Akruti Designs

Akruti Designs Marketing & Marketing communications, Brand Building, Digital Marketing, Print Media, Event Management & Content Development

Akruti Designs, based out of Bangalore, was set up in 2003 with the objective of providing marketing communication support to SMEs, Educational Institutions, Builders and Retailers who required the knowledge and expertise of seasoned marketing and marketing communications from Industry. Over the years, Akruti Designs has been instrumental in setting up the marketing and marketing communication pol

icies and programs of several start-ups and global customers in India. Today, we have a good mix of global enterprises and start-ups in our portfolio for whom we have nurtured many brands, building great customer relationships along the way.

Integrated Marketing Communication (part 3)Getting incremental leads/sales -direct mail-advertisements-seminars-exhibiti...
27/02/2017

Integrated Marketing Communication (part 3)

Getting incremental leads/sales

-direct mail
-advertisements
-seminars
-exhibitions
-sampling

Direct marketing

- Definition-any activity where you reach your customers directly ,or they respond to you directly

- DM-SCUD MISSILE VS ADVT-CARPET BOMBING
- WHY Direct Marketing
- cost and wage inflation
- smarter customers with more choice who expect better
treatment/relationships
- need for incremental sales/leads
- need to increase customer value
- need for measurable results

What determines dm success?

- Quality of data base
- Creatives
- Offers
- Timing
- Response mechanism
- Adequate weightage
- Adequate testing

Why the dbase is so important
you can’t save souls in an empty church

- No product however brilliant will sell to the wrong people
- the dbase has to be personalized
- the dbase needs validation
- the dbase needs maintenance
- the dbase needs backend analysis and facilitation

Leverage PR and Publicity

- The case for it:its free ,its low cost,its far more credible than
advertising
- limited no of niche publications,not to high on power and hungry for
business
- can be handled in house ,does not need a PR agency
strategy:leverage every occasion to be visible,make a noise on every
opportunity

PR opportunities we must leverage

New product introductions

new technologies -VIP visits
new patents -new client wins
new milestones -new facilities
performance -new services
product ratings -relaunces
guest columns -awards,accolades
college lectures -industry statesmen

How to put our best foot forward in CCPs

- The sizzle is as important as the steak!
- Smart exhibitions & events
- Smart presentations, presentation aids
- Selling aids and literature
- 3D multi media a/v, cd, presentations
- Seminars, lectures
- Hi-class product literature

Integrated Marketing Communication (part 2)What aids differentiationdistinctive           high qualityprest igious      ...
24/02/2017

Integrated Marketing Communication (part 2)

What aids differentiation

distinctive high quality
prest igious traditional
trustworthy stylish
different cares
original authentic
unique friendly
up to date dynamic
best brand reliable

Lessons from BAV

- Differentiation is the engine of the brand train

- Differentiation and relevance are the leading indicators of a brand’s
health

- Knowledge and esteem are the lagging indicators of a brand’s health

- Differentiation and relevance are created and enhanced

- Esteem and knowledge are gained over time

- Differentiation and relevance = current account constant
replenishment and day to day operation

- Esteem and knowledge = savings account built over time, to draw on a
rainy day

Implications for Communication

- Reinforce and ride on existing perception of best brand,leader,high
quality,high performance
- Clarify mixed signals of ‘unfriendliness’ by projecting ourselves as
‘gentlemen with brains’
- Enhance perception of ‘distinctive,unique,innovative,different’to
enhance knowledge levels of company and justify price premiums
could developing competition be the cause of this ‘diffusion’
brand stature seems to be high and brand strength relatively low as
strong brands have powerful,well differentiated brand identities

CAUTION :SUBSTANTIATE RESULTS WITH CLIENT CHECK

Setting communication objectives

- Basis the marketing objectives and this feedback ,the communication
objectives for Millipore can be set,modified,refined
- As also the tone of voice of the communication
- Strengths and weaknesses need gaps identified

developing differentiated, forceful and relevant advertising that works

How does one evaluate good advertising

Is it single minded
is it competitive and compelling
can it be comprehended
is it strong on branding
does it connect with the target
is it credible
is it unique and differentiated
does it strike an emotional chord
does it attract attention,fight the clutter
is it memorable
does it prompt action

Integrated Marketing Communication (part 2)1. Brand stewardshipFirst …..the definition of a brand- ‘a brand is a set of ...
23/02/2017

Integrated Marketing Communication (part 2)

1. Brand stewardship

First …..the definition of a brand

- ‘a brand is a set of differentiating promises that link a product to its customers’

- the brand assures the customer of a consistent quality plus a superior
value for which the customer is willing to give loyalty and pay a price
that brings a reasonable return to the brand

Brands as Assets

‘If this company were split up I would give you the property ,plant,and equipment ,and I would take the brands and trade marks ..and I would fare better than you’

Characteristics of successful brands

- Differentiation-strong brands have powerful ,well-differentiated brand
identities

- Successful brands adapt and make themselves relevant to different
market conditions

- Successful brands are leaders in spirit as well as size

- Great brands start with big ideas which are communicated with passion

- Great brands lead consumers ,not follow them-but consumer
understanding is still important

- Great brands deliver-great products,great services

- Finally their reputation is established and they become a part of
everyday life

Brands are built bottom up

KNOWLEDGE culmination of experience
ESTEEM respect,regard,reputation
RELEVANCE personal appropriateness
DIFFERENTIATION basis for choice

A brand derives its STRENGTH from Differentiation and Relevance AND its STATURE from Esteem and Knowledge

Integrated Marketing CommunicationWhat can Integrated Marketing Communication do?- Introduce and position a new brand co...
22/02/2017

Integrated Marketing Communication

What can Integrated Marketing Communication do?

- Introduce and position a new brand concept
- Awareness,trials,purchase,preference,repeats, loyalty
- Enhance brand image
- Get leads and trials
- Change habits/attitudes
- Strengthen customer relationships for repeat orders,competitive onslaught
etc
- Address a market problem or opportunity

How does Marcom do this?

- Brand Stewardship-chartering the direction and health of the brand through
its introduction,growth ,maturity
- Creating a single,focused,consistent and high quality image for the brand at
all places and at all times
- Understanding the consumer,the offering and the market and arriving at the
best interconnect /alignment of these in the context of either problems or
opportunities
- Developing communication that works‘opens the eyes,enters the
head,stamps on the mind,touches the heart and opens the purse strings’

Top 10 Reasons Why Video Should Take a Leading Role in Your Content Marketing Plan10. Improved SEOFirst off, utilizing v...
20/02/2017

Top 10 Reasons Why Video Should Take a Leading Role in Your Content Marketing Plan

10. Improved SEO

First off, utilizing video in your content marketing efforts will no doubt improve your SEO. In fact, according to Comscore, adding a video to your website can increase the chance of a front page Google result by 53 times.

9. Stronger Consumer Attention

Videos have been proven to demand more consumer attention than any other medium. And while we’re in the midst of what some might call a content-overload for consumers, capturing attention is particularly key.

8. Higher Engagement

We’ve heard over and over that visual content is the key to great engagement. Video is no exception. So when you’re considering what types of posts to schedule on social networks in the coming weeks, think video: audiences are about 10 times more likely to engage, embed, share, and comment on video content than blogs or related social posts.

7. More Video-favored Technology

With the increased consumption of video and the resulting rise in production, technologies are leaning more and more towards favoring the video-marketer.

6. Greater Optimization Opportunities

How much of your latest blog post did readers consume? Did they re-read parts of it? Or come back to it later and read it again? Did they share it with friends? The truth is, it’s pretty hard to answer these questions on text-based content.

Video, on the other hand, has this feedback loop built in. Measure click-through rate, drop-off points, or number of times watched. You can even drill this down to an individual level.

It all boils down to this: the feedback loop for videos means you know what’s working and what’s not. Now to focus on more of the stuff that’s working!

5. Higher Retention Rates

65% of viewers watch more than ¾ of a video, which is more than we can say about text-based content. So if you have a message to get across (and why wouldn’t you if you’re creating content?), video might be the way to go.

4. Better Email Click-Throughs

You slaved over that email copy for days and it contains important information for your customers! But does it resonate? Will it drive results? Will recipients even read it? Enter: video. The use of video in emails has been shown to double click-through rates. More effective emails? Yes please!

3. Rise in Accessibility

While creating a video used to take many months and many thousands of dollars, the production of great video content has become much more affordable in the last few years. Companies like VideoMakerFX, GoAnimate, and Sellamations make the creation of video as easy as writing a blog.

2. Stronger Emotional Connections

Video is the most powerful way to evoke emotions online. It’s King because it offers a slew of attributes above and beyond traditional content like tone of voice, face expressions, and music, to name a few.

While you may not have feel the immediate need to run out and buy a product from an emotion-filled video, they will likely be at play later on in a more subtle and subconscious way. Evoking emotion in marketing has been proven to positively impact consumer decision-making, even in B2B markets.

1. Increased Customer Conversions

The number one reason for using video in your content marketing plan? Video converts more customers. Simple, right? Recent research shows that 71% of marketers say video conversion rates outperform other marketing content. Need we say more?

B2B and CRM - Part 3Let’s explore …How companies listen to customersStages of the ‘ customerize’ processPrerequisite-obt...
17/02/2017

B2B and CRM - Part 3

Let’s explore …

How companies listen to customers

Stages of the ‘ customerize’ process

Prerequisite-obtaining top management commitment
Stages
- understanding customers
- setting customer centered strategies
- cultivating pro-customer employees and service programs
- retaining existing customers
- gaining new customers
- using technology and measurement systems

Understanding Customers
- Product/Service History
- Competitive Experiences
- Satisfaction ratings ( CSI)
- Complaints
- Suggestions
- Preferences
- Family Characteristics
- Life Events
- Hobbies and Interests
- Pet peeves

Customer Listening Techniques
- Customer Satisfaction Index
- Service Surveys/Audits/Inputs
- Employee Satisfaction
- Customer Research
- Customer Databases
- Customer Service Centers
- Service Quality Measures
- Customer meetings and reviews

The B2B /CRM Branding Model

A Simple and Versatile model

This model because it brings together the core functions of both branding and CRM in a B2B context and provides a framework upon which to hang more complex ideas. It doesn't deal with any of the "technical" aspects of marketing, like PR, media mix optimization, etc., but it does allow slots for all of these things. In short, it's just a very versatile framework.

B2B and CRM - Part 2Outbound Management- This is about talking to the customer- Telling the world who you are !- The out...
15/02/2017

B2B and CRM - Part 2

Outbound Management

- This is about talking to the customer
- Telling the world who you are !
- The outbound function entails communication
- Ads,Seminars,Exhibitions email…..
- Sales presentations, demonstrations, trials
- Product and Service experiences
- Influencers-the media,consumer groups, blogs …
- The target of outbound marketing are the business customers.
- You must deconstruct them from the firm to the decision making unit
inside the firm
- And then to the individuals inside the decision making unit.
- Furthermore, individuals must be understood at the level of both
behavior - what they do ?
- And attitudes and perceptions about the company and its products-
what they think and believe?
- Which is of course THE BRAND

Customer Focused Branding

- Targeting individuals
- I can't emphasize enough how important it is to think of the B2B brand
as the collective set of attitudes and perceptions latent in the
individuals inside the decision-making units at your firm's customers
- What you do here results in brand satisfaction, brand preference,
brand trust, brand loyalty…..
- Repeat business
- Referral business
- And a stream of revenues over the lifespan of the customer- brand
relationship

Inbound Listening

Hear and listen to what your customers are saying about you

There are five primary elements of listening: - sampling (tracking studies)
- chatter (Web or otherwise)
- engagement (two-way conversations)
- purchases (buying behavior)
- loyalty

Generally, these five inbound vehicles paint a holistic view of the health of your company within a company, a DMU and key individuals inside the company.

Part 3 to follow...

B2B and CRM - Part 1B2B- Business to Business / CRM-Customer Relationship Management What's B2B without CRM?- Not much!...
14/02/2017

B2B and CRM - Part 1

B2B- Business to Business / CRM-Customer Relationship Management

What's B2B without CRM?
- Not much!
- Smart B2B marketers knows that converting prospects into loyal clients rests on CRM

The 4 Components of CRM
- Marketing Management
- Outbound Management
- Customer Focused Branding
- Inbound Listening

The B2B /CRM Branding Model

Marketing Management:
- Deciding who you are ? How are you different? Better? More relevant to your selected group of customers?
- The marketing nerve center, where all core decisions are made about the customers and the brand
- Core decisions include those on product features, pricing packaging,placement, promotions- the marketing mix
- Service elements, including all the myriad post-sale touch-points with customers
- The value propositions
- And of course Positioning – Segmentation- Target marketing , the fountainhead of all decisions

Aligning Sales and Marketing Continued ....15. For instance, a lead might lose a point for not having the ideal job titl...
06/01/2017

Aligning Sales and Marketing Continued ....

15. For instance, a lead might lose a point for not having the ideal job title, but gain points by reading white papers and frequently visiting a company's product pricing page online.
16. When a lead reaches a predetermined threshold or exhibits specific behaviors that indicate sales readiness, the lead is then handed to sales.
17. For leads that show initial interest, but do not yet meet the qualifications of a "good lead," lead nurturing must be implemented to foster a relationship with the prospect and move it closer to sales.
18. Eighty percent of buyers now report that they found a vendor first, rather than that the vendor reaching out to them
19. This indicates that buyers are beginning their search process much earlier, which only serves to expand the distance between marketing and sales (in the prospect’s eyes, at least).
20. Lead nurturing fills the time and space between initial search and readiness to buy and ensures that a brand stays top-of-mind with potential customers.
21. Equally important, lead nurturing can be used to recycle and revive old leads when they do not result in immediate sales wins.
22. Sales is seen as a revenue driver because sales operates in terms of positive numbers.
23. Marketing also needs to measure itself based on positive numbers and revenue in the door.
24. When marketers speak about budget and funding, their work is too often framed in terms of cost and spend, rather than impact on a company's bottom line.
25. For example, the common marketing metric "cost per lead" frames the results not in terms of revenue or growth, but as a cost.
26. This is a recipe for a lower marketing budget, and worse, without a clear and agreed upon definition of a lead, the metric is meaningless as well.
27. Marketing needs to create common company-wide vocabulary that clearly relates the stages a lead goes through and how far each is from sales
28. When marketers know sales goals for three, six and even nine months down the road—and exactly what it takes to move leads to sales—they can work backwards to develop their own quotas.
29. This way, marketers can collaborate more effectively with sales and clearly and quantitatively answer the question: "What is marketing doing today to deliver on sales targets and generate revenue down the road?"
30. When marketing activity is clearly tied to revenue, the decision is no longer about budgeting 1.5% or 5% of revenue for marketing.
31. For a revenue-driven marketing department, a company should allocate the amount needed for marketing to hit its numbers so that the sales teams can hit theirs.
32. Marketing budgets should be exactly what are required

No less and no more!

Aligning Sales and Marketing1. The chasm between sales and marketing seems as old as time itself and is often grudgingly...
05/01/2017

Aligning Sales and Marketing

1. The chasm between sales and marketing seems as old as time itself and is often grudgingly accepted as an irreparable inconvenience in business.
2. Yet, as the Internet and Web 2.0 transform the B2B buying process, aligning the estranged departments has never been more critical to business success.
3. Is it simply that the sales animal and the marketing animal have different DNA?
4. Perhaps, but the inherent dissimilarities are intensified by a number of factors on which marketing and sales differ—including timeframes, goals and ways of showing value.
5. The Origin of Different Species
Marketers look months and even years down the road as they seek to develop a brand and grow broad interest in their company
6. Sales is laser-focused on hitting their numbers for the here and now
7. Each role meets a distinct and valid business need, but these contrasting views lead to conflicting perceptions
8. Sales needs leads from marketing to help them hit their numbers, but if the quality of the leads is questionable, the gap between Sales and Marketing will only widen.
9. The quota-driven focus on the present requires that sales leads be ready and qualified here and now, not sometime down the road
10. This need explains two of the key components for beginning the sales-marketing alignment process: - creating a common definition of a "good" lead - and using lead nurturing and using lead scoring to ensure that only leads that meet this definition are handed off to sales.
11. As in repairing any relationship, the first steps are communicating and developing trust
12. When Marketing sits down with Sales and asks for the definition of a good lead and how best to deliver the leads, the dynamic between the two departments changes.
13. With the definition of sales-ready in hand, Marketing can begin rebuilding trust by delivering leads that meet that standard.
14. Marketers can use lead scoring and lead nurturing to ensure that all leads meet the arranged quality standard before being passed to sales. With lead scoring, leads earn or lose points based on their demographic characteristics and behaviors.

Continued ....

04/01/2017

When Do You Stop Marketing To Customers?

Are you afraid of alienating your customer with your marketing? Do you always feel like a stranger in their inbox? Do you have marketing strategies specifically designed to tell you when to keep marketing, and when to stop? Well, stop looking so puzzled. In the marketing article below, I’m going to bring home to you exactly how to join the dots. You will learn just how much to market, and when to stop. Yes, it is a science and marketing strategy, and it applies to online as well as offline marketing. So, pay close attention.

Why Dennis Was Fuming
Dennis McConnell was going nuts, literally. He sailed merrily into the office this morning only to find seven unsubscribe messages in his inbox. This was in response to an email he sent out marketing his upcoming Power Photoshop workshops. His merriness took instant flight. His mood transmogrified into the color of winter, and the sunshine outside didn’t seem to count for much. (Yes, it’s still summer in New Zealand!)

From Angry To Stupid In Twelve Minutes Flat
Like most marketers, Dennis spun around 180 degrees. He pulled the plug on his marketing and decided to send even fewer emails to his subscribers. Why anger them, he thought? The longer he thought about it, the deeper he swam into his turgid pool of fear.

That Is, Was, And Will Be His Big Mistake — And Yours Too!
Why? Let me paint an alternate scenario for you. Imagine you had to give a speech to a hundred people. Say the speech was at the end of the day, and the participants were now tired. Let’s suppose about thirty of them left. Would you give the speech or start crying for mommy, because those thirty walked out?

Without question, you’d still give a stupendous speech, wouldn’t you? Your job is not to focus on the people who are leaving, but on those who have stayed to listen to you.

Dennis was like every one of us. He paid attention to the exit, forgetting there were hundreds of people who were quite happy to receive the information. Are you doing the same? Are you focusing on the goodbyes, when in reality you should focus on those who are sitting tight? Do you even understand the psychology of how people react, when they don’t want to do business with you?

The Psychological Difference Between Unsubscribers And Complainers
Why do people complain? Have you even thought about it? The only time people complain is when they DON’T want to leave. Complaining is their way of communicating to you to spruce up your act.

Unsubscribers, on the other hand are mostly either freeloaders (they came on because you offered something free), or they recognized themselves not to be your target audience. You are never, ever, not in a million years, going to sell them anything. They are just keeping you from wasting your time with them. Understand this concept and you are on first base, but wait…we still have to get to second base.

Second Base Comes Before First Base
Look at mum. When she told you to take the garbage out, you complained. But did you ever unsubscribe? You didn’t unsubscribe from mum because she was putting food on your plate. If you knew what was good for that bottomless pit you called your stomach, you’d stick close to home. It’s exactly the same with your customers. If you consistently give them information that is useful to them, they will stick with you through all the marketing messages you send them. Heck, they’ll even buy!

Don’t Be A Bloomin’ Miser With Your Information
You see this article. It’s not a couple of scraps that fell off the table. It is the full story. Every plot, every twist and turn. That’s what has kept you reading so long. If you send out information that’s half-baked, you get half-baked subscribers. You’ve heard the saying, ‘Pay peanuts and you get monkeys.’

Most advertising is fluff. Most marketing tells an incomplete story. And most articles on the Internet actually edit for space. If you were selling a product, where would you stop your sales pitch? Would you count the words and say, stop at 300 words? Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? So why is it different when you’re selling a concept? (At this point, you’ve read 718 words and are still reading. Doesn’t that prove the point?)
So How Much Do You Give?

Lots and then when you’re done, heap some more on the top. Would you be happy if I left half the questions unanswered in this article? As an expert in your field, you’re way ahead of your customer. Knowledge grows in leaps and bounds. Why not give it away? Give away tons of the stuff, and you will find within yourself, an unending reservoir of information. If you give away loads, it means you have a lot more. Inevitably, customers will see that and actually pay to learn more from you.

To market to your customer, you must be a brand in their heads. And to be a brand, you must earn their respect. The only way you can do that is to give them the full dope.

Ask mum. How many recipes did she give away? Would you live long enough to see the end of the recipe list, even if you lived to be a hundred? Is she the goddess of recipes, or what?

The Curse Of The Unsubscribe
Sales is a transfer of enthusiasm from one person to another. Say that out loud. Most marketing doesn’t have enough What’s- in- it- for-me factor. Most of it has no enthusiasm, and looks like it was written by someone who speaks Greek as a first language.

If your marketing, advertising or sales pitch is boring, your customer yawns. Several yawns later they leave, unsubscribe or make you a permanent resident on their delete list. If you cannot be enthusiastic in the medium you choose to market, get a professional to do your marketing. This is your bread and butter, don’t muck around with it.

It’s Mindless Marketing Without Technology
Some customers jump ship because you aren’t smart enough to use technology. Too many times, right after a client has attended a workshop, you sell them the same workshop again. How dumb is that? And dumber still is the fact that most people will try to work their lists by physically removing the names.

You cannot afford to make mistakes here. Invest in software that filters through the mess and does it flawlessly, instead of you picking at names one by one on your list. This eliminates mistakes and gives you a clean list to market to. Ergo, customers aren’t mad, and your bank account is jingling away.

Customers Are Waiting To Be Led
Don’t let the Unsubscribers worry you. Customers want to improve their lives, their businesses and their careers. If you believe you can do that, tread the intelligent road by educating them in great detail.
Put in all the goodies to make your customers stay. If they’re sick and tired of you, they’ll complain. They’ll say NO. Till then, you keep on marketing to them.

It’s that simple.

These six social media tools handle the 80% of   marketing. Check now!
29/07/2016

These six social media tools handle the 80% of marketing. Check now!

Clean out those old tools. These newbies will help you engage with your audience in better, more creative ways.

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G05, Vrindavan Apartment, #235, Road #10, Defence Layout, Vidyaranyapura
Bangalore
560097

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