How to put Relationship Marketing into practice?

Relationship marketing as a vague concept, which becomes clear only when put into practice. Purely because building a relationship is the primary goal or should be the primary goal of every business endeavour at every stage of its interaction with its customer. You should clearly not aim to just get an impulsive buy from your client and then forget about them and move on because then that is not business, it is immoral opportunism.

A good moral and ethical business will develop a relationship marketing plan and allocate a budget for it. In my opinion relationship marketing kicks in from the very first contact the company makes with the potential client. and through the journey of trust building and helping the prospect to turn into a client. and then keeping the client a happy client as part of the acquisition stage. and then into the loyalty stage. You build relationships at all stages of your customer journey. Just like a real life relationship with family, partner or friend.
But you got to remember that relationships will not always be positive, they might involve, conflict, struggle, negotiation, unhappy moments, disbelief, discomfort, malice.

It is here that the company needs to behave like a modern father to a child. Where it should be patient and if the child is making unreasonable demands, take the argument on board and then try and resolve the conflict through the eyes of the customer / child. But equally, if you were in the wrong go forward and apologise to your kids and pick them up, hug them and kiss them and maybe buy them their favourite treat. I hope you get the drift.

Interestingly enough, I feel relationship marketing is very similar to improvisation in theatre practice. You Accept what the customer says or reacts, ie action and then you build upon it. Rather than having a monologue of trying to just sell sell sell. You understand what the customer is trying to say and then react accordingly. Establish a Dialogue, which is the basis of all great relationships.

I must confess that the closest any marketing tool has come to creating clear communication or dialogue and trust building, besides face to face meetings is - video marketing. Produce a short 30 sec to 2 min short film on what you are trying to communicate to your customer at the level of relationship you are at with them and then allow them to feed their responses back to you via social media, company website, emails, letters or blogs.

If you would like to know more about how to best utilise video production and video marketing in your endeavour to champion relationship marketing, then please feel free to contact Mike Saraswat or Indu Pillai at Ekstasy Ltd (mike@ekstasy.co or indu@ekstasy.co)

Opium / Nasha is good for Life

I have for a very long time been struggling with the question of who we are and what is the purpose of our lives? Both scientific and religious explanations seem to be unflattering and the end of their wits.

I discovered a little secret the other day. There is no explanation and maybe in our generation's lifetime we will never have an explanation or even worse our human species in its eternity of its existence will never find the true reason of its existence and just continue its quest of self discovery.

I say the only way to live with dignity, a lot of self confidence and a true purpose of life, is to get addicted. Find your OPIUM / NASHA.

The opium I am talking about is more addictive and intoxicating than any actual substance based drug, tablet or powder. The true opium of our lives is the passion or that one idea that we are obsessed with and feel for it so strongly that it helps us to define our lives.

For you your Opium could be to be a good lover / father / mother / child / grandparent or someone who carers for the world's lesser fortunate. You could find your Nasha in your profession - being the best doctor, teacher or scientist. Or you could just have the desire to be the richest man alive or be politically very powerful or be the fastest runner alive, the most loved actor or a rock star or maybe an intellectual.

Your opium need not be a grand idea or goal or of world domination or extraordinary excellence, it can be of simple things in life, to be a good providing husband, to lead a dignified respectable living or even to master your fly fishing skills or increase your coin collection or whatever.

Just remember keep your passions positive, they should not hurt, kill or be unjust to anybody, including animals or nature.

Many people call this Nasha / Opium the True Calling. If you find it difficult to find your True Calling, then speak to me. I am not God or his Oracle but may be we could talk and help you find out your True Calling. Find out what really gets you ticking.

Stay addicted, there is nothing like the high of life.