🍱 Swiggy wants to hit you up; Best Practices might not be best; Get your tactics right
🍱 Swiggy wants to hit you up; Best Practices might not be best; Get your tactics right
Unleash Your Marketing Mojo
Hello and welcome back to The Marketing Kable, where I'm taking you along on my journey to discover ideas, voices and campaigns that can inspire us.
something to watch
say no to fake friends. I believe there's a special place in hell reserved for Instagram reel comedians. Most of them are just not funny, and quite a few are very CRINGE. But there's this one Bombay-based comedian who pokes fun at everyday habits, idiosyncrasies and experiences that I have a soft spot for.
Recently he made a reel mocking the absurdity of push notifications brands send out to their regular customers. He concludes with the most pertinent question: "Who's getting convinced by this shit?"
Here's why I think these types of notifications are pointless AF:
Intrusive and annoying: Is there anyone who doesn't feel like throwing their phone away (or putting it gently to the side) when bombarded with push notifications from random brands? I make generous use of my settings to block all notifications - which often leads me to miss important stuff and even the notifications I like - but preventing annoyance is a bigger priority. Brands that go down this path fail to realise that nagging people doesn't get you anywhere. Put your effort into solving, and some more into being "discovered" in all the places your customers hang out, and people will reach out of their own accord. You don't have to annoy them into submission.
Fake authenticity: These messages are crafted in the kind of language that people use with their loved ones - except they're not from loved ones - they're from a brand that's preying on your emotions and vulnerabilities to increase sales.
something to read
best practices might be the worst practices. It's good to know what everyone else is up to. Marketing is a field where being a nosy neighbour is a given - it's part of the job. But there's a catch. As Mike Michalowicz says in this short blog post, blindly implementing your industry's best practices is not the way to go.
When it comes to best practices, don't rely on them to make you stand out. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to hop on to Google and search for your industry's best marketing practices.
While some of these practices are relevant and worth implementing, they won't necessarily make your marketing efforts shine or reflect your brand. The real magic lies in experimenting until you discover what's best for your brand.
So, take a good look at those industry best practices and ask yourself: "What's that one thing no one else is doing?" That's your secret weapon. Go get 'em!
something to listen to
shoot the moon. Marketing isn't rocket science (but sure feels like it sometimes!), but there are things we can learn from rocket scientists like Ozan Varol.
In this snippet of a talk he delivered at the Washington Speakers Bureau, he shares one of his favourite anecdotes about an exercise conducted at Stanford about reframing problems when developing strategies and tactics.
Here's what I learnt
First off, it's important to shift focus from just thinking about the resources available to the objectives we want to achieve. Successful teams didn't get tangled in knots about the five dollars they were given. Instead, they focused on making the most money. A lesson for marketers is to prioritize objectives and develop tactics around them for better results.
The second is always to challenge the usual ways of doing things. Teams that went for cookie-cutter ideas didn't perform as well (they were following 'best practices'). Open yourself up to breaking away from the norm. Radical is good.
Hidden opportunities are also worth uncovering. The top team realized their most valuable resource was the three-minute presentation slot to their peers. So they cleverly sold it to a company looking to recruit Stanford students. As marketers, we should keep our eyes peeled for hidden opportunities within our own efforts. By reframing a problem we can find unique advantages in unexpected places.
Lastly, let's not forget about the power of creativity and innovation. The teams that excelled in the Stanford class were the ones with the 'out there' ideas. As marketers, we should draw inspiration from this and foster a culture of creativity and innovation within our teams.
Epilogue
One of the things that I have come to realise is that a lot of marketers tend to confuse strategy and tactics. In the Stanford class, they emphasized this distinction.
Your strategy is the big-picture road map to delivering your organisational purpose - When I grow up, I will work in outer space.
Tactics are the tiny actions you take to get there - STEM advanced education, STEM work-ex, skills and fitness.
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