H2H – The need to Humanise B2B Marketing.

Your products and services are and should only be extensions of your individual passion and belief system. Every time your customers interact with your brand they should feel as if they are interacting with you or your ideology.

Your Brand = You.
Your customer is your friend and your prospective customer is a great friend you are yet to make.

If you are in the driving seat of your business, i.e. C-Level Executive or Director, who need to take some serious decisions on a daily basis. I am sure that besides paying your bills, mortgage and funding your lifestyle there was surely a bigger reason why you took up such a senior role. I believe you did it consciously or unconsciously because you had the confidence, the aptitude and the will to take on greater responsibility and be answerable not just for yourself but also for hundred or thousands of your employees and thousands or millions of your customers.

I call you senior folks as ‘Problem Solvers’. The ‘Mums and Dads’ of the business world. The decisions that you take in your corporation irrespective of its size, will eventually affect the lives of a number of employees, customers and in turn the wider community.

Whenever I come across a Virgin brand, it feels like I am interacting with Richard Branson. When I use Apple products, it feels like I am being rubbed by the energy and zeal that Steve Jobs injected into Apple.

At BMA14, Cisco’s VP of Marketing – Karen Walker, said - "A brand is really an emotional connection you have with a product or service. Devotion to a brand begins and ends with an emotional connection. It's no longer about B2B or B2C—it's about being human-to-human." (http://www.fiercecmo.com/story/bma14-ciscos-walker-says-emotion-key-driving-b2b-loyalty-sales/2014-05-30)

Cisco is a B2B company but some one as senior as Karen has a new way of looking at B2B marketing. A small shift in the thinking process of the senior marketing team helps drive change in Cisco’s global corporate messaging. Human to Human is the correct phrase to use. B2B and B2C is still a good way to differentiate the type of customer you have but it does not mean that both set of companies cannot have the same level of ‘human marketing’. Whether it is B2B or B2C in both instances, your customer, the person who decides to make a buying decision is a human being.

When you are such a passionate individual, why should your brand communications, your films and your written text be so formal, prescriptive and dry? The B2B communication is plagued with over formality and archaic formats of communication. This I think stems from the fear of being perceived the wrong way. You don’t want to loose a million dollar deal because you used the wrong word, or dressed the wrong way or cracked a bad joke. In the attempt to secure the deal, many a times you wash away your personality from your communication, which makes your brand look very dry.

After 10 years, Oliver Altmann, formerly Chief Executive Officer at Publicis and veteran Paris creative, has founded a new agency called - Altmann+Pacreau. He says his motivation to start his own company is - "An opportunity to bring back the idea as the first priority and propose a media neutral agency, where media, technology as ways to touch a consumer, will come after, but not before the idea.” (http://adage.com/abstract?article_id=293490).

Arianna Huffington, recently mentioned that she sees the single biggest growth sector to be – Content Marketing. (http://www.inc.com/arianna-huffington/founders-forum-the-press-release-is-over.html). “Content is just a fancy word for Storytelling. Storytelling has always been at the heart of everything, whether you are a novelist or a brand. It can be very short, storytelling on twitter or visual story telling on Instagram or blog. Even with Huffington Post, a lot of traffic comes to the site because of where it is shared. The day of the press releases are over. Writing a post for your Facebook account could be a far more important strategy than just producing a strategy that is going to be trashed."

We have Karen Walker from Cisco talking about connecting emotionally with your customer and Arianna Huffington asking you to adopt a content marketing strategy. So how can you as a B2B marketer achieve that? I think the best way to do that is to tell the honest story, which is filmed well. Let the film tell your customer what you believe in. And I promise they will believe in your brand.

We at Ekstasy Films are passionate filmmakers, who love telling good stories. We truly believe that films are the most powerful means of communicating your message. We consult a wide variety of national and international brands and help them conceptualise and produce engaging and creative films for their brands, products or happy customer stories. In consultation sessions, we find that generally a lot of focus is given on ‘what they do’ and ‘how they do it’ as a business but very little attention is paid on ‘why they do what they do as a business.’ Simon Sinek, who famously speaks about the powerful model for inspirational leadership in his Ted talk – “Golden Circle” (http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action) says that answering the ‘why’ about your business helps you differentiate your brand in the market place and gives you a unique identity. I would say it also helps you humanise your product and services and helps establish a more meaningful connection with your customers.

By humanise I mean to communicate as you will to your friends and family.

So a good human B2B communication needs to be:

- Relaxed


- Enthusiastic

- Transparent

- Responsive

- Answerable

- Honest

- Engaging

- Conversational

Advantages of humanising your brand communications:

- You make your customers your friends. Which means they are more receptive of what you offer them and at the same time you are answerable, in terms of making sure that your product or service quality hits all the benchmarks.

- Suddenly communication and marketing becomes more fun. Its like organising a big party and takes away the stress of suffocating brand guidelines.

- Makes your brand real. If your brand makes a mistake, you can say Sorry and you will get a second chance.

- Have a more innovative brand.

- Customer feedback loop is enhanced.

- Helps you and your brand to Breathe and Relax a little, which aids in its longevity.

- Adds more value to your brand.

- Improves customer service and in turn increases customer retention and loyalty.

Some conceptual challenges we have overcome in our consultation sessions:

Typical Response One: We are too large a corporation and it is difficult for us to come across as human. How do we change that via this film?

We Say – The principles are the same as that of public speaking. You can address a gathering of two or a gathering of eighty thousand individuals. They all want to hear what you have to say from your heart. All you need to do is to communicate to them as if you were communicating to one person. Personalise your content, make it relevant for the target audience, and be genuine.

Typical Response Two:I know everyone in the industry and I don’t need to make an extra effort to communicate creatively with him or her on a regular basis.

We Say – So are you saying that because you love your partner and know them for a long time, you will become complacent in your relationship with them and stop wishing them on their birthdays or anniversaries and stop buying surprise gifts to express your gratitude for them to be in your life? Similarly you should not take your B2B customer relationships for granted.

Typical Response Three:My customers are very senior decision makers. They don’t like to see videos. They just want to read something and make a decision.

We Say – The power of video is now undisputed. Researches lead by Cisco and Gartner suggests that if a brand’s communication does not move towards video then it risks being labeled out-of-date. If time is of essence, then use shorter videos and get them produced very well. You will be surprised how much information you can pack into a 1 min video. Once the video has helped you win the attention of the senior decision maker then you can supply them with more written, image or verbal based communication.

In our current assessment of the B2B brands - Cisco and GE are leading the way in H2H marketing. But we know that there are a number of B2B brands out there that can improve their business many fold by adopting the Human approach. We at Ekstasy Films are working with some very aware brands that are using our help to humanise their brand messaging, by using the power of video.

Don't take them for granted

We all live within a complex social network. One of the most difficult things to do within this network is to maintain and build upon our relationships. Relationships which we value, derive our strength from and which give us a sense of belonging. These relationships can be with your partner, parents, siblings, cousins, friends, work colleagues and even online social network friends.

If you really value and cherish some of your relationships and want them to last forever, then please stop taking them for granted. It is not enough to just remember special dates but more importantly, it is imperative for you to be there for them when they need you the most, standing by their side, hearing them out patiently, even when it is difficult for them to make sense because they could be in a trauma, hurt or confused.

If you need them in your life, you need to reciprocate to their needs in the same way you want them to react to yours. It sounds simple, but hard to put into practice.

Moving into 2012, make yourself one promise that you will treat your precious relationships with care, and trust me you will feel a massive guilt off your conscience.

One smart tip to keep your close relationships fresh is to maintain a small separation, a breather or time to reflect, just when you feel that you have started to take your relationships for granted, give them a break and if they were really important to you, you will realise their value and go back to them with new impetus.

Intellectual Mediocrity

Over the years, I have spent time in the company of several great thinking minds, who helped me question things in a rational and humane way. During my studies and travels I have attended several seminars and conferences where some great minds have stimulated my grey cells like no substance could ever do.

But leaving some greats aside, I have started to see a pattern within the wider community of intellectuals. The pattern of being self absorbed, false open-mindedness of the other intellectual’s point of view, a strong desire to win support and get the listeners and other intellectuals to confirm with his / her line of thought and last of all, heightened tension enveloped within a senseless superiority complex. Which has seen me, as a attendee, who truly wished to be enlightened, leave the seminars feeling empty and cheated and find the whole purpose of intellectual discourse completely pointless.

In my opinion, a true intellectual is one who as according to the Oxford English dictionary “understands” (http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/intellectual) a thought, an event or an idea and is able rationalize that by accepting opinions from other intellectuals, scholars and thinkers who put forward their opinions and suggestions and is able to ‘truly take on board’, not pretend to, these ‘other’ opinions and explanations and then is able to reason it and able to present the most intellectually stimulating, rationale argument.

Unfortunately, what I see in the current situation is that the intellectuals have stopped “listening” or are “pretending to listen”, are more concerned about how many articles and books they got published and how many international seminars they attended. It is a humble request to our intellectual community, in this age of cut throat commercial competition and confused social and political times, we the people, are in great need of sensible well reasoned intellectual advice. Don’t go for the momentary applause and try and win some nods in your seminars or rave reviews for your articles from fellow pseudo intellectuals. Try and do the job of an intellectual, which is to provide the society with a well rounded, balanced, mature argument and food for thought.

I am waiting to be intellectually stimulated. And I am sure millions of others are, all day, round the clock, either knowingly or unknowingly.

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)

Comments On Clothing

Wearing clothes is a good idea, as not wearing them might cause greater discrimination on the basis of other physical facets!

And must I say, they also keep you warm and protect you from dust and other harmful substances. In other words, wearing clothes cause social, cultural, sexual and economic discrimination, whereas not wearing clothes causes physical discrimination. Is discrimination wrong?

Well to me, this discrimination is nothing more than a form of differentiation, it is just another way for humans to identify themselves. 'You are what others are not!' But try not to be rude in the process.

Do not use Mr Om Puri as a scapegoat

Mr Om Puri, the politicians might not have understood you but 'we' the common man has.

As a very proud citizen of India, who has been touched and inspired by Anna's movement, I echo the voice of millions of Indians who feel that a vast majority of politicians, have court cases and some very serious unresolved charges against them. And there are several other selfish politicians who only come into power to fulfil their own personal selfish ends.This is what Mr Om Puri was trying to convey on stage, maybe in not the most politically correct fashion.

Several of my friends, near and dear ones,and myself, feel that Mr Om Puri never insulted the parliament or the very institution of democracy.

We appeal to our Dear Politicians - please stop being so sensitive. The country has been insulted and harmed time and time again for decades due to the irresponsible behaviour of some of the unrighteous politicians and our outcry was never heard.

We feel that he has the complete right to say what he said. He has the freedom of speech. We are all frustrated with the scandals, the double standards and the false promises. India could have doubled or even trebled their growth, if the corrupt politicians had not come in the way. We have a very big international agenda, and we cannot let the corrupt politicians use the pious democratic system of Indian democracy to drain the country of its riches.

I appeal to all the righteous politicians who have a clear conscience and are really trying to do good for our Indian community, to support Mr Om Puri and all the citizens to try and amend the wrong, which is happening in the core of our political system.

To the good politicians, who have become a little sensitive about Mr Om Puri's remarks, I only have to say this - "One bad apple spoils the bunch." Rather than making Mr Om Puri a scapegoat, please work harder to improve the image of your political community, if you don't wish to hear these remarks from the common man, again, again and yet again.

If you continue bashing Mr Om Puri, our (the common man's) confidence will keep decreasing in your ability to tackle the serious issues. And to some extent we feel that you are trying to curb our (the common man's) voice.

Jai Anna Hazare!! Jai Hindustan!!

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.