Here in this post we are trying to integrate the relationship between a Customer Services Representative (CSR) & a Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR). For Corporate Social Responsibilities the companies are investing a huge amount of money only to show that the company is responsible for the society where they are doing business. Now a days the business has become so much competitive that some times it is hard to invest money for CSR activities. It is a low cost idea to involve Customer Services Representatives on CSR activities. The activities may include, promoting National Vaccination Day, visiting local schools, colleges & universities and teach students and officials about hand wash, sanitation, power conservation and so many matters, this features may include with local community gathering and so forth. As the businesses are competing for new ideas and low cost promotions this activity would be a fruitful one that indicate a socially responsible corporate as well as a low cost promotion.
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We have misconceptions about Societal Business, even our role models and leaders (even some Nobel Laureates also) are providing misleading information to us. What are those misconceptions. First we have to understand what is called a societal business. Societal business is a business concept of doing business for the well being of the society, as well as the non-profits, profit making businesses are also societal businesses. Bakers, butchers, vegetable sellers all are doing societal business as well as mobile operators. But some experts are giving misleading information over societal business and making profit over their campaigns. As long as a business is supporting to the surrounding society it is doing societal business. I won’t say a tobacco seller is doing a societal business. By campaigning Societal Business NGO’s are destroying the societies of third world countries. So no misconception and no misleading information please. Our goal would be to make less harm to the society and the nature and doing more Societal Business for the existence of us and the future generations.
The theme may sounds to new for some of the readers, you may heard about accounting audit. As like accounting audit a brand audit is a scope by which we can measure the actual performance of our brands that we are dealing with. Some times it is hard and even time and money consuming to audit a brand if it is a big one like Lux or Colgate.
A brand audit provides an analysis of an organization’s brand and its brand management and marketing effectiveness. It assesses a brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The audit offers recommendations to improve brand positioning, brand management and marketing effectiveness. Visual Identity Review • Consolidation of existing visual identity • Provision of style guide affirming : color scheme, placement, typography Strategy Review • Marketing plans • Brand positioning opportunities • Creative (or agency) briefs • Media plans Communications Review • Advertising and promotion materials • Other brand marketing elements: packaging, direct marketing, sponsorships, fit out, etc. • Press kit • Press releases • Internal communications • Business cards & Stationery • Website, Intranet & Email campaigns I think we all are experiencing the changing trends of businesses. As the businesses are competing with one other, sometimes consumers are becoming profitable on their transactions. Because the sellers are offering more than the generic product benefit. You would found a bathing soap with some extra weight or extra fragrance that differentiate it from its competitor. A consumer also get chance to win an expensive gift on procuring a product. All these things we can consider as VAS or Value Added Service. Value Added Service can add value to a product or service that makes the consumer for convince to purchase the product. As a marketer you need to identify how you can add value to your product or service. Some times the value added service may be different from a free offering, rather an income potential. If we look on the cellular operators’ strategy, through value added service they are making more money. Rather than providing voice service they are proving internet, connectivity with social networks, anonymous chatting facility or downloading contents like ring tones, games or wallpapers facilities. As a creative marketer you can identify the potential VAS that you may add on your product portfolio that can be added as a bundle or an additional product benefit that can help to make you more money. It would be your success if you can make a value added service that would make your product competitive. Why are still waiting, why not make a creative marketing plan with an amazing VAS!
“Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. It is the art of creating genuine customer value.”
-Philip Kotler Consider the thought of the marketing guru, Mr. Kotler. Many of the marketers are trying to dispose their dumps to the consumers and they thought that it may happen and they would be successful forever. What do you think you can survive forever, you have no ethics, you have no responsibilities, rather you are just a money making mechine and you are making lots of them. Specially big multinational corporations are doing such activities in poorer nations. Some times they test over the consumers of Asian & African nations, like Ginipigs. It’s like a fun hearing corporations are thinking the consumers of the poorer nations are ginipigs, does they ever think the buying power of the summation of the market. Do they ever think after the recession what will happen, according to the economical theories it is not possible to bind out all the wealths to some specific groups rather it will be distributed over the groups to make it equal. It is being observed that countries like India, China, Bangladesh are provinding out sourcing services for the wealthy nations. Do the nations ever thought what will happen next, people from poorer nations will get the technologies wheter are wealthy nations keeps them the reach of the poors. Unemployment rate will increase over the wealthy nations. On USA a labour have to pay $ 10 (it is my estimate I don’t know the real) for an hour here in Bangladesh a very expert IT Professional is happy to work with the similar payment for a day and the expertise of that IT Professional is no less than any regular professional of a wealthy nation. So time is coming for the poorer nations to grab the wealths of the world by utilizung their human power. Corporations have to be more responsible for their acts other than in long run survival will a complicated scenario for those irresponsible corporations. Now a days we are living in the ages of brands. The brands are all around us, from tip to toe we are drowning with brands, living with brands.
As a brand marketer, it is important to build up your brand. Let’s identify what is my brand. I can also build a brand of humanity, you think what is the benefit, the benefit is you could also become a reference for others. Let’s carefully consider who we are, what we want, what is our goal. Then we could found what we can do, how we can change the world. As a brand marketer you have think about your target market, you have to be an ethical person, whether you are selling cigarettes you can even be an ethical person, you can stop selling your products to the minors (I know that is a negative marketing idea! actually by advertising not selling tobacco to the minors we are actually influencing them because human minds are motivated for negative acts). I also know behind every CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities) Project companies are making profits by influencing the target market with their activities. At least a cigarette company can say I am planting plants so I am paying back what ever I am destrying. As a brand manager you shouldn’t follow the false ethics of your company, you have to build your own ethics on your daily lives, don’t follow blindly the idols rather choose your brand logically. By maintaining a portfolio of brands logically and maintaining your behavior ethically you can become a brand also. For a brand manager specific brand identification is a must. If you don’t make branding for yourself how you would want to be a Brand Guru? In recent years many of us heard about capitalism. In this writing I will try to explore what is called capitalism and how the capitalism term has grown with so much strength that becomes an agenda among many of us.
Currently we are living in the capitalistic society. There are people saying the Americanism is the society building and influencing capitalism. In the theory of capitalism we would found that through the proper utilization of capitalism the rich will get richer and the income distribution equilibrium disturbing. If we go behind the scene we will found that the over branding activities of major producers is the cause behind this fact. Branding makes a product highly appreciable to the consumers that causes a high demand and as the demand level is constant that makes other smaller suppliers in most competitive situation. Smaller producers have low resources that makes their brand in a weak position. If we calculate this thing logically we would found the truth behind the relationship between capitalism and branding. We are living in the age of brands. Every thing around us are branded. Do we ever think how much we are excessively loyal to those brands? Why we are so much loyal?
The answer we love reputed brands because of they are widely accepted by those who have already used them and highly appreciate the features. These branded products or services had proved their ability to serve. We like to follow our role models & many times their approval about brands make us loyal to those brands. Almost all successful brands includes a brand image mostly with youth, adventurous, (some times rough and tough guy or girl image) as brand identification tag and they over and over promote these things over us over the medias and our behavior is conditioned with repitative promotions. We usually purchase those brands whether they are new to us but recognized by previous promotional attributes. Behind a strong brand the promotional budget is unimaginable high, so we are purchasing the brands with a premium price. In recent years major business schools are dealing research with societal business. A business term that help to develop the society as well as the entrepreneurs get profit on it. It is far distanced from the term that is used as CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities), in CSR corporates are just spending a negligible percentage of their income on societal benefit as most of the corporates are responsible for destroying the societal inhabitance, where no or very little amount of income is generated through CSR.
Societal business should do business by living in the society and they earn profit for dealing with societal matters. The business may emphasize on environmental protection for the society, they may engage to help people in the society to develop their lifestyle, there are lots of alternative ideas can be generated for such. The main reason for this concept is we have harmed our planet up to a substantial level. Planet earth can survive very little more actions, so businessmen all over the world are looking for alternative to generate more profit by not harming the environment, so this new concept is generating and a lots of businessmen have become interested to invest in such business. Person who have good idea about society and love to protect the environment can start a business to develop the society and earn some extra money. Building a Brand is a hard thing to do. It needs lots of planning, utilizing the plan, observation and control activities. Building a Brand is like building a luxurious and well decorated house. If you plan to build your own house, you need to look what you want in your house that can give you the highest level of comfort on your budget, building a Brand is also like that. On building your own house you obviously look for the best Architect, best quality of raw materials, best fittings, best furnitures that can give proud in front your friends and relatives with personal comfort and security. You want to utilize the money on such a way that could give the highest level possible on a limited budget.
Now we come to the point of Brand Building process. A Brand can build over hundred years and also a strong can build in a year. An intelligent Brand Manager can make it happen within a year. Like building house it also needed to build a hard structure, the structure of the brand contains the product quality, availability of the product, durability, packaging, fragrance, price, status every thing that is related to the product or business is important. It is strongly recommended that a strong reference group should be produced to have say about you or about your product. |
AuthorAs a student of Marketing just trying write some thing on Marketing and Branding, if this simple thing helps anyone just write me on [email protected] ArchivesCategories |