Is your Marketing Communication Effective?

From the past few decades, ATL Communication has been a blessing in disguise for marketers who wanted their brand to be the odd one out. Its funny how these brands who were once an acknowledged establishment, now are a mere puppet of the numbers game. If your numbers are up you are there in the market and if not , you always have an exit door waiting for you.
Communication sole purpose is awareness and conversions. Communication is not just letting the customer know about the product but also finding if the customer wants your product. Its about what people want and you give it to them.

As, I define those mediums which help us cater the mass audience Mediums are not limited to TV, Radio, Movies, Internet and Outdoor Advertising. This type of communication is good as it helps the customer remember about the product but for only those who see it. Convenience matters and to care of that, customers don’t have to worry, it is the organization who has to figure out how to reach its target group and in what way.

Why do you think Surf Excel a detergent brand didn’t just do a simple promo of a detergent being effective, rather opted for an emotional ad where a child jumps into dirt just to make someone happy. It is not some brilliant concept that they have come up with. It is plain perception marketing, you scan your audience for what they want and how they will act to the environment around them and you strategize accordingly.

In today’s scenario, in order to understand the customer, personal engagement is very important. You need to understand the market vibe, get down on the floor and act accordingly. You have to take yourself to the customer, if he is not coming to you. The one who does that has a better recall for his brand at a low cost as compared to a person who spend 1 crore worth money on advertising and is still not able to achieve results.

These are few examples to support the same: -

Most of the educational institutes like career forum, career launcher, Time and PT are holding informative workshops and free tests for students which give a direct interaction of these institutes with the target customer and hence a suitable platform to sell themselves.

Ring tones and music videos on cell phones are helping the entertainment industry to promote for a music video or a movie for dirt-cheap rate as compared to media promotion.

Various companies sponsor sport events to promote their brand, but nowadays media companies like Hindustan Times are holding weekly events through out the country in which companies can put up their stalls, display banners and posters and arrange for some fun activities. These events give the companies a platform at very low price to promote their brand and increase visibility among target consumer. These companies also give discount coupons to winners in the games, which in turn boost the sales of the products and ensure that first time users try these products as well.

Pepsi organized an inter school cricket event for 425 schools across 14 cities which did wonders for the company by promoting the brand amongst the right target customer for almost no cost.
Most of the pharmacy companies do BTL promotion by getting shelf space through doctors to display their products or by giving away free calcium tablets again through doctors, knowing that for a patient a personal advise from a doctor would hold more value as compared to a commercial advertisement.

Another interesting BTL promotion was by NIKE. An athlete dressed up in Nike sportswear could be seen jogging on an elevated treadmill for the whole day on National Highway 8, Delhi.

Tata Shaktee is a strong rural brand from Tata Steel, for roofing products, has BTL activity in the form of Haat participation. By having a stall at Haat, Tata Shaktee engages potential consumers in interactive games around differentiating attributes of the product. Also, discount coupons are given for interested buyers, with details of nearby retailers.