Battle For Bihar

The Bihar election is the current hot topic of the newsrooms nowadays.Who will win the election?Charismatic Modi or the Dynamic duo Lalu and nitish?? Sorry to say, i was talking about Honorable prime minister when i wrote Modi not the Sushil kumar modi who can be the CM if NDA wins.Its not only very important to win for BJP as it needs the numbers in the rajya sabha,but also after the Delhi debacle this win will help in consolidating its Power. Lalu yadav, who famously said "Jab tak rahega samose mein aalo tab tak rahega Bihar mein Lalu" can't fight the elections but will look to consolidate the power of his family in the state with his two sons and daughter misa entering the fray this time.But the man who has the most to loose is Nitish kumar,if he doesn't win may be he will have to take a hiatus from the Political Scenario.But if Nitish wins He will become the major opposition against the Modi in 2019.so,this election is not just the simple one;its results will have a far reaching consequences.

BJP has formed alliance with Ramvilash pashwan's LJP , Mahadalit leader and former CM Jitanram Majhi's HAM, Union minister Upendra kushwaha's RSLP. Well under Amit shah they have already declared Seat sharing:BJP-160,LJP-40,RSLP-23,HAM-20.

On the other side there is Mahagathbandhan (Grand alliance) Of Nitish and Lalu one time arch rivals, now partners against communal forces as they have repeatedly told in the press conferences.Well Netaji(Mulayam singh yadav as he is fondly called) was there in alliance too,but he has left the alliance to form Third morcha.

Asaduddin owaisi's AIMIM will also be contesting the elections this time mainly in the seemanchal region where the Minority vote is in majority.

Every party is doing every bit be it the caste politics to mouthing off the opposition.From Honorable PM question the DNA of Nitish to Lalu calling Modi Executioner.This will go on.

But who will gain from all this ??Does the common People get anything from this?PM announced 125 lakh crores package but will it help Bihar grow? as there have many announcements in past which are in the cold bags now.It does seem like bleak period.But one can hope.

The dates have been announced 12th October,16th October,28th October,1st November,5th November.

In a state of 6.69 crores, where everybody has an opinion, maybe this election will be for the development not the caste.But with way parties are checking their caste tick-boxes,It remains a pipe dream that election will be fought on the  basis of policies,visions.

whatever may happen,whoever wins the election just do some developmental work in Bihar. As that's not a charity that's the right of of Bihar.  

Niche Marketing

Niche, the very word sounds so elegant like coming from the Victorian age. As was at that time specifically for Lords, Earls etc. It was a segmentation of Customers. In the current context it’s pretty much similar to concept of niche marketing; which is focusing on the on a small but well defined segment of the customers. Generally it’s aimed at catering to needs of few which are being ignored for what may be the reason. It can be related to being a large fish in a small pool in contrast to small fish in a large pool. This is clearly related to Micro-Marketing; but with a minute difference being Specific product focus in niche marketing.

Before going forward let me put a clear words to niche marketing; Niche marketing is a targeted marketing plan that focuses on one particular section of the market that has high potential to connect with a product or service. Instead of casting a wide net in mass-media and large-event marketing, niche marketing zeroes in on strategically selected venues and media platforms that have high concentrations of these targeted consumers.

The very best example of Niche that exploded after is Facebook; created for the Harvard students and now it has touched 1 billion users a day figure.In niche marketing smaller is bigger mantra apply.Either be it the target consumer or the Product, its very specific.From the three Competitive advantage strategies, niche marketing follows the strategy for Differentiation focus strategy; as achieving cost focus would not be possible in the niche markets Normally.

The things to keep in mind when making your niche marketing strategy would be:

• Targeting the right audience: Well, simply finding the gaps is not good enough; what we to find is the audience with a special requirement.
• Market research: It becomes absolute necessity to conduct in depth research to know the actual need and consumers want along with the feasibility of the offering.
  
   

  

•  Third point would be the competition; what if there is not a single competition,Its not always good. it can also mean that some have thought and found it not profitable.
• Promotion: what market can be achieved through without a promotion But in Niche market,its more critical than mass market.As your target audience can be scattered.So choosing medium becomes difficult.generally people advertise on Facebook twitter and other media But maybe paid search ads would be better way to go depending on the target audience.But its critical to choose carefully as this the place where cost can saved
• Last point but the most important part is customer is the king,they know the business better than companies even.so hearing them out is absolute necessary as they will also be medium of promotions for you.

Before ending;If You Commit To a Niche and Stop being everything to everyone.

Signing off till another time..

Rural Markets: land of opportunities

In a country, where almost its 70% population lives in villages,It has taken so long to Go Rural mantra to start in the marketers.Well the villages whose number almost touches 6.5 lakhs grows at compounded growth rate of 6.2% from the 2000s. And its been almost the 1.5 times its urban counterpart.Well looking at the projected numbers for the rural markets it would be dumb to ignore it.

Well thats the figure only for the Fmcg products. The total spending of the rural consumers out paced its urban counterpart by 25% during 2009-2012.This is just an indication of the might of the rural markets.In the last decade only 75% of manufacturing factories were built in rural areas which contributes 55% of the manufacturing GDP. With the focus on the Make it in India its bound to go up.Rural multiplier effect is the most exciting prospect in this.The growth  bound to happen in is exponential rather than the linear.

The reasons for the marketers to follow the Rural hullabooo are many fold.some are :

• Sheer Number of population in rural area;around 11% of world population.
• Purchasing power capacity of the rural consumers has been on the rise for past decade and so.
• Market growth.
• Government initiatives has lead to better Infrastructures which is doing better and better.
• Increase in Aspirational factor for the Rural people.
• Changing taste and preferences. Times  are gone when rural market was used for dumping ground for outdated urban products.Now the rural people are more aware.

  But as they say All that Glitters is not gold.There are lot of challenges faced by the companies.few of them are:

• Reaching the rural consumer:it is the biggest challenge even now.sheer scattered population of the rural population makes it even harder to reach.The cost of reaching the consumers is high making it some sort of barrier.
• Seasonality of the rural demands make it tough for the marketers and so does the need for specialized sales force.
• Language barriers:nothing more to be said about this.
• Illiteracy
• Underdeveloped logistics and infrastructure

 But challenges can be overpowered Through focusing on the Basics of rural marketing that is :

• Availability
• Awareness
• Acceptability
• Affordability

Making the goods available should be the first priority as its a challenge as well; project shakti, ITC e-choupal are example of that.Acceptability it focuses on convincing the consumers to buy the products Here personal selling approach is required more in rural area than the urban area.Affordability means making products focused on value pricing.But with rise in aspirational group R1 in the villages affordability is becoming less of a concern.But awareness is the most important point In the country where the literacy rate leaves much to desire, consumers himself doesn't know that he requires a specific product .so Awareness is much required factor in rural marketing.

At last I end with Hope that Rural marketers overcome the challenges as it will not only Help the bottom-line of the company, it will also help in socio-economic development in rural areas.

Social media marketing :The way forward.....

Above picture says it all ....It was just last monday when more than a billion users were on facebook,that's every one out of every person on the planet was on facebook. well  barring china and India it was more than a population of any country.It just shows the growing fascination of the people with social media.
Well,its almost a certainty that companies wold promote their products where the  people are .. so with help of the magic words Likes,Share,Tweet etc etc. comes the phenomena of the social media marketing.
Before Rambling on and on about the benefits let me put words to what is social media marketing??well basically Its about using the social media platforms to achieve the marketing communication and the brand positioning goals.If we can increase our web traffic for our web sites ,increase the click through rate the more the merrier.But the most important part is about joining with the customers interacting with them. In the world of clicks, posts and shares it becomes more and more important that consumers get to see you on these social media sites which in turn does a part of product promotions and part of putting your brand concept in the minds of the consumers.

Because so much of the customer experience now lives on the web, social media enables brands to take part in a customer's online experience outside of the typical channels

we have established that social media acts as word of mouth,now it all depends on the the goals of the company what do they want to achieve through it?
a)web traffic
b)conversions
c)Brand awareness
d)communication and interaction with consumers
Depending on the goals of the company It can go for the planning process :keywords to use which audience to target,going for google adwords or facebook ads,twitter promotion or even promoting through instagam. these all come under planning.
next comes the content,it is the make or break content should always be of the good quality.As good quality means shares ,likes etc etc which the motive of ours.
lastly, analytics plays an important role in not only tracking your content and all but also your competitors'.
Well there is also matter of feedback and accountability in social media marketing as companies should always be ethical about it.
Few of the channels for the social media marketing are as follows:

1. facebook
2. Google +
3. pinterest
4. twitter
5. youtube
6. linkedin
7. reddit
8. foursquare
9. level up
10. And many more.....     

Before ending I just want to add social media marketing is not just about the numbers of likes,shares,
and views,in the coming future its going to be the way of life.....

Make or Made:India's growth that matters.....

Before going on to the topic,lets us think what is development??is it the common economic growth which also includes social and human factor.let's cut the chase and make it a tad simpler;development is just coping with the growing needs of the population.it also relates to the demand and supply theory of the economics.

Whether be its make or made in India,there will be development in our country so why so much of drama over this ??

Before evaluating,let me try to define it.Make in India is a national Program through which policies will be made to increase or boost the laggard i.e manufacturing sector.Its main objective is to make India a manufacturing hub.with recent slowdown in chinese economy it can be made feasible also.

Its basically based on the model of PPP (public private partnership).Arguments in favour of Make in India campaign is that it will give a much needed boost to the Indian economy.It covers 25 sectors.

                             Make in India can add 90million jobs in the next decade”

                              – CEO & MD, ICICI bank, Mrs. Chanda Kochhar  

Well if Mrs kochhar says it then its almost validated that Make in India will generate a lot of jobs.

Statistically speaking Make in India will lead in growth of exports which will help in Reducing the current deficits(Export-import)Make in India will help in growing the GDP with multiplier effect.Brain drain can also be reduced.And my favourite point,technology brought to India would instrumental in its growth.We can also add the point of Infrastructure development.

Coming to the Made in India means that just like China the production will be done fully in the country on the basis of the indigenous industries.well it has a gandhian root (swadeshi).the points in favour of made in India are that it will include socio economic factors.while the Make in India Mncs can withdraw anytime.some people argue that technology would not be transfer in the Indian hands etc for arguing against the make in India.

From my perspective both has the positive and the challenges i.e.

Economy	Ease of Doing Business Rank ▲	Starting a Business	Dealing with Construction Permits	Getting Electricity
India *	142	158	184	137

India is very difficult place to do business. whether be it through make in India or made in India or whatever name u want to give.end result will matter.for that to happen changes in labour and land laws etc. is much needed. And the red tapes they will have to go. Lets not forget licences it must be available in less time.

From my perspective creating the right environment for the business matters more as the result will follow. whether be make in India or Made in India;India should grow and develop.