Why fix something that is not broken? This could most likely be driving your digital marketing strategy. What worked well in the past, with some tweaks, may probably be good enough for well today. If this has been your strategy so far, we say think again.  Your customer has evolved, so has your data, so have you? 

As a digital marketer, you rely a lot on inspiration.  So, your approach may be “Why fix something that is not broken?” What worked well elsewhere, with some changes could probably work great for you.  Perhaps. But sometimes you need a layer above inspiration - hard facts and pertinent insights. Our multidisciplinary team delves deep into your customer data or your Social Stack to highlight to the nearest measure where and who you should be focusing your marketing efforts on.  Enough to let’s say make you inspirational to others.

So what is the Social Stack™? Is it a formula, a complex algorithm, a thought process, a more in-depth take on customer data? Let's say it's all of this, and then some.

A recent study of the Indian start up market has shown that it grew on the back of cloning. If it’s good for the goose, it’s most likely great for the gander. Really?  The collapse of so many well funded start ups was because there was no differentiation in the yardstick that was used to assess the right customer segment across many of these organisations.

 So, a customer bought a pair of shoes from my competitor, so why wouldn't this person want to buy apparel from me? Or home decor, or appliances or books? 

Well, the truth is that what drives a person to buy a particular brand of footwear is not necessarily what will drive them to buy 3 shirts to wear to work.  Take a country as diverse and disparate as India.  A pair of Nike trainers means a lot more to someone who has newly entered the workforce and whose life experience so far has been confined to the hinterland, than would a backpack or a pair of earphones or a shirt. It probably would mean a lot more than buying an insurance or a savings product.

It will also explain why a brand of consumer goods spearheaded by a Yoga Guru has become the fastest growing FMCG company in India - overtaking bigwigs like Unilever and P&G. In whatever form, we can safely say that they got the segment right and they saw something which their counterparts had failed to see. 

So, some say this is India centric. No, we say. Take any country - developed, developing, getting there. Every society, which for a marketer or an organisation represents their customer base, does not fall into a one size fits all mould. Sure there are certain parameters which are common like per capita income, educational qualification, type of house, number of dependants and so on. But what about aspects like social standing, life experiences, passions, aspirations (non financial), culture, ethos, affiliations, beliefs or values?  Perhaps this can explain why an Indian in a smaller city would not think twice about switching to the floor cleaner of a Yoga guru than of a company that has been selling the same product in the same market for a longer period of time. Faith, trust, national pride - these are perhaps factors which no one would have anticipated would tip the scales in the fiercely competitive FMCG market. 

If you want a successful digital marketing strategy, you have to dig deep - go beyond the obvious.  Like focus on those not so apparent or replicable parameters. In fact to not to do it, would be akin to saying you can be successful without a great email server or a database management tool.  

The most significant thing you need to know as a digital marketer or an organisation is

“Your customer base is around, and will be for a really long time. What you need is just a better, smarter way to find them and get to them.”