What does it take to think like a Marketer, in 4 weeks? Four weeks to changing your behaviorism in becoming to understand Marketing and Brand Building tactics.

Author- Jasleen Kaur Gumber 5/3/2015

What does it take to think like a Marketer, in 4 weeks?

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Jasleen Kaur Gumber

ell the age is rather different today in terms of results and so are the requisites of a particular profile. Companies no longer expect a

Finance guy to be confined to numbers alone; it is probably a very usual sight to hear him talking about 4P’s too. The age is rather promoting a balanced generalist-specialist approach. You can’t talk just one!

My peer circle comprises of people who have specialised in a work domain but are way too competent to comprehend, argue and provide valuable insight on cross-functional realms as well.

This trend is putting a lot of pressure on Non-Marketers who have been brought up all their life with sheer numbers, logic and simulations. These bright chaps have had little exposure to the creative and insane world of Marketing.

Though, I have myself had a few friends who have complained about a complete absence of knack in Marketing since they feel they are not creative enough. Others argue, Marketing is vague and because there is no set path to achieving results & it lacks consequential approach. This is exactly what has compelled me to think for a few days and jot down an unbiased opinion on the attitude changes you need to make if you are even a teeny bit interested to be able to understand the world of marketing.

How threatening a situation we will create in our companies if we have outstanding engineers creating super-duper products and completely abandoning their creations when it comes to GTM Strategy (Go To Market). Whilst the sweep to learn Marketing nuance is hitting a lot of technical guys, it still has a long way to go. I strongly feel that a basic amount of Marketing understanding in the folks who actually create stuff can work wonders if they understand Marketing. Because their slightest

W Disclaimer Contents in this article are exclusively of the author based upon her experience of the industry, peer group and corporate life.

Please use her name for citation upon contents picked up from the article body.

©Jasleen Kaur Gumber

What does it take to think like a Marketer, in 4 weeks?

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Jasleen Kaur Gumber

indication to marketing specialists over that product can lead up to shaping some cutting-edge marketing strategies.

The below agenda needs to be practiced for Four weeks. Each week is linked with a perspective change.

Week 1 Objective- Learning the most important component of Marketing- ‘Game of Choices, Preferences and Distribution’ This week all you have to do is strike a memory alarm. Each time a purchase is complete and you get the transaction alert of having used your card you have to ask yourself below questions and pen them down in a notepad each day.

Why did I buy it?

I needed it immediately; Or I don’t need it right now but bought it in

anticipation that I might want to use it later

What did I go for this brand?

It was readily available. I didn’t use lot of logic in picking it

I have always been using it. Pretty satisfied This is a new brand I am using and someone

suggested this to me I saw some marketing information over

this- right now/ a week back/ on outdoor/ on TV, Radio, Print, etc.

This exercise will open your eyes towards the world of choice and preference that work on us without we even knowing. This is what brands have done over the years. Some brands might not have done this kind of brand building but they have worked up some fabulous channel partnerships to ensure their product is everywhere. And therefore even if you weren’t too keen on the brand you picked it because of convenience.

Week 2 and 3 Objective- Learning the second important aspect of Marketing- ‘Communication, Influence & Brand Affinity’ In these two weeks together we try to explore what pleases us as a consumer. By the end of first week already you would start to feel a temperament shift so this becomes easy to do. Again you will have to use mental and memory alerts on yourself, especially your social behaviour. You have to keep a tab of the below things that you might do in these two weeks- week 2 and 3. Don’t forget what you were doing in the first week continues along with this.

List down all the likes, comments, re-tweets, and shares you might have done on your social networks. How many of them were a brand sponsored/ produced/ created/ co-created/ endorsed?

What does it take to think like a Marketer, in 4 weeks?

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Jasleen Kaur Gumber

How many times during a conversation did you did use a brand as a verb?

o Xerox it! o Google it! o I am doing Facebook!

How many times during a conversation did you recommend a brand?

The purpose of this week is to dig into yourself as a consumer and analyse how brands have hit a cord with you and how you as a consumer are responding back to the brand with purchases, mentions during a conversation, sharing the brand message/ promise/ advert, etc. on the social media. You will realise in this week how you have bought into a particular brand and have become a loyalist for that. This exercise would even help to explore you as a personality. There would be common patterns in communications that you like. By the end of this week, you should start studying on Positioning, Targeting and Segmentation principles of Marketing. You would be highly receptive to understanding those concepts under the 3 week study you have done on yourself as a consumer.

Week 4 Objective- Learning the third important aspect of Marketing- “This or That” Your last two exercises will continue rolling over this week, besides a new one in which you would be practiced to becoming critical. As a Marketer, there are ample situations in which multiple versions are worked on to get the best one. Be it advertisements, graphics, artwork, pricing, etc. Marketers know it’s not a single shot game. They

would work on different routes of communication and then through their lens they would boil down to one. May be again test market it, do some more focus group discussions and then finally emerges your strategy ripened enough to put your stakes on. Thereupon, to conclude the schedule one needs to get the hypercritical eye. You got to do the below exercises to hone your skill of hair-splitting:

When you chance on print or digital ads/ outdoor/ TV commercial/ communication ask the below questions to yourself

o Is the tag line/ main message compelling?

o What is the RTB (Reason to Believe) in the communication?

o Could the change in colours do some magic on the impact?

o Does the position of the ad matters? o Were you able to comprehend the

message in the given short duration that you were exposed to it?

o Do you think the ad was talking about your pain point?

o Was the communication doing justice in differentiating the brand relative to others or was it just another run-of-the-mill?

Lastly, from this week start asking yourself if you were to re-vamp it for a Million Dollar contest, putting all your stakes on this one communication- how would you do it?

Yes, that’s because when Marketers are creating anything they put huge stakes on it, they are ready to absorb the consequences of floating that communication. And most vital, every time a brand

What does it take to think like a Marketer, in 4 weeks?

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Jasleen Kaur Gumber

is making a communication to the outside world its exposing itself, we have seen so many marcom (marketing communication) disasters happening!

About the Author- Jasleen is a Senior Executive working in Canon. She has an extensive 5 years of experience in Marketing

and has acquired Double Master’s, in Business Administration and English Literature.

She is an alumnus to the top colleges of India like Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi

University, Indian Institute of Technology, Jamia Millia Islamia and Management Development

Institute. She would be happy to hear your suggestions on

this at iamjasleenkaur@gmail.com or Jasleen.kaur@canon.co.in