Sunday, September 13, 2015

New Way of Advertising--Thanking TG post communication

Recently Shopclues.com, an online marketplace launched a new concept of their which they termed as Ghar Vaapsi Sale, which they commenced everyday at 6pm and ended at 9pm. The objective was to attract the office going junta to utilized their commuting time, & utilize the same to the fullest by shopping through APP based interface.
While the above said concept is indeed novel in the thought but that's not what i want to highlight here...the promotions of this event ran across various digital media, & had a fair share of RADIO ad spends, because that's what most of the TG have access to, while they are commuting in Metro, local train, Cab,Bus, Car etc.
The peculiar aspect which largely went unnoticed was the ending note of the entire radio script... it ENDED with a "Thank You". When i first heard it, the first reaction was if i misheard something...but lateron, repeated spots clarified the same, it was correct & intentional.
Have you ever heard/seen an advertiser thanking its viewers(read potential customers) for viewing/listening to the advertisement( whether it is good/bad/ugly). This seemed to be an effort to break from the herd, & get noticed, don't know how many brand Gurus/digital marketers took note of it, but to me it really appealed a lot. There could be multiple thoughts behind this strategy:
1. To really thank the listeners, who patiently sat through their big mouthed, high volume announcement of the GHAR VAAPSI sale. If this is the sole objective, then, this effort needs sincere appreciation, as the brands & companies are really not bothered about the customers' privacy & they just keep feeding them with the content & information overload.
2. To make a niche for themselves & position themselves as a player which is really customer centric, because it is very difficult for new entrants to make a mark in the already crowded Online Retailing space with biggies of the likes of Amazon, flipkart, snapdeal already fighting it out for their fair share of customers' mind. However, customer centricity shouldn't get limited by such a subtle nuance, but should get reflected in their(read shopclues.com) every touchpoint & experience which customer gets. Of all the leading marketplaces, the customer services of amazon.com has been world class, & the assistance received is fairly decent, followed by flipkart & then snapdeal, which makes it a herculean task for shopclues.com to match up, to position themselves differently.

This could also be an indication of the kick start of an era where the marketers would have  to sincerely take note of the condition of the end users(or prospective customers) to whom in their bid to lure to their product offering go the unwanted extra mile, which the customer actually doesn't need. Rampant ad slot bookings, two to three slots(Road blocks at times)  in every ad break to make the noise really irritates the customer. It is high time, that the current communication channels,advertising methodologies, and humility in the approach needs to be incorporated to convey the message more subtly & effectively without over encroaching the customer's privacy & freedom.