Strategic Samosa. The basics of account planning.

The most common thing in any account planning is to talk to the consumer. But account planner has to actually talk with two set of people, one is the consumers and the other which is the client. 


Consumer:

To the consumer he has to find there hidden motivation and aspirations and figure out a way in a most genienue manner of improving their lives. This is not to sell the brand or arm twist the consumer to believe in the brand. You need to understand what the people want, what they need and what are there values.The concern for the consumer has to be genueine. You have to really think for them. And when you do manage to really think for them, you can connect with them better. This is a lot of hard work.

Client:

As for the client, the account planner also needs to understand him and his requirements. But while he does so he needs to understand the business of the client as well. In some words, the planer needs to be logical as well as emotional. For the client you need to present this desire which the consumer has not as a business speak but as a good old story. You need to  convey him on why a certain communication will work with the consumer and in which tone and manner.

Performance guideline

"Ultimately every performance for an audience is made with a intention that the audience should like it. If an audience does not like a performance, then the performance is not a good public performance".

This was said by I.

However I know that there are people who will disagree. 

Imagine a test Match (Cricket) where a batsman bats all day in a painfully slow manner - which bores the crowd to death, but ensures his team has a good score on board and hence a good chance to win.

I have to agree that its not just the masses who can judge a good performance. If that is the case everything will be a herd mentality and originality/creativity will be lost.

For every Dabaang, or Ready is not the best film made but it works. Then there are films like Laashak which critics love but it is not a hit.

The revised statement here is thus that "while a performer is free to perform the way he/she wants, the ultimate aim of the performance is to win (game / critics approval) in the bigger picture and also gain popularity of the masses (if possible) while doing do. 

This conversation would not have been possible with out the fabulous Veena performance I heard one night (sarcastic) which was so note worthy (that it actually played one note for two hours), that it  made me go to sleep. May be that raaga was Raaga nirdra.

That apart I feel that every performer can perform the way he/she likes in private. But in a public performance, it is a public performance - shouldn't they like it.

Strategem Samosa - Cracking the code on innovation. Chiwda Lives.

Why do humans participate in human interaction in business. Because they have a give an take. They give their time and they take back value.

So how to create value.

• Understand the requirement and identify different ways of creating value.
• Understand the other person and find new ways of appealing to his/her senses. 
• Find Gaps between what the person already gets and deliver the missing.
• Giving back again the same old, same old but at a lower price.

As we saw in the last post  the process of Market Research can be time consuming and requires a lot of discipline.

So the basic simplified version of any research is to set a certain amount of rules and follow it through to get a solution to the problem.

If you refer to one of my earlier posts innovation station. What I missed out in that post was the fact that innovation station needs to be built, just like the Chiwda needs to be positioned as a product in a multiplex.

So to help understand this lets use Chiwda for some more time. (Chiwda is a metaphor, use your core product!)

So we have the objective. - To sell Chiwda.

To sell Chiwda in a Multiplex is an innovation as it has never been done before.  But its not a innovation when others do it as well.

So innovation has to be continuous and consistent. 

So the group selling Chiwda in the multiplex has to have a feedback group (external) which would be reporting them about the delivery, quantity and quality of Chiwda and the audience reaction to it. 

(this works out like VRP's - Value Rating points- for the product).

Also they need to be on a look out for other growth opportunities without diluting the main core. - A good quality Chiwda.

Also dont be myopic and say I am in Chiwda Sales - say I am in Lifestyle food sales.

So to create innovation station there are 2 methods.

1. Internal - Setting time for employees to ideate and take their suggestions. Acknowledge workable suggestions timely and reward them .

Groom the people who can ideate or have the raw material to ideate. Yes 100 ideas will be bad but 2 good ideas mean more profit.

Resources to start something new will always be scarce but I will let you know on a little secret, its not the resources or experince which make ideas work but its the execution and dedication. If you have a team which can do that for you, let them. They may fail. But mostly they wont. If a group of people with a fairly good idea tries honestly, they will do well.

2. External- Setting social media , traditional platforms where people can reach out to you with feedback or suggestions. If you can set up a system where the consumer can give you new ideas or help you promote your product, you can achieve a lot. (see Bazooka Bubblegum).

So set up an innovation Station.

Make mistakes. Have success. Test your waters.

Do comment on this post.

By Ninad Tatke.