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Marketing Of Services : The Importance Of Added Value Services

In services marketing added value services play an important role in making or breaking your brand. By added value service I mean extra or additional services that are offered by a company along with its core product in order to enhance customer experience. Let’s take an example of added value services offered by a hotel. Below the core product of the hotel is offering room for stay all other things in the outer circle are added value services that are offered by this hotel.

These services add value to the customer experience. When choosing the kind of added value services that your company is going to provide first make sure that you make a service blue print. Service blue print is a technique that helps you identify the service gaps and refine them. Also, you can ask your customers’ regarding the type of services they like in your company or the kind of services that they would like you to introduce (customer feedback).

Keep on monitoring all added value services that your company is offering and check if they are even used by the customers or are adding value. For example after 6 month, you might check that the massage center is not used by many guests and it is expensive to run it. If this trend continues then you can discontinue this service and offer another one that really adds value to the customer experience, so make sure that you keep on monitoring these services. I give strong emphasis on checks and balances of these added value services because if they are not managed properly then they can even have a negative impact on the customer experience.

As a company you should not just offer added value services only because others are offering them or you have to offer them for the sake of it. Look inside your company values and ask yourself the question that what are the services that I should offer to my customers to enhance their experience. 

Social Media Management : Facebook

Traditional marketing is becoming obsolete and companies are realizing this. This is why they are trying hard and injecting a lot of money in making their presence felt online. This also makes sense as we are now living in an omni-channel world where we don't search for information from just one source. We search for information from various sources.

Customers at the end of the day want credibility . They want to be absolutely sure that the company can be trusted. If a company is present on all channels this will add credibility to the company. Facebook is a platform that is used by millions of people around the world. Even the Fortune 500 companies are realizing this fact that is why they are spending a considerable amount of money on social media management.

One thing i would like to clarify here is that social media management is not only Facebook management. It involves several other platforms but my post is focusing only on Facebook.

The point i am trying to emphasis on here is that it is very important for a company ( large or small) to have presence on Facebook. It is an inexpensive way to promote your business and get your word out. Also, Facebook can generate brand awareness at a remarkable pace. Also, you can get in touch with your customers , answer to their queries and promote your business.

Other than that , it is sometimes important to have a Facebook page even if you feel that it is not useful for your company. This is because your competitors will be there. It is important to match competition sometimes just to add credibility to your business. 

NIKE Marketing

NIKE is probably the best company when it comes to marketing. This is one company that does know how to do marketing and connect with people at a level that no other company can. Just think for a second, this is a company that sells a commodity. 

If most companies had to do marketing for their SHOES then the first thing they would do is tell people how great quality products they sell and how these products are better than competitors products. NIKE took a different approach , instead of running campaigns on educating their potential customers about the price of their shoes and the quality of shoes NIKE educated people to find their passion and greatness and also valued athletes and athletics . 

This is what makes NIKE'S marketing different from its competitors. NIKE marketed its values and what it believes in as a company. A very important thing to learn here is that marketing is all about values. It is about what you as a company believes in.

Viral Marketing Lessons To Learn From The Ice Bucket Challenge

I can see everyone taking and posting videos of the ice bucket challenge. The other day I was sitting and wondering how did this challenge become so viral?? So I came up with some answers myself. Here are the reasons as to why I believe that the ice bucket challenge has become viral over the internet.

It is fun

The ice bucket challenge is fun to do. This is one of the main reasons that everyone is taking this challenge. While making your marketing campaign make sure that it is fun and involves people.

Short

The ice bucket challenge is short. I mean the videos are just 10 seconds long so they are easy to upload, share and watch. You don’t have to wait a long time for the “action” to happen. People these days don’t have a lot of time to wait and watch long videos.

Involves people

I always say people that these days marketing is not about ROMI-Return on marketing investment; rather it is ROMI- Return on marketing involvement. You have to get people involved in your campaigns. The ice bucket challenge does exactly the same thing, it involves people. You have to nominate 3 people after you who will take the challenge and then they nominate 3 others. This is how people get involved and they themselves share your campaign or videos. 

Google Adwords VS Facebook Ads

I personally believe that advertising on Google Adwords is more fruitful as compared to advertising on Facebook. Facebook advertising is good if your ultimate goal is to generate brand awareness. Spending on Facebook can certainly get you some likes but the problem is that these likes might not convert into “potential clients”. Sometimes people just have a habit of liking a page on Facebook. Hence, there are a lot of fake likes too. Nonetheless, if you want to increase brand awareness and equity then I would recommend you to advertise on Facebook. However, if your ultimate goal is to increase sales then Facebook advertising is not that effective because primarily people don’t come on Facebook to see ads or search for products. Hence, the seriousness of Facebook users is highly questionable when it comes to spending advertising dollars on them!

On the contrary, I believe that your chances of making a sale or getting potential clients are significantly increased by advertising on Google Adwords. This is because whenever people want to purchase a product online or search for information they use Google. Also, if someone is using Google to search for a product let’s say “bicycle” this shows that the person has a particular “need” that he wants to fulfill. The intention is to buy a product that is why he/she is searching for information. Hence, if you advertise bicycle companies on Google then chances are that the person might land on your webpage.

The thing that I am trying to tell is that if you advertise on Google then your chances of getting true potential customers increase as compared to advertising on Facebook. 

Apple and Ferrari : The Power Of Design

Design is the single most important feature of any product. If your product is beautifully designed chances are that it will attract people’s attention and sell well. After all let’s face it no one pays attention to a poorly designed or ugly product. We humans are attracted towards beauty and if your product looks good then it will succeed in getting people’s attention.

When I talk about design the two companies that come immediately to my mind are Apple and Ferrari. Both these companies manufacture beautiful products, products that you can’t take your eyes of. When apply launched the first iPod it was unique , and even before using the product people fell in love with its design because that was the first thing that they saw. This created buzz & excitement and people just had to buy that product. Same goes for Mac Book. No other laptop, before the introduction of Apple Mac Book was designed like it. When it came out people were WOWED by its unique looks and they had to buy it. Similarly, Ferrari is like a beautiful girl. Its design is so stylish and classy that people dream to buy that car. After all, Ferrari does not sell cars, it sells dreams. From the sound of the engine to the sound produced while closing the doors, Ferrari is absolutely beautiful.

The point I am trying to make here is that it is the design that people look at even before purchasing a product. Off course other features such as the quality of the product and functional benefits offered by it are also important but if your product looks good it will get people’s attention immediately. Also, your sales are likely to increase if the design of your product is good.

Even if you are a new company you should try to invest in design. I know some of you will say that new companies or start-ups don’t have that kind of cash to invest but I strongly believe that here is where creativity and innovation comes into play. For example take the example of METHOD which is a company that makes cleaning supplies. They focus on minimalistic product design. Over the years this company has grown into a $100 million company. The founders of this company at the time realized that all cleaning products had a boring/usual design. There was nothing exciting about these products hence they decided to launch their own cleaning products in unique designed bottles, the rest is history.

The bottom line is that product design plays a crucial role in the overall success of a product. Hence, invest in product design and try to make your product look unique.