
Supply of the product includes supplying instructions that the customer can follow to make
the product work as intended, providing customer service to resolve problems and dealing
with problems objectively by applying appropriate solutions
Research

Businesses obtain personal information about their customers during sales activity and marketing

research. Ethical practice means you respect the privacy of customers and safeguard their data.

Promotion

Sales and marketing include promoting your products and services to potential customers.
Ethical promotion portrays your offers honestly and accurately, without links to attractive
lifestyles that are not relevant

Wild Stone/ Axe

What is segmented market?

Segmenting market is to segment the customer and organizations so that each

segments needs can be recognized and fulfilled properly. The advantage is that
there is no need of selling the product to all the segments of market infact a
particular segment can be targeted according to their requirements. Market
segmentation is done in two steps:

a. First step is to identify and classify people into homogeneous groupings

which are called segments.
b. Second step is finding out which of these segments are target markets.

What are the objective of segmentation analysis?

The main essence of segmentation analysis is:

a. To minimize the risk in taking decisions regarding how, who, when and
where to market a a product service or a brand.
b. To maximize efficiency of marketing by directing effort towards a particular
segment in a consistent manner with that segment's characteristics.

What are the two major segmentation strategies followed

by the marketing organizations?

The two strategies followed are:

a.Concentration strategy: This kind of segmentation strategy deals in a

particular segment of market and therefore they set their prices, etc
accordingly. For eg Mercedes benz has chosen to concentrate on the luxury
segment of the the car market.
b.Multi segment strategy: This kind of segmentation strategy focuses on more
then one different market segments. They make separate marketing programs
for separate segments.

What are various kind of influences which affects

consumer behaviour?

There are various influences, few of them are:

a. Situational Influences: Consist of Market offerings, Demographics and

Complexity.
b. External Influences: Consist of Cultural, Social class Reference groups.
c. Internal factors and processes -

i. Psychological Characteristics - Motivation, Learning/socialization,

Personality, Attitudes, Lifestyle
ii. Decision Making - Recognize needs, Search for information, Evaluate
alternatives, Make purchase, Post purchase.
What is test marketing?

Test marketing is done in order to test the various variabilities including the
elements of the product in a marketing plan. It projects the actual launching of
the whole marketing program but on a limited basis. In short it can be said that
it is the last step before the product is released.

Mention the various steps of a new product development

process.

Various steps which are followed is mentioned below:

a. Creating new product ideas
b. Go through ideas
c. Research and analyze
d. Technical and marketing development
e. Manufacturing planning
f. Marketing planning
g. Test marketing
h. Commercialization

What is false advertising?

False advertising is using false statements to promote products and increase

profit lines for a company or a brand. Such advertisements use deception to
persuade people. Such advertisements completely deny the right to know for
consumers and are banned in many countries. Still they have been a trend by
finding legal ways to deceive people.

Marketing interview questions

5. You are asked to write a marketing plan. What will be the major headings under which you will
divide the whole plan?

6. What are the qualities of good marketing research?

6. Differentitate between potential market and available market.

7. Explain the difference between trend and fad.
. What are the major factors influencing the buying behaviour?

10. What are the various stages of buying decision process?

11. Differentiate between business market and consumer market.

12. Explain:

a.) Straight rebuy

b.) Modified rebuy
c.) Systems buying

13. What are the various oraganizational factors influencing the business buyers?

14. What is insitutional selling?

15. Explain:

a.) Pure Monopoly

b.) Oligopoly
c.) Monopolisitic competition
d.) Pure competition

16. What is a strategic group?

17. Explain following types of competitors:

a.) Laid-back competitor

b.) Selective competitor
c.) Tiger competitor
d.) Stochastic competitor

18. List the steps you will take while designing your competitive intelligence system.

19. What is a competitor centered company? What are its main features?

20. What is a customer centered company? What are its main features?

21. Explain:
a.) Mass marketing

22. What are the benefits of segment marketing over mass marketing?

23. Explain the approach you will take for market segmentation. What major segmentation
variables will you use?
24. What are the characteristics of effectively segmented market?

25. What is megamarketing approach?

In addition to preparing attractive offers for customers, megamarketers may use inducements and
sanctions to gain the desired responses from gatekeepers. I define megamarketing as the strategically
coordinated application of economic, psychological, political, and public relations skills to gain the
cooperation of a number of parties in order to enter and/or operate in a given market. Megamarketing
challenges are found in both domestic and international situations.

Pepsi worked with an Indian group to form a joint venture with terms designed to win government
approval over the opposition of both domestic soft drink companies and anti-MNC legislators. Pepsi
offered to help India export its agro-based products in a volume that would more than cover the cost
of importing soft drink concentrate. Furthermore, Pepsi promised to focus considerable selling effort
on rural areas as well as major urban markets. Pepsi also offered to bring new food processing,
packaging, and water treatment technology to India.

26. Differentiate between identity and image.

27. What are the different positioning strategies used by companies?

28. What steps will you pass through while developing a new product?

29. What are the various methods for the test marketing of consumer goods?

30. What are the different stages in consumer adoption process?

What is the difference between marketing and selling?

Both large and small companies experience internal conflicts between the
sales group and marketing group stemming from differing opinions about the
role of marketing vs. the role of sales. Marketing groups tend to see sales
groups as a delivery mechanism at the end of a marketing process. Sales
groups tend to see marketing groups as providing a service that helps sales
groups to sell more easily.

Both viewpoints depend upon perspective. If you're in marketing, it may be

difficult to perceive the complexity and multiple steps involved in selling.
Similarly, those in sales are so focused on "making the numbers" that it's
difficult to appreciate the way that marketing has laid groundwork.
Regardless of which viewpoint is "correct," the conflicts between marketing
and sales groups can reduce a company's productivity.

Take, for example, the generation of sales leads, a common marketing

function. According to a recent study of 600 sales and marketing groups
conducted by the research firm CSO Insights, less than a quarter of sales
professionals believe that they're getting fully qualified leads from their
marketing group.

As with most organizational conflicts, a sense of mutual respect is the key to

building better working relationships.

2. How would you contribute if you were temporarily assigned

to our sales group?

The ideal answer is something like "I'd learn everything I could and then bring
that knowledge back into the marketing group to help make it more effective."

3. Tell me about your personal brand.

The cooperative movement that began Gujarat back in 1946 was a movement against
the atrocities of Polson Dairy, a locally-owned dairy in Anand, Gujarat, which
allegedly procured milk from farmers at very low rates to sell to the Bombay (now
Mumbai) government.

Amuls architect in almost every way was the late Dr Verghese Kurien (who,
ironically, died in the 50th year of the creation of the Amul girl).

Arriving in Anand in 1949 as a government employee to manage a dairy, he went

from helping farmers repair their machinery to revolutionising the Indian dairy
industry by scripting Operation Flood, a cooperative movement that turned India
from a net importer of milk into one of the worlds two largest producers today.

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation

In the sixties and seventies, India was a milk-deficit country, not at all self-sufficient.

"Milk powder was imported. From a per capita milk consumption of less than 110 grams per
person to around 300 grams per person is a long way, and largely possible due to the
cooperative movement.
The (original) Amul Girl was created by Sylvester daCunha (daCunha Communications) to
counter the Polson dairy girl.

A seasoned marketer, Kurien gave DaCunha Communications immense creative freedom to

release the Amul Girl ads without waiting to take permission from the company.

Brand Amul is already present in over 50 countries.

Even after the opening up of the sector in 1991, and the entry of several private
dairies, there are few serious brands that have emerged in the domestic market,
Sodhi says.

Amul reaches one million retailers through a network of 10,000 dealers.

Sodhi says since the mid-90s, Amul has been able to take the range outside the
security of our traditional products, milk powder and butter.

"Since then, we have diversified to everything from ice-cream, curd to long-life

flavoured milk.

Tell me about a marketing project in which you had to coordinate and manage
a diverse team of people to achieve deliverables. LRF

What do you consider the 5 most important aspects of successful marketing?

Tell me about a time when you successfully changed a customer's mind.
How familiar are you with our target market?
What marketing strategies would you consider using for our product?

Tell me about a successful marketing campaign you recently worked

on. What was your contribution?

Share information but be careful of maintaining company confidentiality. Focus on a

campaign that relates to the job you are interviewing for.

Highlight supporting metrics such as increase in sales, ROI, customer acquisition rate,
leads.

Focus on the specifics of why the campaign succeeded and quantify your personal
contribution.

What technologies have you used to reach your clients?

Show a good understanding of the latest technologies and how to leverage them even if
you have not worked much with them. Read up about the latest developments in digital
 marketing, hyper-targeting, augmented reality and social media. You should be able to
convince the employer that you keep up with the latest marketing trends.

Give me an example of a brand strategy/marketing plan that you

consider to have been very successful

Identify a successful brand and discuss the positioning, target market, the 4Ps (product,
price, place and promotion). What would you retain and what would you change in the
brand and why?

How have you delivered against targets over the last 6 months?

Why are you interested in marketing our product/service?

Your research should ensure that you can answer the following marketing interview
questions:

What have you learned about this company?

Why do you want to work here?
What do you know about our products and or services?
What marketing programs have we used in the past?
Who are our biggest competitors?

Tell me about a time you were able to change a customer's mind

when they told you "No"

The company is exploring your ability to influence and persevere. Highlight your ability
to connect with the customer, to identify the customer's real needs and to persuade the
customer that your product can satisfy these needs. Get more help with this question
at behavioral interview answers

Give me an example of how you used your creativity and

resourcefulness to meet a difficult marketing challenge

Creativity can manifest in many different ways. For guidance on answering interview
questions about your ability to come up with new ideas and solutions go to behavioral
answers

Tell me about a recent situation when you had to meet a very tight
deadline

Coping with pressure and deadlines is integral to a marketing position. Highlight your
planning and organizing skills, your ability to remain focused and calm under stress and
your ability to efficiently use available resources.

Marketing interview questions will include those that explore your personal commitment
to the job.

Why do you want to work in marketing?

Relate your answer to both your career and the company you are interviewing for.
Highlight how your strengths and interests are a fit with the key competencies required
for a successful marketing career.

Examples include meeting challenges head on, working under pressure, creativity and
innovation, data analysis and problem-solving, communication skills, teamwork and
working to targets and goals.

Include reasons why you find the company an attractive employer. Your passion and
motivation will set you apart from other candidates.

Which marketing book have you recently read?

This question is asked to measure your real passion for marketing. Be sure to have
recently read a book that you can talk about. Focus on what you got from the book and
its relevance to the challenges evident in the job you are interviewing for.

Gather together your best work samples. Put together a portfolio to present to the
employer. Be ready for probing questions about the information in your portfolio.

Have some insightful questions ready to ask in your marketing interview. This will make
you look competent and serious and will help you collect the information you need to
evaluate the company and the job.

What would be your approach for introducing a product into a foreign market? What
are the risks and benefits to consider i.e. producing in your own country vs producing
in the new country, etc?

Company ABC is struggling, should it be restructured? Identify the three main

problems it's facing. What is the most important problem the company is facing?
How would you recommend the company address this problem? How would you turn
this company around? Provide your reasoning for your recommendation(s).

A toy company has been experiencing decline sales for the last two seasons.
Research suggests that introducing several new product lines is the solution. Develop
a marketing strategy for the company's largest product line, including pricing,
product packing, etc.

A large chain of retail clothing stores is struggling with profitability. Bases on your
review fo the company's financial statements, what problems can you identify? Can
this company be turned arounds? How would you go about deciding?

You may have heard of predictive marketing its an increasingly popular

topic. You may not, however, understand what it really means or how it
could benefit your business.

In short: it involves using expected future events and expected future

customer behaviours to create a marketing plan. It has become a lot more
relevant to businesses as digital marketing campaigns have generated far
more data which is analysed in far more detailed ways.
Intuitively, most marketers can see a clear value from understanding
customers better and getting detailed numbers around a campaigns
expected returns before it has started.

However, the skills and processes required for predictive analytics projects
can be difficult to develop and before you begin, you should know, if this
really is for you.

Main Advertising Objectives

Increasing Sales and Profits
Encourage Trial and Usage
Reminder Advertising
Follow-Up
Top Five Appeals That Advertisers Use to Sell a Product
Fear

Deodorant and toothpaste ads often employ this tactic. Government agencies appeal to an individuals fear
of death or incarceration to prevent drinking and driving.

Humor

Humorous ads work best with established and commonly purchased products such as cellphones, fast food
and alcoholic beverages.

Rational

Household appliance manufacturers may place emphasis on features that lower home utility costs and
protect the environment. Printed and business-to-business advertisements are better suited for rational
appeals.

Sex

Generally done by showing the woman spraying the fragrance and then capturing the attention of an
attractive male who passes her on the street. Overly overt images subtract from the overall message the
advertiser wants to convey.

Bandwagon

A bandwagon appeal makes consumers believe they are missing out by addressing the consumers need to
belong. Food and drink ads show hip young adults enjoying a product and ignoring the individual who
chooses the less popular product.
5 Most Common Advertising Techniques
Repetition Repetition is a simple yet effective technique used to build identity awareness and
customer memory.
Claims
Association Associating a product or company with a famous person, catchy jingle,
desirable state of being or powerful emotion creates a strong psychological connection in the
customer.
Bandwagon
Promotions Coupons, sweepstakes, games with prizes and gifts with purchases create
excitement, and participation encourages customers to build a relationship with the
sponsoring product or service.

How Is Emotional Appeal Used to Persuade?

Persuasion Techniques

There are basically two ways to persuade: rational persuasion and emotional persuasion. Rational
persuasion employs logical arguments and believable evidence. Rational persuasion requires that the target
or audience make an active effort in receiving and evaluating the information. Emotional persuasion relies
on the subconscious mind's "auto-pilot" to handle the chores of receiving, processing and evaluating
information to make a decision. In other words, when decisions are made at the subconscious level, they
are based on emotions and instincts, or "gut feeling."

Why Emotional Appeals Work

Thinking is a laborious task. Experts in neuroscience say that the mere act of thinking burns three times
more calories than a less-challenging task like watching TV. The experts also note that the human brain
runs on idle in a non-thinking state 95 percent of the time. Marketers clearly don't bet their budgets on
consumers being asleep at the switch 95 percent of the time. The stats strongly suggest, however, that
people are more susceptible to emotional appeals because their brains are in an idle, subliminal state most
of the time.

Clutter Busting
Catalog of Emotions

Aristotle's 14 emotions are: anger, mildness, love, enmity, fear, confidence, shame, shamelessness,
benevolence, pity, indignation, envy, emulation and contempt

Trends in the Advertising Industry

Advertising trends have evolved from the quintessentially traditional print ads and TV spots to
new marketing strategies that include QR codes, co-branding, content marketing and online
advertising. While print and TV are steadfast in the ad industry, new technology is opening new
avenues to reach consumers. For businesses that want to stay ahead of the curve with
interactive advertising, these trends can do just the trick.

QR Codes
A QR code, or a quick response code, is a two-dimensional symbol akin to the UPC (Universal Product
Code, or "bar code"). A QR code elicits a digital action when scanned by a QR code reader. In advertising,
it has gained traction as an interactive tool in which consumers can scan the code to retrieve additional
information about the product or promotion.

Co-Branding

Co-branding is a joint venture that combines the advertising efforts of two or more brands to create a new
consumer product. Recent examples of co-branding, Apple and Nike. These brands have worked together
to create new consumer products that elevate brand awareness while creating heightened consumer interest
in newly launched products. S

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a term that began gaining popularity around 2003 with the birth of social media
websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Content marketing includes advertorials (newspaper or magazine
articles that are written editorially to promote your product), blogs or any other kind of content that is
published on the web for promotional purposes. As a form of advertising, content marketing is effective at
creating awareness when it comes to brand storytelling.

Online Advertising

Consumers use the web to find many things, including businesses and brands. When it comes to
capitalizing on reaching consumers, advertisers are using tools such as Google AdWords to create online
advertising campaigns. AdWords is a Google product that allows small businesses to create online
advertisements with keyword and budget parameters to target their primary customers. Other trends in
online advertising include marketing efforts such as search engine optimization (SEO -- the process of
using keywords to get a website to rank higher in results as opposed to using AdWords); social media;
mobile devices such as iPads and other handhelds; display ads; and website banner ads.

Recent trends in the Indian advertising industry and their impact

According to advertising experts, the landscape has shifted considerably as compared to the
earlier decade and even the last few years. Service oriented sectors have grown as opposed to
the slump in the manufacturing and production sector. This has impacted advertising immensely.
Services now dominate both the print and television advertising categories and this is one of
the biggest trends in the sector in recent times. Television has heralded its dominance over all
other media platforms when it comes to advertising. According to industry statistics, television
holds the lions share of advertising expenditure which is more than 40% while digital media is
also rapidly expanding its footprints and will soon move into double digits.

Print media expenditure has gone down considerably and stands at less than the coveted 40%
mark as per recent reports and statistics. Television is increasingly being used as a prime
advertising platform by nationally acclaimed companies and organizations while print is the
marketing weapon of choice for local and regional players. Alongside, advertising has witnessed
the interdependence of media platforms where they often work complementary to each other to
get the message across. This is another new development which is being tapped by agencies for
their campaigns and marketing blueprints.

Soft drink companies still advertise hugely in their bid to outdo each other and this translates into
fantastic advertising. Alongside, other duels have emerged between telecommunication
companies and mobile phone companies as well. The Samsung and Nokia or Vodafone and
Airtel battles are the stuff of modern day advertising legend. The telecom industry has taken up a
huge space as far as advertising is concerned. Alongside, FMCG sectors are having a field day
when it comes to occupying advertising space and consumer mind spaces. FMCG players are
investing heavily in television advertising in recent times while consumer durables sectors are
witnessing a quiet exit from the advertising space.

Digital media is slated to be the next big thing in advertising and may soon overtake print as
reinforcement to television advertising.

Advertising Trends 2017 A look at whats hot in the new

year

1. Dark Social

The actual meaning of isnt directly related to messaging, though. Dark social refers to
content which is shared through private messaging apps, texts or email, rather than shared on
social media.

The dark part of the name means that the referral data cant be tracked

Adidas have already used this as a really effective marketing tactic. They looked at which
messaging apps were most popular in which places, and recruited squads (brand advocates,
basically) around the world with the focus on creating hyper local communities that would
consume Adidas content, shared with them by these squads.

In Europe and the US, Adidas primarily used Whatsapp, and in Asia it was Wechat. The
theory was that people using these apps already create their own micro-communities, so why
not be the brand that creates their own? By using their brand advocates, they can access more
data on how content is shared, consumed and discussed on these channels, and form a closer
relationship with their audience.

2. Agile Marketing

Taking inspiration from Agile ways of working in other industries, marketers have now
begun to adopt the methodologyfor ad campaigns, but what does this mean?

Essentially, it means marketing in a more reactive, responsive way, which helps campaigns in
both their relevance and effectiveness.
One of the fundamental concepts behind working in an agile way is working in sprints. So
you define targets in the short term, as well as what you need to do to achieve them. Then at
the end of each sprint, you measure the success of the project and optimise, and respond to
what youve learned.

It can revolutionise the way a marketing and advertising team works, but one of the biggest
fundamental gains is that it allows you to respond quickly to external factors, and keep your
marketing campaigns up to date and relevant, whilst constantly ensuring that your efforts are
efficient and fully optimised.

After all, a lot of marketing teams in days gone by have been relatively slow and inflexible.
There are usually a number of different parties involved in making an ad campaign, so
communication and decisions could take forever. When the success of a campaign can
depend entirely on whats happening at a particular moment, this is not an effective way to
work.

This is why more marketing teams are going to be adopting this way of working in 2017, and
its definitely something you should be looking into for your own company. It gives your
marketing efforts real focus, and allows you to keep everything you do completely relevant.
Not just your external advertising efforts, but the way you work within the team too.

If you do it well, it will help your efforts stand out from the crowd, and can revolutionise the
way your team works. Teams that have adopted it already have seen a noticeable increase in
productivity, so why wouldnt you want the same for your own company?

3. Social advertising will continue to be huge, but only on the right networks

Spend on marketing through social media continues to rise by huge amounts each year. Back
in 2015, spending hit nearly $24 billion, and in 2017 its expected to exceed $35
billion according to emarketer, which would make up around 16% of total digital ad spend.
Its a part of the landscape that will continue to grow, but the key to making the most of it
isnt just to increase spend, but to identify where to spend your cash.

Take Twitter, for example. Its still a hugely popular platform for the users, but the
advertising just doesnt work. Spend has stagnated, and the format just doesnt resonate with
people. Think how many times you have seen a relevant, interesting ad on Twitter. Now try
to remember if you ever actually clicked on oneits a struggle, right?

The truth is, its probably not the right platform for advertising in its current state. People
tend to scroll quickly through their Twitter feeds, so you probably have around a second to
grab the users attention, but then youre in direct competition with the accounts they actually
follow, so youre off to a tough start.
Contrast this with advertising on Facebook, where spend is increasing massively and brands
are having real success, and its easy to see what the trend is for 2017. Spending money on
social advertising, but in the right places.

Whether thats Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or any other network that explodes during the
coming year, you need to identify first which your audience uses most, and then how to
communicate with them most effectively.

4. The continuing rise of Augmented Reality Marketing

We wrote about the use of Augmented Reality (AR) in marketing earlier in the year, and
noticed that over the next few months the post really started to gain traction. This is a sign
that more and more marketers are looking at how they can take advantage of AR to reach a
wider audience in more interesting ways.

Previously, the use of AR was mainly thought to be restricted to expensive, bespoke headsets,
like the Hololens which is to be released by Microsoft. It was only when Pokemon GO was
released, along with Snapchat filters getting increasingly popular, that companies realised to
utilise AR, all you really need is a smartphone.

Conclusion

2016 wasan interesting year. For marketing and advertising, it was largely fantastic. New
tech, refined techniques, endless options, and so many innovative campaigns. For everything
else, 2016 wasshocking. Not one to remember.

So nows the time to focus on making 2017 great again. Try and take advantage of these
trends, and really innovate with your ad campaigns. Focus on creating amazing, eye-catching,
successful ad campaigns, and really make sure that 2017 is a year to remember for your
business.

7 Essential B2B marketing trends for 2017

1. Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is the perfect technology for B2B marketing. It
provides an automated way of scoring and nurturing leads with relevant
content along the journey to purchase. Yet our research on Marketing
Automation (free download) shows that many businesses aren't fully
exploiting marketing automation since they are at an early level of maturity.
2. Content marketing
Content marketing is a technique that has been used in B2B marketing for
many years, but in recent years, the popularity of inbound marketing has
given more attention to share blogs and social media. Over the past three
or four years, readers have voted for the importance of Content Marketing
amongst the marketing activities available. Within content and inbound
marketing, I think the ongoing discussions will be around getting the right
balance of content quantity, frequency and quality and of
course, measuring the ROI of Content Marketing.

3. Web personalisation
Website personalisation is a well-established technique for Ecommerce
sites but traditionally has been less widely used within business-to-
business. It's surprising since personalisation of emails using techniques
such as dynamic content insertion as described above is popular.

4. Channel integration
With so many separate digital marketing channels there is a tendency to
focus on individual channels, but an integrated nurturing process can reap
dividends. One key trend here is the integration of different channels.

5. Account-Based Marketing
Account-Based Marketing or ABM is an established approach in B2B
marketing, particularly within larger organisations who have structures and
processes to target key accounts.

6. Mobile marketing
It goes without saying that the shift to mobile is a key trend for B2B
marketers, as it has been for several years now. We've included this for
completeness since Google tells us that most businesses have a
responsive site, so you could say it's no longer a trend. However, changes
that will affect B2B marketers in 2017 (particularly those who don't know
about them) including Google's new mobile-first index and potential
penalties for pop-ups.
Mobile now accounts for over half of web traffic, and where previously B2B
companies could assume that their customers would be researching them
on desktop devices, now a new breed of business owner using mobile
devices to research solutions on the go means B2B marketers need to be
sure that their content is mobile optimised to ensure a smooth processes
for users on all devices.

7. Social media
This research shows that B2B businesses tend to get the best results from
LinkedIn and Twitter, but are present across a wide range of social
networks. Youtube and Slideshare also stand out as particularly effective,
whilst Google+ is very ineffective considering the majority of B2B
businesses are using it. The eMarketer chart shows 2015 data, whilst the
chart underneath it shows data for 2016.

digital marketing techniques for 2017

Big Data (including market and customer insight and predictive
analytics)

Content marketing Communities (Branded niche or vertical

communities)

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) / improving website experiences

Display (Banners on publishers, ad networks social media including

retargeting and programmatic)

Internet of Things (IoT) marketing applications

Marketing Automation (incl CRM, behavioural Email marketing and

web personalisation)

Mobile marketing (Mobile advertising, site development and apps)

Paid search marketing, e.g. Google AdWords Pay Per Click

Online PR (including influencer outreach)

Partnerships including affiliate and co-marketing

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO or organic search)

 Social media marketing including Social CRM and Social Customer
Care

Wearables (e.g. Apple Watch, activity trackers, augmented reality)

Marketing being an inexact and intuitive science, has to constantly change

and adjust to new consumers, their attitudes and behaviour and other
changes in the marketplace and economy. While digital marketing has
made great strides in the last few years technology in general is moving too
fast for marketing to keep up with. Here are some trends that marketers
may need to look at in 2016.

1. Location Based Technologies will create new Innovations

2. Location based technologies will move products to a new level, to
create brand differentiation. For example HDFC Bank is already
testing a location based technology where if the banks customer
initiates a credit card transaction, they will geo-tag the customers
mobile and credit card to check if they are in the same location. If
not, the customer may have to answer some queries from the bank to
ascertain that he/she is a genuine customer and it is not a fraud
transaction.

This kind of innovative thinking besides preventing fraud money

transactions in the online payments space, will take products and
services to the next level and help in creating differentiated brands
and services.
3. 2. A Digital Launch will precede a Mass Media Launch

As the second largest search engine on the planet, people are turning
to Youtube to gather helpful tips about products and services.
Sponsoring a video with YouTube influencers gives you great
advantages. If you've chosen the right influencer, you'll have access to
a massive subscribed audience of fans that are emailed and notified
of the influencer's videos.
4. 4. Unicorns, don't look a gift horse in the mouth
5. Although the Indian Unicorns are doing well and increasing
valuations to everyone's amazement, they may need to take heed of
the old adage 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth'.
 The unicorns have been splashing around VC funds indiscriminately.
Some of them have found the hard way that no fund is unlimited.
They will also realise that some good old solid management practices
are more important than founder- innovator brilliance and brashness
when running a company.

More will have to be spent on brand building and less on discount

advertising which is generic and undifferentiated. Price cutting is not
a brand differentiator and is unlikely to provide a long term method
of differentiating internet brands or giving them an edge in the future
6. Advocate marketing will get a new boost
7. Turning loyal customers into a referral machine may be the best
chance of building a customer base. Before meeting the salesman,
consumers will look for strong referrals from existing customers. I
have been writing reviews on Amazon for every product I buy and
almost unfailingly there is a customer somewhere who wants either
some clarification on the product or service I bought or wants to
know about my experience with the product both positives and
negatives.

6. Marketing Research will move online more than ever

before
8. Software will become the new differentiator between research
companies rather than people, methods or black box models.
Although research has already moved online, the specialised online
research firms will be more in demand in 2016 than ever before.
Online research will meet the marketers demand for the limited time,
limited research budgets, and quick enlightening results. Largely also
because online firms are investing more heavily in the latest software
to interpret data innovatively, than the traditional research
companies, their analysis will prove to be more insightful than the
traditional research company who has its feet very deep in traditional
offline research.
Advertising may be a better mirror for societal changes
9. Television programming has been often retrograde with the easy
excuse that it has to cater to the masses to be successful and so is
cinema which is driven by the box office rather than artistry.

Whether it is making lesbianism more acceptable in society, or

 making traditional Indian parents more accepting of their children
having living in partners, challenging the discrimination against
pregnant women at work, or breaking down the expectations from
the traditional Indian arranged marriage, advertising is making sure
art challenges the status quo in society. And that is good because it is
the only way an essentially traditional Indian society can progress
and move forward.

Five steps to marketing success

1. Come in under the radar

"Building a brand is a roll-out process, not a drop everywhere in the world at one time. Do you know what the
best selling imported beer is in the United States? It's Corona. Who would expect a beer from Mexico to be
popular? The fact is it's a terrific beer. But they didn't just come to the U.S. and put it everywhere. They went to
the cities with a Mexican population -- Los Angeles, Chicago, New York -- and then they put it in restaurants and
stores there. The key to brand-building is to have something good that you roll-out in a very intelligent way.
Maybe even invisibly for a while because you want to be under the radar screen of competitors."

2. Know your customer

"There are still too many CEOs who identify marketing with selling and advertising. But marketing has evolved to
be not only product centered but customer centered. We are saying you've got to understand and choose the
customers you want to serve. Don't just go after everyone. Define the target market carefully through
segmentation and then really position yourself as different and as superior to that target market. Don't go into that
target market if you're not superior.

"We are trying to make the case that it's much more important for a company to be customer-centric than
product-centric. The same customer you have for product X, may be available for product Y and Z and so on.
And you won't know that if you have separate product managers, each only concerned with selling his or her
product."

3. Own your branding

"We are not in a state of competition anymore; we're in a state of hyper-competition. So people are desperately
looking for handles -- functional features, emotional appeals -- that will draw people to their product. We should
think of owning a word or a phrase that helps to build customer retention and loyalty. Look at how we buy the
Mercedes because it's the best engineered car. We buy a BMW because it's the best driving performance. We
buy the Volvo because it's the safest automobile. A lot of these companies lose that edge too, but they don't lose
the impression."

4. Stay ahead of the competition

"The worst thing is that if something works, your competitors are going to clone it and before you know it anything
that you had as a differentiator is imitated by the others. So you're in the business of constant innovation.
Constantly asking yourself, 'Three years from now, what will our differentiator be?'

"I had the CEO of a large company approach me and ask me to sign a copy of my book, which I always do, but
this was a first edition from 1967. I looked at the book and I said I won't sign it. 'Why not?' he asked. I said, 'That
book is from before there was the Internet. It has very little on branding, so I think it's useless.' At which point he
said to me, 'Are you trying to sell me a new copy?' And I said, 'Yes, but it's not for my benefit-- I don't need the
money." Markets change, so marketing has to change."
5. Make it an experience

"Once in a while we find someone having a whole new approach to a mature market. Starbucks is a very good
example where coffee is coffee but they decided to sell it differently, put a higher price, make it good-tasting and
make it an experience rather than just some coffee. In fact, I've heard that if Starbucks closed its shops, a lot of
people would go crazy. They are in such a habit of going to the Starbucks before work, taking the coffee, and
they'd become desperate otherwise.

"There's a big movement to say, 'we're not just adding services to our business and our product, we're actually
trying to design an experience.' You'll see that language being used. We're in the experience design business."

5 Common Unethical Marketing Practices: Are You Guilty?

Where's the Line?

So what qualifies as unethical in the marketing world? Ethics are
obviously open to debate; theyre a matter of philosophy, rather
than science, so theres no coherent intrinsic ethical stance that is
proven to be the right one. However, while its noble to have your
practices guided by internal beliefs, the real gauge here is how your
consumers react to your ads, and what they believe about your
business.
In that sense, these are some of the five most unethical marketing
practices that are commonly employed. Is your company guilty of
any of these?
1. Misleading advertising.

Misleading ads are more than just unethicaltheyre illegal. The

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates truth in advertising,
mandating that businesses make accurate statements in their
advertising campaigns and, when possible, back their claims with
scientific evidence. However, its common for advertisers to
exaggerate certain features and downplay others in order to make
their products look as attractive as possible, so the line becomes
somewhat blurry. The ethical line here is when your claims start to
be unprovable; for example, tobacco cigarettes were originally
advertised as healthy.

3. Contacting people without consent.

Have you ever thought about buying a list of email addresses so you can bulk up your companys
subscriber list? Youre not the first one. Many businesses have used this tactic to contact people
who they otherwise wouldnt have known. Remember our friends at the FTC? They also enforce a
law called the CAN-SPAM act, and under it, youre legally allowed to email people without their
consentbut for one time only. Even that single contact can start irritating people, making your
uninvited communication do more harm than good for your brand image, so dont push the
limits here. Youre better off building your contact lists organically.
4. Insensitive controversy.
Stirring up a bit of healthy controversy can be an effective way to get more attention; you can stand
out as a thought leader by presenting an unpopular opinion, and cultivate discussion among your
readers. However, when you venture into a world of controversy haphazardly, youll probably end
up making more enemies than new fans. Pepsi made this mistake recently when they tried to use
an ad to introduce their product into a Black Lives Matter protestand while the ad tried to evoke a
positive tone, their intentional attempt to get political backfired in a big way.
5. Emotional exploitation.
One of the most effective ways to advertise a business is to call to peoples emotions. Making
them laugh or evoking a sense of nostalgia helps consumers forge a small bond with your brand.
However, when you intentionally evoke rage or sadness in a tasteless way, you could be seen as
exploiting emotions, rather than sympathizing with them. Rather than a single example here, Im
going to reference a chain of advertisements that attempted to exploit the 9-11 terrorist attacks as a
way to earn customer sympathy. These ads often seem well-intentioned, showing respect for
surviving family members, firefighters, and New Yorkers, but the fact that these messages are
being used to hock products are what make them offensive and unethical.