Brochure for sure

B2C sales pitches often seem like a trick.

Take the case of holiday time-shares. Salespersons spend a lot of time interacting with prospects. They scribble on sheets trying to explain various "plans" offered. In the end, you have a lot of uttered promises, a bunch of scribbled notes and a pair of eager eyes peering at you for an answer, but no printed brochure that gives you the reassurance that what you've just heard is indeed the truth and not the taradiddles of an eager salesperson.

A printed brochure can do the pitch a whole lot of good. It increases believability considerably and consequently the chances of  sale closure are enhanced (unless of course one's business model is based on trapping customers through false promises that obviously cannot be printed, which is exactly the impression you create when you pitch without a brochure). And by brochure, I mean a brochure, not photocopies or prints of certain documents.

Another trend I've noticed is the tendency to lead the prospect down a blind alley into a tight corner. The pitch includes questions designed to elicit specific answers that are going to make saying "No" to the offer later seem stupid. While this tactic may seem clever, it actually draws the battle lines between the salesperson and the prospect. The defence shields are upped, and the salesperson is no longer on the prospect's side.

If you are selling a time-share, leave behind a printed brochure that has all plans & entitlements listed (and not just breathtaking pictures of your resorts). If you are selling insurance, hand over the product brochure(s) to your audience. And please, give the prospect some time and space to breathe. The Give-me-your-answer-now approach works sometime when you are proposing marriage, but otherwise it's not a nice thing to say to a prospect.

"Baithoongi piya Bolero mein"

While brand managers and ad agencies "strategise" in conference rooms, sometimes brands get a fillip from unexpected quarters. This hilarious folksy video that sings paeans to Bolero (an SUV from the Mahindra stable) has surfaced on YouTube.

The song takes digs at many automotive brands including the likes of Honda City, Indica, Tata Sumo and even the Scorpio (which comes from the same Mahindra stable).

Somebody tweeted the link to Mr Anand Mahindra, the Vice Chairman and MD of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and he retweeted the link with his comment:

Marketing is not just about "creating" a buzz, it's also about spreading the buzz.

Hey fever

For some reason, some brands try really hard to sound cool & trendy on social media. Nothing wrong with that as long as it sounds natural and apt. However, sometimes the 'coolness' turns so robotic that it teeters on the edge of civility.

For instance, Nokia India, in its tweets, seems so attached to "hey" that almost all their responses begin with that word!

Hey there Nokia, wats wid connectin ppl?

Small change, but it jingles

A couple of months ago, I had thought aloud about the Indian Railways' choice of imagery. The Indian Railways has now changed the picture on its homepage.

I do not know what prompted the change (Commonwealth?), but it surely is a good sign.

Brand romance

The acid test of an Internet romance is the first face-to-face meeting. After days (sometimes months/years) of chatting/emailing/FBing/tweeting, the protagonists finally meet. Quite often, I'd reckon, the imagery built over online interactions gets a thorough jolt in the first meeting.

In today's digital age, brands and consumers undergo similar experiences. Before a consumer meets a physical brand in the physical space, she will probably check it out in the virtual space. As Seth Godin says,"The chances that you and your brand will first be encountered digitally grow every day." If the brand seems worthy of attention, the consumer will probably decide to meet the brand in the physical space. And then she will make that all-important choice: Yes, No or Maybe.

In order to make the first meeting happen, the brand must tell interesting stories. And in order to get the final decision in its favour, the brand must live up to those stories. Brands that tell interesting stories, display behaviour that gives credence to those stories and then wow the consumer with some unexpected surprises usually end up landing regular candlelit dinners with the consumer. Yes, telling interesting stories might need some practice, but the stories have to be genuine and the brand's demeanour must always corroborate the stories. Obviously, this cannot be achieved by pretence. The brand must look inward to source the interesting stories.

If we think of brands as either Romantics or Pretenders (although the two are not always mutually exclusive), it's obvious that the Romantics would stand a better chance of winning over hearts. Sounds simple, but most brands err on the side of overpromise. The first meeting happens. but sigh, no candlelit dinners thereafter.

Related post: Make big promises; overdeliver

[Picture credit: Nevit Dilmen]

What was the Indian Railways thinking...

...when it decided to put this picture on its homepage?

In our attempts to woo the foreign tourist with imagery that strengthens the misleading stereotype of India, we often score self-goals (sorry about the pun, it's FIFA time). Even vintage needs good packaging.

And why on earth should the lifeline of the country be so obsessive about foreign tourists?

Update (22 September, 2010): The "steamy" pic has now been replaced by a "vatanu-cool" one!

To err is Human, to deny Airline

“There was a big fight,” recalls Shuchita Srivastava. “Passengers were not getting off the plane, they would not let the door close. The passengers insisted they had valid boarding cards and it was the airline’s problem to give them seats. One lady entered the cockpit with her child and said, ‘I am going to sit here if you don’t take me to Mumbai’.”

Mint reports that a SpiceJet flight allegedly took to the skies with more people on board than permitted. Apparently, 15 passengers were asked to get off the plane after the scheduled 212-seater aircraft was switched for a 189-seater. This obviously angered the passengers and they declined to deplane. "The airline then asked that the children sit on the laps of adults they were travelling with" in order to accommodate all passengers.

If the incident did take place as described, it is indeed a cause for grave concern. In a situation like this, what should an airline do? Definitely NOT compromise safety guidelines, no matter how much the pressure from passengers. It's obvious that passengers would get agitated when they are asked to deplane after they have boarded the plane with valid boarding passes.

The first right thing to do is to apologise in a situation like this. An apology is the least that a service-provider owes when a goof-up happens. Then the airline could've explained why they couldn't fly with everybody on board and then could've requested some passengers to move to another flight with an offer: whoever volunteered to move to another flight would be flown free or given a free-flight voucher.

It would have cost the airline less than a lac of rupees in opportunity cost, to fly fifteen people from Delhi to Mumbai and would have solved the crisis, without putting lives at risk and without leaving too much bad taste in the mouth.

Communicating the right things at the right time, especially in times of crisis, can save not just faces, but lives too.