Author: kuhipaat_admin

Amul Advertisement – Simple and Consistent Brand Strategy

kuhipaat_admin Advertising
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Nostalgia Amul

Amul- The Taste of India. Need we say more? No!

However, our love and connect with the brand Amul make us ruminate over it. A native brand success story example-Amul. A Consistent Advertisement elevating Brand Identity-Amul.  The utterly butterly ‘Amul girl’ is an icon of the middle class India right from 1967. Woah! Do we have any other mascot that old?
The Amul girl is a hand-drawn cartoon of a young, chubby Indian girl dressed in a polka dotted frock with blue hair and a half pony tied up. May be she is the reason Polka Dots are never out of fashion in India!

Back then, brief provided by Amul was simple; ‘Draw a mascot which is easy to paint in walls and outdoors’. Huge outdoor print Advertisement was still to see the billboards. The advertisement idea of Amul was conceived by an agency called ASP (Advertising, Sales and Promotion) headed by Sylvester Da Cunha and his Art Director Eustace Fernandez.

Brand Strategy of Amul Advertisement

It is an established fact that the Amul advertisements are consistent. They do a great job in selecting a trending topic and make an ad about it. Amul has a history of being brave. Through advertisement they have often raised voice against issues, which are otherwise not considered relevant in FMCG product advertising. Most companies avoid getting into dirt by commenting on political issues, unlike Amul. There were even controversies when AMUL commented on national political events such as ‘Emergency in India’ in 1976.

Although the content for the advertisement may be grave, yet Amul with its humour punch establish their view and brand in a subtle way.

Even the media strategy of AMUL advertisement was clear, crisp and consistent. Almost all of their print advertisements come in the top corner of the third page in the main newspaper. Earlier it was Times Of India where this media innovation was to be seen, now we can even see it in other newspapers as well.
In communications terminology, we call it a strategy to create expectations of readers to find a particular kind of content in a particular place. Like we always open the supplement of Hindustan Times, Brunch from the last page expecting the fixed format short & interesting interview of a celebrity.

If you refer to image below, this is exactly the spot in the 3rd page of Hindustan Times where you can expect an Amul advertisement.

Media Innovation – Amul

Brand Strategy leading to Brand Identity

AMUL has just been ranked as the No. 1 Indian brand by Campaign magazine in its list of Top 1000 Brands of Asia for three consecutive year. AMUL is one brand which is sticking on to the old school way of brand strategy. They develop simplistic content and campaign; which would lead mass appeal. The product connect achieved through a planned brand strategy eventually establishes a product with a brand identity. In the long run for businesses to prosper in the cutting edge marketing and competitive era; Brand Identity is mandatory.  People of all ages or rather generation can relate to brand Amul or their mascot.  Although advertising plays a critical role in getting this coveted rank yet, the product management also has to be hailed and saluted. Amul has not only flagged itself via nurturing a consistent brand identity, it has also penetrated households with dynamic products today.

There is so much to learn for upcoming products and brands from AMUL started 65 years back in a small town in the state of Gujarat called Anand.

A Big Salute.

Click here to see some of their fine ads that TSO – The Significant Other has compiled on their FaceBook page.

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Marketing Communications in the times of the World Wide Web.

kuhipaat_admin Communication
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Marketing Communications over the last decade has taken a big leap (of faith!) with the advent of interactive, super-fast, inter-connected world wide web and the myriad web technologies. All the critical pillars of communications – message, media, consumers, design tools, skill-sets etc have undergone a change.

Or I should say, the technological advances have brutally demanded a change in the way we think, create and execute brand communications.The creative process required to roll out a print ad or a TV campaign is very different than the process of creativity required to create a message on the Internet. Building a website, designing a search campaign or executing a social media campaign requires a completely different kind of skill set.

Media, in the good old days was the kingdom of the media planners and the buyers, today the scene is fragmented. Adwords professionals are equally important media buyers and planners. With content aggregation and inbound marketing, the media is not even always a paid commodity. There goes the 15% commission revenue model.

With Internet and technology, the content is no longer uni-directional, aimed at the consumers. User generated content has become a major source of content. Youtube and the whole of social media runs on user generated content. They are interestingly multi-directional. Even TV, Print and Radio have not stayed uni-directional with the advent of tools like Shazam and QR code

Consumers of media have also changed in terms of time spent on each media, attention span and general lifestyle attitude towards brands. Television and Print have lost a good deal of youth in the age group of 15-24 to these new media. Even a cricket match is getting tracked through tweets and Facebook updates.

For the advertisers, it has not been easy. The tools, the terminologies, the knowledge domain is now not with one big agency. There are so many things to know to implement an effective advertising campaign. We need to not only know vector images, illustrator, TRP, Readership and the works, but also know Impressions, PPC deals, HTML5, JAVA, Email, SMS technologies and the whole new media related knowledge.

The client servicing teams and the other creative, studio and production departments of the bigger advertising agencies have not been able to cope up with the digital onslaught. With media and creative separating in around 2003, it only added to their woes.

A marketing company now has to deal with a creative agency, a media agency, a digital agency, a website agency and a technology company for mini interactive applications. At one end, it may be taken as a positive outcome that the industry is moving towards specialized businesses and services, improving the quality of services, helpful to the economy in general.

At the other end, it is diluting the concept of advertising. There is no single brand custodian. The advertising agency used to be brand custodian in the good old days, but the advertising industry has lost its credibility or ability to be the brand custodian. Today, there seems to be no unanimous decision on who is the brand custodian today. The level of confusion in the definition of ‘brand custodian’ is quite funny (and stupid).

In a 2008 HT article, Madhukar Sabnavis, Country Head – Planning and Discovery, Ogilvy & Mather India, once said, “The marketing director or the marketing head is the brand’s custodian.” MG Parameswaran, Executive Director, Draft-FCB-Ulka, once said, “The CEO of the company that owns the brand, is the brand’s custodian.” Lynn D’Souza, head, Lintas Media Group, says, “The brand manager is the brand’s custodian.”

The brand custodian is the person or team that knows the brand the best. Brand, from a marketing communications perspective, is what the consumers perceive or feel or believe; or what the consumers should perceive or feel or believe. The advertising agencies used to have an Account Planner or an Account Planning team that used to understand this aspect of branding. They used to understand the consumer behavior behind brands.

Understanding consumer behavior, or the interest to seek this understanding makes the basis for effective communication. The effort required to understand consumer behavior in this world of fragmented myriad media scenario is a big challenge. But it is a possible challenge.

The second basic truth about advertising is that it is exponentially effective if there is convergence of media. 360 degree communication in true spirit is the need of the hour (and always been the need)

For an advertiser and a marketing person, it is always easier to have one brand expert managing the whole gamut of communication. There is a need for a consultative cum outsourcing business model to provide an effective 360 degree communications services to advertisers.

We at TSO – The Significant Other, work in the this new media paradigm. We are working hard to make ourselves experts in consumer behaviour in terms of media consumption, branding and purchase cycle behavior so that we can create the most relevant message. We also tried hard to understand all the available media so that we can sent the most relevant message through the most appropriate media, through the model of outsourcing.

Outsourcing is the key to the execution of such a strategy. In effect, appropriate knowledge and experience in liasonning with all the myriad vendors is the key.

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Social Media is about knowing Sociology and Psychology.

kuhipaat_admin Social Media
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Social Media Marketing, Sociology & Psychology

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In words of renowned digital analyst, speaker and author Brian Solis, “Social Media is about Sociology and Psychology more than Technology.”

If we communicate according to other people’s background and needs, chances are high of influencing their behaviour. While content becomes a part of sociology and influencing behaviour comes under psychology. In addition we are using technology as a medium of such conversations in social media marketing. Although it involves a huge mass of people, yet it one to one interaction can that can happen.

Any business, small to large, can make use of social media for brand advertising and generate leads. However it all depends on how well we do it. How can we create conversations? The key tasks are to listen, engage and build relationships with people. Things should revolve around the people rather than the business.

For social media marketing to become effective tool in decision making tapping into the psychological aspects of other people based on their socialisation factors is necessary. Psychological factors are needs, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, etc. Socialisation factors are family, location, education, environment, etc.

Digital marketing consequently helps people spread the word about their business which results in brand advertising and lead generation. It is all about identifying the essence of engagement.

Social Media Marketing – An Interesting Video

If we think we are in complete control of our destiny or even our own actions, we are wrong. Every choice we make, every behavior we exhibit and even every desire we have has its roots in the social universe. In the video below Nicholas Christakis, Professor of Medical Sociology in Harvard University, explains why individual actions are inextricably linked to sociological pressures.

Thank you for visiting our blog. For a free presentation of our communication and technology services, please email us at info@kuhipaat.in

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Opinion: Google Pixel is the proof of a gap between brand management & technology

kuhipaat_admin Branding
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Google Pixel Launch India Kuhipaat Communications Digital Online
At an event in San Francisco on 5th of October, Google unveiled the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL, first Google-branded smartphones.

I am a brand management thinker with a knack for technology, and not the other way round. I see the Google Pixel as a product that will not do too well.

It may not be an outright failure, as it has Google and its tech machinery powering it. The PR and the marketing teams of the tech machinery will try all possible ways to get tech reviews, spec reviews, and what-not reviews from all the available Tech verticals and News portals. And of course, it will design a simple Google-styled dynamic website with a few well-shot costly videos that consumers would perhaps like. Some of the features are cool as well, like the camera, unlimited cloud storage and the Google Assistant. (On second thoughts, Google has killed the Google Assistant before it is even born.)

Still, Google Pixel and the Pixel XL won’t do well. The reason it won’t do well is its flawed brand strategy. If Google had an objective of competing in premium mobile phone segment along with iPhone, then it shouldn’t have done the following two brand mistakes:

Pixel should not have had Android OS.

We have seen with Nexus that even if Android rules the market share, a phone with a pure Android OS couldn’t even create a flutter in the market. The reason is obvious, and that is the default brand positioning of Android OS – a poor man’s OS. The latest version of Android OS is even available on a Rs. 3000/- mobile phone in India. Who really cares if Google phones have a PURE Android OS ! Only a fraction of the world population would know the difference.

Google should have a launched a new OS (new brand) with the Google Assistant for the premium market with appropriate branding activities along with Pixel, or perhaps a few months before it to create the hype for a new mobile phone. The new OS should have had a new UI in terms of form and presentation, which would have made it perceived very differently from the current Android eco-system.

Pixel should not have been a Google phone.

Google too suffers from a brand imagery which is not premium or exclusive. It may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it is a free-ware. (This is where I see an opportunity for a premium paid search engine available for the premium market segment, with an algorithm that understands consumer behaviour of the wealthy.)

It could have been launched as a Signature Series by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. I mean, technically it could have been a Google phone, but from a brand point of view, we could have perhaps leveraged the brand value of its founders. There are more ways to launch a premium phone that starts from Rs. 57,000/- and goes up to Rs. 67,000/-.

To top it, the brand managers must have been really busy with their organising of tech reviews. It was a oversight to launch a supposedly premium brand, Google Pixel with a virtual reality head-set and the Chromecast Ultra.

Brand Management & Technology

It is my belief that the everyday evolving technology marketplace lacks serious branding experts. Brand managers, who could think positioning strategy, analyse consumer behaviour and find perception need gaps and flaws for the new technology products and solutions. More so, in the B2C retail market place.

Kuhipaat is a start-up that aspires to fill up that space, and be the bridge between technology thinking and brand thinking.

 

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OpenSkiez – Promotional Website Designed & Strategized by Kuhipaat

kuhipaat_admin Communication, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Website
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The Making of OpenSkiez

We at Kuhipaat Communications and Technology Pvt. Ltd., shortly Kuhipaat, have decided to support the indomitable spirit of our friend Vikas Dimri. We are helping him through the OpenSkiez website in his attempt to summit Mt. Everest. His Mission is starting on 5th April 2017. [click here to visit the website]

Mt. Everest is considered the ultimate frontier of human ability. So, it is a challenge not only from the physical fitness point of view, but also in terms of managing the very high expenses involved. Collecting funds through corporate sponsorships is a daunting task. Therefore, Kuhipaat has come forward to help Vikas Dimri in achieving his dream.

Objective

The single minded objective of OpenSkiez is to create an informative platform. And this platform will let brands and corporates see value in terms of investing on Vikas Dimri. Thus, in turn, help Vikas Dimri’s dream come true.

Digital Campaign – A Support Campaign Website

openskiez mystory kuhipaat mission everest vikas dimri
Home Page 1

OpenSkiez is a support campaign website to help fund Vikas Dimri’s “Mission Everest“. The website is completely strategized, designed and created by Kuhipaat.

His Mission needs him to strategise and plan for meeting his huge financial requirements. We all know Mount Everest is a costly affair, as it needs costly equipments and attire. So, Vikas Dimri needs sponsorships and contributions to make his dream a reality. Therefore,  this campaign website will help Vikas Dimri gather funds to fulfill his Mission.

An Inspiration

OpenSkiez Mission Everest Vikas Dimri Kuhipaat
Home Page 2

Currently, Vikas Dimri  is the Vice President and Business Head – SME, Trade and Working Capital, in Deutsche Bank AG India. Apart from being a successful and respected professional, he has completed other multiple marathons and summits.

Today, he is a good athlete and a trained mountaineer. This shows how well Vikas Dimri is maintaining the “Work – Passion Balance” in his life. People can rarely accomplish both. Yet, he has excelled in his profession as well as his passion.

Vikas Dimri is a great example for all “ordinary us” to follow Work – Passion Balance in life. And we at Kuhipaat, strongly share this belief. We believe that people should pursue both – their professional career as well their passion; be the profession and passion same or different. Some lucky ones get to make a career out of their passion, whereas for others their profession and passion vary.

So, to take a strong standpoint on “Work – Passion Balance” and promote the same among all the ordinary people, this Digital Campaign for Vikas Dimri is paid for, developed and maintained by Kuhipaat free of charge. Somewhat like pro-bono. This will inspire other ordinary people to achieve the extraordinary.

Promote Fitness And Health

OpenSkiez My Preparation Mission Everest Vikas Dimri Kuhipaat
Vikas Dimri’s Fitness Regimen Page

Kuhipaat also believes in maintaining fitness and good health. It goes without saying that Vikas Dimri’s lifestyle requires consistency in terms of training and diet. It requires both physical and mental well-being, which means good stamina, no over/under-weight and no stress. He is successfully keeping both, good health and mental fitness. And that is something many thrive for. So, this website will also be about working towards a healthy life, mental as well as physical.

Strategy

The strategy was to leverage the digital media in terms of raising awareness about Vikas and his Mission Everest.

Custom Built Template

openskiez footer kuhipaat Vikas Dimri
Footer Page

Keeping Sponsorship at focus, Kuhipaat has created this Digital Campaign for Vikas Dimri. OpenSkiez is also built for the sponsors who have come forward to support him. The website is developed on a completely custom built template by us.

Content Strategy

openskiez-blog-home-kuhipaat
Blog Home Page

The complete content of the OpenSkiez is strategized by Kuhipaat. From structure to design to text – all done by us. We are managing the complete Blog section of the website as well.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Kuhipaat has successfully worked on the various aspects of SEO – content as well as technical. This resulted in including OpenSkiez into Google and Bing Search Engines. We successfully made OpenSkiez recognized in organic search.

SMO (Social Media Optimization)

Kuhipaat is working on Social Media Marketing too. We are using various social media outlets and communities to generate publicity. We are increasing the awareness of the event through social media.

Device Responsiveness

openskiez-mobileview-kuhipaat
Mobile View

Additionally, Kuhipaat has made the website device responsive as well. We have worked on the responsiveness for different resolutions. So, one may open the website in any phone or tab or pad, it will be device optimized.

The website strategy and development was just part of the full campaign of Vikas Dimri’s Mission Everest. There are many other tasks coming up for which Kuhipaat is working out plans and strategies.

Marketing

Kuhipaat has taken the responsibility to manage the overall marketing of OpenSkiez. We will work to create the buzz about Vikas Dimri’s Mission Everest. Kuhipaat will help fund Vikas Dimri by acquiring sponsorships. We will work through traditional as well as digital marketing. We will also manage the Public Relation for Vikas Dimri.

Sponsorship fund collection

Kuhipaat is going to approach various brands and corporates to sponsor Vikas Dimri. Thus, Kuhipaat will be giving presentations on how the sponsorships are going to benefit the sponsor. Displaying logos, flags, mentions, etc. are some benefits of sponsorship. Apart from these, there will be different benefits for different sponsors per se.

Collaborations/Social Cause

We are going to add social welfare value to Vikas Dimri’s climb and sponsorships. So, Kuhipaat has successfully tied up with the “The Batti Project” recently. “Batti” works to provide electricity to the remotest villages in North-East India. There will be a “Climb to Light” event, where a part of the sponsorship fund is going to be donated towards “The Batti Project”.

We are working towards forming more such collaborations in the near future also.

Future Prospects

Post Mount Everest Summit

openskiez-blog-categories-kuhipaat
Blog Categories

The website OpenSkiez will not stop after funding “Vikas Dimri’s Mission”. After the Mount Everest summit, Kuhipaat will continue to promote fitness, health and the open skies. And we will continue to inspire people to dream and reach out towards their passion. OpenSkiez will continue to help the ordinary people achieve the extraordinary.

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Digital Marketing and Bollywood

kuhipaat_admin Advertising, Content Marketing, Creative Thinking, Digital Marketing, Marketing
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Digital Marketing in Films

With 1000 films produced annually, Bollywood is the world’s most prolific cinema industry. It is prolific even in its use of digital marketing. According to DI International Business Development, a consulting unit of Confederation of Danish Industry, Bollywood generated revenues of $3 billion in 2011. It has been growing 10% a year. If one closely observes the promotional and marketing strategies of the Bollywood films, dynamism is the only thing one will notice. Bollywood has adapted to the frequent changes in marketing strategies. It comes out as the premier species of the marketing evolution.

From the advent of transistors / radio, Bollywood has innovated to leverage media to the maximum. Even during those days, the promotional activities included on-air contests, interviews with film stars and music composers, selling out complementary movie tickets, options to meet the stars in person, etc. With the emergence of Television, Bollywood started using programs such as ‘Chitrahar’ to promote its films. The promotional activities remained the same, but the media tilted in favour of television. Especially with the advent and popularity of cable and satellite television.

In the same vigour, Bollywood has now adopted to the new media – Internet for its promotional activities.

The report card of Digital Marketing in films

According to the report of Internet and Mobile Association of India, there were 243 million internet users in the country. Today, we have 462 million Internet users, a 90% jump in 2 years. Around 81 per cent of the online Indian population, according to a report by Hungama Digital Media, engages in some kind of social interactivity on the web.

Inevitably, Bollywood had to take all possible steps and risks to utilise the media better than any other industry. The total marketing budgets of a Bollywood movie comprise almost 30-40 percent of the entire production cost. 20-30 percent of that is now being spent on digital marketing.

Bollywood understands that films have a low shelf life. Marketing therefore needs to be swift and wide. It understands that creating awareness alone is not enough. The masses need to engage and connect with the film, its plot and its stars. With Digital Marketing, Bollywood now promotes its movies right from the very inception of the movie. Promotion starts even before the shooting starts.

 

Content Marketing and Bollywood

Content Marketing in Movie Marketing

Content Marketing is a type of online marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs and social media posts). It may not explicitly promote a brand or a product. Content marketing is about digital stories to stimulate interest in the product. It is subtle. Content is placed in various websites by relevance and interests, and can penetrate deep into the minds of the target consumers.

Internet is a network of computers and mobiles that not only allow consumption of content, but also the independence to create and share content anywhere, anytime. Content strategy therefore intends to make content viral, share-able. It must initiate user generated content.

In 2008, when content marketing as a concept didn’t exist, Ghajini, had made one official website, and two additional websites. It was created to start a content spiral. It wanted to increase its reach and raise curiosity about its content. Along with the websites, it released a lot of viral content on its FB and YouTube page. All these created a previously unseen hype for the movie. Ghajini holds the notable distinction of being the first movie to break the 1 billion (US$17 million) barrier in Bollywood.

Dabang broke the records of Ghajini and 3 Idiots. The movie created a twitter profile and a YouTube channel by the name, Chulbul Robinhood Pandey, apart from the ones in the name of the film.

A recent example is of the film Bajirao Mastani, which invested in a content strategy by launching an animated web series titled ‘Blazing Bajirao’. It was released three months prior to the release of the film.

Social Media in Movie Marketing

Content marketing targets Internet Users by their interests and Internet browsing behaviours. Social media targets Internet Users in their closed groups. It’s like referral marketing within millions of closed groups. From an average budget movie to a mega budget movie, all mandatorily design a Facebook page, a Twitter and an Instagram handle.

The team gets the actors to engage with fans in their pages. They even go live on Social Media and chat with their fans. From sharing anecdotes to conducting polls among followers, the pages try to create as much social connections as possible.

Bollywood has successfully integrated on-ground events to boost Social Media engagement. A real event has a better chance of getting viral. To promote Kahaani, Vidya Balan had came out in public with a prosthetic belly. She mingled with the public carrying an onscreen picture of her missing husband. Even the release of the  film was planned a day after International Women’s Day.

The trailer of the film, Rowdy Rathore, was launched in an open stadium in Worli, Mumbai on 2 April 2012. It received over 2,295,756 views in less than one month on YouTube.

Gaming, Mobile Apps and Bollywood

Digital Marketing and Films

Bollywood has been a pioneer in using technology such as Online Gaming and Mobile Applications. It has brought in the know-how required for such marketing tools from abroad. Kahaani had engaged the social networking website ibibo.com to develop an online game. The game called ‘The Great Indian Parking Wars’, required players to park Vidya’s taxi on a street. The game was well accepted reaching 50,000 hits in 10 days.

Unlike Hollywood, Bollywood learnt not to wait for their movies to do well before releasing a game. Bollywood started releasing video games prior to the release of the movie. It has proved to be another effective publicity stunt to grab the attention of the audiences.

The 5 most successful video games released by the marketing teams of Bollywood are as follows:

  1. The team of the Akshay Kumar, Sidharth Malhotra starrer, Brothers release a video game by the movie name. Brothers: Clash of Fighters, had 3D animated life-like characters that looked similar to the heroes of the film.
  2. Shahrukh Khan starrer Ra.One released the game titled RA.ONE as the prequel to his actual movie
  3. Krrish gave India its first superhero and had a mobile video game supposedly made by a fan.
  4. Ghajini was the first Bollywood movie that was made into a 3D game for PCs. It has the voice of Aamir Khan as well.
  5. Dhoom-3 released its video game on Android, Windows and iPhone even before releasing the movie trailer and the songs.

Conclusion

Thus Technology has been playing a huge role in movie marketing. Digital Marketing has been used in all its forms and possible technologies by Bollywood. Consequently, it has been very successful in all its initiatives. There is a lot to learn for all digital marketers from the various case studies available on the use of Digital Marketing by the Bollywood film industry.

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Online Lead Generation – A Valued Marketing Aspect To Help Your Business

kuhipaat_admin Branding, Communication, Lead Generation, Marketing
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A GP Bullhound research report stated that the online lead generation was growing at 71% YTY- more than twice as fast as online marketing.

51% of local businesses surveyed said that lead generation is a challenge. [Source: ReachLocal, 2016]

What is Lead Generation

Lead Generation - Marketing - Kuhipaat
Source: www.jeffbullas.com

Lead generation is a marketing activity that refers to the generation and conversion of prospective consumer interest for a product or a service into a business lead. A business lead is a opt-in sign-up for a product or a service offer. It includes contact information and in some cases, demographic and psychographic information.

Business Lead Generation

Business Leads are generated for a variety of purposes. It helps in building a subscriber base, building a list of prospects to keep the sales team busy, or to create an e-newsletter list. For e-commerce and other online businesses, leads are generated to convert them into customers online in real time.  Lead Generation is not a new form of gaining new business, but it now has a new approach. Rather than sitting at a trade show table for hours on end, hoping that targeted consumers will fill up a form, you can have leads generated on the Internet using search engine marketing, social marketing, email marketing and contextual relevant display advertising in websites where the intended target audience visits. The 3 most commonly used lead generation strategies are search marketing email marketing, event marketing, and content marketing.

83% of B2B marketers use content marketing for lead generation [Source: MarketingProfs]

Types of Leads

Leads are divided into two qualitative segments: Marketing Qualified Leads and Sales Qualified Leads. A MQL is a lead generated by the marketing team using their marketing aptitude and understanding. It

Lead Generation - Marketing - Kuhipaat
Source: internetbusinessmastery.com

uses better consumer targeting, knowledge about consumer behaviour and intelligent form fields to generate leads that marketing team thinks, will convert more. A SQL is a lead that the sales team generates with the sole intention of quick conversion and closer. A MQL is more quality, less quantity. A SQL is more quantity, less quality. 

Increasing quality leads is the top priority for 68% of B2B professionals, followed by increasing lead volume (at 55%.) [Source: B2B Technology Marketing Community]

Businesses who nurture leads make 50% more sales at a cost 33% less than non-nurtured prospects. [Source: Forrester Research]

“Times they are A – Changing”

In recent times, content marketing is raising its presence felt through blogs and content syndication in generating leads targeted by interests, passion and familiarity. Users are made familiar with the brand through interesting content with the hope that they will be favourably inclined to show interest for the brand or the product / service. Hard selling as a concept is thought to be unpopular in the Internet age, where it is easier than ever to reject propositions for a product or a service. In that context It is said that marketers with blogs are 13 times more likely to drive positive ROI than those who don’t have one.

81% of businesses report that their blog is important or critical in generating leads. [Source: HubSpot]

Lead Generation - Marketing - Kuhipaat
Source: familylawrights.net

Having said that, there has not been any significant decline in online lead generation through banner and search marketing that works on CPM, CPC, CPL and CPA pricing models. Display banner and search marketing can give higher reach quicker. The sales channel has a requirement for volume of leads along with good quality leads. This is primarily driven by the advertisers’ demand for ROI focused marketing.

For marketers that are looking to pay only for specific actions, CPL advertising and CPA advertising (also referred to as affiliate marketing) are preferred. In CPL campaigns, advertisers pay for an interested lead. So, they pay for the contact information of a person interested in their product or service. CPL campaigns are suitable for brand marketers and direct response marketers.

In CPA campaigns, the advertiser typically pays for a completed sale that may or may not involve a financial transaction. CPA advertising is primarily used for driving e-commerce sales, mobile app installations and other such actions that are possible to be tracked till closure. CPA is all about ‘now’, it focuses on driving consumers to buy at that exact moment.

Kuhipaat’s Service

Lead Generation - Marketing - Kuhipaat
Source: http://positionly.com/blog

We, at Kuhipaat Communications & Technology Private Ltd. believe that we can help your business by structuring marketing programs to generate leads. We will understand the requirements of your business and arrive at the strategy to be implement a lead generation campaign. A strategy is dependent on the product / service, the target consumer set, the sale cycle of the product / service and the budget that is available to be spared for the lead generation campaign.

Lead generation outsourcing is 43% more efficient than in-house generating because of their expertise. [Source: Fearless Competitor]

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SEO & Inbound Marketing

kuhipaat_admin Advertising, Search engine, SEO
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I can’t help but start with some of the great Seth Godin quotes when I am dwelling the topic of Inbound Marketing. I love his quotes even otherwise.

He says, “If you can’t sell to 1 in 1000, why market to a million?”. He also says, “People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.”

These statements make the basis of Inbound Marketing. Lets understand Inbound Marketing before really delving into how SEO would help it.
Let me intersperse this blog with some of my favourite Seth Godin quotes. Would that be boring. Please allow me. “Why waste a sentence saying nothing?”
Traditionally, and most marketers today, generate leads and fill the top of their sales funnel through bulk email blasts, SMS push marketing to legal or illegal lists, trade shows, seminars, internal cold calling, outsourced telemarketing and advertising. These are “outbound marketing” activities where a marketer pushes the message out through different media options hoping that it will reach the target consumer.
Although there is a high probability that the message would reach the targeted consumer, yet there are a few basic concerns.
  • The message is a generic message designed to appeal the large target consumer set.
  • The message is one among millions of other messages targeting similar TG profile.
  • There are consumer & Government activism to block generic messages using Spam filters, Caller ID etc and frequent shifting of channels.
  • Once the message reaches the target consumer, the follow up communication strategy is not existent. Mostly the marketing team broadcasts the message, and then the business teams tries to track leads and conversions.
Basically, it was about buy, beg and bug consumers spending millions of advertising dollars to sell. These days are getting over, quickly, with consumers in control of the information they receive.

“Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late.”

Inbound Marketing is the change. Its the Marketing 2.0. It is about the practice of bringing warm, qualified leads into the sales funnel and follow them up through communication till they explicitly or implicitly express dis-interest. The basis was again Seth Godin’s Permission based marketing.

“Permission Marketing is just like dating. It turns stranger into friends and friends into lifetime customers. Many of the rules of dating apply, and so do many of the benefits.”


Half of Inbound Marketing is about great marketing content. And the second half is about having strategies and techniques to engage the interested consumer till conversion. Human beings have a finite amount of attention. The attention is therefore spent only on things that interests you. Once great content attracts the attention, inbound marketing is supposed to capture that attention, engage with the attention, make a relationship to exchange more content. The attention would either become a customer, or become an ambassador of the brand/product.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization plays a critical role in capturing attention of consumers searching for content that resonates with the content provided by the brand. Search engines have become the default option to search for content. Students search before asking their teachers. Employees search before asking their peers or bosses.

“Expectations are the engines of our perceptions.”
“If you want to dig a big hole, you need to stay in one place.”

SEO as I discussed in the previous blog, is not only about making your website optimized to be found in all relevant search keywords, but also about creating content in the social media and other Internet eco-systems. The latter simply means that others would equally work hard to get your content across to relevant consumers.

For instance, if you write a post in www.mouthshut.com, mouthshut would work hard to get that searched by relevant keywords. Then if you share that post through google plus, twitter, tumblr etc, they further work hard to get that searched.

Finally, even if your relevant website page is coming in the second page of the search result, the same content may come right in the front of the search result through other websites.

This is called Content SEO, and not Website SEO.

“Ideas in secret die. They need light and air or they starve to death.”

Let your content be that idea. Use proper SEO techniques and inbound marketing strategies as light and air, or they would starve to death.

The author has an experience of 18 years in the integrated communication domain involving traditional as well as digital media. He can be contacted at durlov@kuhipaat.in for consultancy and project execution.

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