The Story of Dog, God & Smart Marketing

This alludes to the biggest challenge the Chief Marketers face - whether the investment currently being spent on keeping these Dogs alive, could be spent on making something that would be more profitable as God?

Think about it. And think deep. What is the difference between GOD & DOG? Not just a mirror image, for sure - though my neighbor’s son tells me that Dog spelled backwards is God.

Pause. Before, you brand him as an atheist. It’s just an innocent expression, a child’s world view, with all humility and without any offence to hardened religious belief systems.

For, God’s sake, wear your’ thinking hat and semiotic lenses, to decode how meaning is produced and consumed, since we step on to the planet earth. How perfect and democratic the world looks. Isn’t it?

There is no reason to not to believe that principle of linguistic relativity which holds that the structure of a language affects the ways in which we conceptualize our world, our world view, and this influences our cognitive processes. Taking a cue from the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, one can reiterate that language or content shapes our thoughts and determines our cognitive categories.

Indeed, perceptual categorization and conceptualization is learned and basically arbitrary, and the objects in the world can be categorized in multiple ways, giving rise to different ways of describing or understanding the same phenomena. Even, myths that are the glue of society are ones that we’ve created. Indeed, our every thought and experience is a sign; you are a sign; creation as a whole, and each thing which lies or could lie in it, is a sign that feeds our world view.

So, how does this relate to the science of the marketing? Take a leaf out of any Business School’s marketing class - a product, service or business model could be classified as “dogs" when it has a weak market share in a low growth market. These products are very likely making a loss or a very low profit at best, and can be a big drain on management time and resources.

This alludes to the biggest challenge the Chief Marketers face - whether the investment currently being spent on keeping these Dogs alive, could be spent on making something that would be more profitable as God?

The answer to this question is usually yes, as forward thinking leaders embrace audience-activated enterprise approach that heavily dwells on open, collaboration with the consumer as trusted strategic partners in the board room, enabling the co-creation of services.

Significantly, whether it’s personal, product, company, nation, Dog or God…, it all comes down to “telling powerful stories”, those that marketers tell about their offerings and those that we all tell about ourselves, all the time. The only caveat is these stories have to be authentic. Even a slight judgmental lapse can make a powerful brand perish. This is vital since in today’s leveled, democratic marketplace empowered consumers demand transparency as the return on their emotional and economic investment in a brand.

By far, powered by access to near-real-time information, consumers have become more conscious of what they are buying. They are keen to contribute to the society and empathetic to a sustainable planet. In days to come, this will continue to transform business models and open up tremendous opportunity for enterprises to directly engage with the consumers.

To overcome the challenge of communicating the DNA of their business in a smart phone or tab screen CMOs must explain the values that underpin their decisions, and walk the talk to build authenticity to their narrative. These stories must be coupled solidly to green, responsible, products and eco-friendly services that sell profitably, and create communities of growth.

Certainly, among the trends that will reshape the perception dynamics of world in 2014 and beyond - from dog food to incense sticks is the common underlying thread of sustainability. Nurturing a sustainable brand rests on responsibly embedding differentiators in product and services to satiate the user aspirations, and amplifying affinity to infuse irresistible temptation, and build an addictive brand.

What will remain unchanged is: Integrity, and ethics, and continual innovation, will decide how we continue to scale the impact we have in the world in a responsible way. Perhaps, this is the only way we will add continual value to business, society and the planet.

The question is - are we ready to take the leap? We have run out of choice…

The Blogger is Kiran Kumar Yellupula:  The views expressed here are purely personal. Please share your feedback at mediavalue@yahoo.com