Unhappy Dollars $$$$

As consumers, we buy a number of products every year. If the product suites the interest and liking we buy it and become happy and so more sells defining a hit  in the market. On the other side it means big money or profits flowing in and by money , company becomes happy.The companies hire people for various functions like designing ,marketing , operations etc. The company invest money and earns by generating sells.

And so it continues and we call it a normal business. But isn't it boring and too simple !!!!
To explain it better I would like to share my experience which tells a bit different story :

I Joined a company as an Intern for marketing profile .The internship was for 3 months , me and my team of 10 people was given a task to generate leads for Microsoft IT Academy project. While I was doing given task , I started noticing things around as I was new in the corporate world .

I noticed a lot of things to understand the corporate culture and one of the things which really which drove my attention was that almost everyone around me looked so fake and seemed that the lingo Corporate means  a sweet knife used for getting the work done by anyone.

When I started the real work of generating leads , I was motivated , told good things , with good smiles etc but all seemed to much fake . And when I finished my internship , I was given  pre- placement offer from the company , as my team including me really made the company happy .In company's perspective this was a good work.`

I generated some happy dollars for the company but I really made my decision that I would never come back to this company again . The reason is very simple-- I wasn't happy . The doubtful faces and a perception of sly of the company is biggest reason for this.
We often hear that employee feel that they are not paid that much or they are not treated well or any other reason , which shows that they are not happy where they work . The result is that employees do not feel that they are part of the organisation and so they switch the companies often. The ultimate result is that in today's era  is that retention rate is getting low.

If you are working somewhere , ask this question to yourself - Am I really happy where I am working ?

Lets now look the customer's side:
The company develops a product and then heavily markets it. In many cases the product which may not be that useful still marketed heavily as if you can't live without it. People get attracted to the product and buy it. Happy customer for the product and happy company for profit. The funny part comes when we talk about the after sales service of the product. While marketing the product the companies show as if the customer is not the customer but companies  near by relative. But when a customer really goes to service center (in case of a problem in  the product). He/she is treated  as if  the customer is a asking for something he has not paid for.
                                                  

Because of these reasons the customer often switches brand in almost every type of product he buys. Then companies often talk and gives statement that customer behavior is hard to understand and retaining customer has become very difficult .
But just think , if the customer is treated well and pleased with the product then the customer would rarely switch that brand. He develops an association and bonding with the brand.The customer's perception towards the good brand is always good , in many cases he may even ignore the other brand with better features .
Simply because the customer is made happy.
The word happiness is ignored  but yes dollars is seen and the irony is without happiness , dollars is hard to earn.

I  believe that earning dollars in not difficult but yes making dollars with real happiness of internal customers(i.e. employees) and the end customer , is much more important . Many companies don't look anything other than  just the ways to earn money and so many companies  fail to retain their position  or even to survive .

At the end :

Ask this question yourself - Did the company whom you are working for or the company selling you products ,has really made you as the part of it ?

And are you happy as an end customer or even as an internal customer ?

-----------------------------------Unhappy Dollars--------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------By Ankit Sapra----------------------

The concept of " Giving the control to the customer "

The goal of marketing is to stand out and be noticed. Good marketing keeps drawing your customers' attention to your products and services.. Many of your marketing activities will focus on communicating to customers the greater value of your products (i.e. compared to your competitors). Consider which promotional activities will best meet your marketing needs.

And of one of the main aspects is  which strategies to use. Companies use either  Push or  Pull strategies   for accomplishing their marketing goals.

Above all this what's  important is that these strategies can be highly successful if customer involvement is high .If customer engages with the promotional/marketing campaign then it helps the company in many  ways i.e. branding,customer desire to purchase the product,respect for the company ,awareness etc.

One of the ways  by  which companies can  do this to attract its customers  is

“Giving the control to the customer”

This concept states that let  the customer  take  important decisions which companies generally decide like the price ,color of the product etc. Let customer decide what they want ,give the  control to the customer .   

This startegy can really do  wonders for any coampny provided that the company has  really done its homework.As if you give control on important aspects of the product ,it enagages the  audience .

When any  company opts  this strategy ,the promotional campaign or ad automatically creates interest as now its not a simple purchase but involving the customer to really decide how they can purchase the product

Crowdsourcing is about giving over control of creating ideas, knowledge.

Let us see some examples :

●Give away control of your pricing: Radiohead’s album “In Rainbows” was sold using a pay-as-you-like model, which was a limited time offer, and the album sold more copies than previous Radiohead releases.

●Microsoft invited hackers to fix bugs in their Xbox Kinect gaming console.

One of the banks in India (Indusland Bank) did a promotion in which they offered customer to decide  their bank account no.

Giving away control drives sales in the long-term

An even more radical example was Patagonia’s "Don't Buy This Jacket" advertisement during the peak of shopping season. It may have jeopardized short-term sales, but it built lasting, long-term loyalty based on shared values.

But Sometimes giving less control (and more meaning) works even better.

It is the opposite of giving control .It means rather than telling and asking things to the customer ,give customers a surprise or something which makes them excited ,something new and out of the box.Giving people less control might be a way to make them happier. It works when people are terrified by an abundance of choices.

Giving people less control might be a way to make them happier. It works when people are terrified by an abundance of choices.

As example – the travel service Nextpedition turns the trip into a game. It does not tell the traveler where he/she is going until the very last minute.

Therefore if the company really understands the market and its customer then either of strategies i.e.Giving Control or Less Control can  be  really useful for achieving company's goals.

By Ankit Sapra