Jobs to be done framework is helpful in building the right products — In 2014, I had launched Build Your Community. It was an online tool to audit the online communities of the brand. It also helped to plan and launch campaigns to grow the online communities. But, the brands would rather not use it. Earlier, my digital marketing firm Shack Co. helped…

Ask three questions to assess them — Wrong marketers or marketing agency costs money, time, and effort. Some examples of wrong marketing are spending on trends such as social media advertising or undue focus on social media engagement. 62% of small businesses fail to reach the target on Facebook. Fire such marketers or agencies. Every business owner…

Your love your product more than your survival — My second business venture failed. I had shut down my first business, to focus on the second one (Build Your Community). It was a software service to help brands build their online communities. I looked for the reasons for the failure. One thing stood out. I kept ignoring the early…

Honda defeated Yamaha by using Blitzkrieg strategy — In 2nd World War Germany used Blitzkrieg strategy to defeat the allied forces of France, Holland and Belgium. Allied forces outnumbered Germans. They had better technology than Germans. Yet, Germany won easily. They demolished the 300 years old military history. “A spectacular military feat, but why should a manager or…

Hire a plumber, not a digital ninja — Let’s do a small quiz. You are the founder of a food delivery brand. You are about to hire a marketer in the team. Who would you hire? A digital marketer, who can manage all digital media channels and tools. A traditional marketer, knows nothing about the digital media. A…

There is no marketing in digital marketing — Mini MBA in Marketing is a myth busting machine. The course charts out step-by-step process of marketing. It doesn’t contain terms such as digital marketing, social media marketing, LinkedIn strategy, Twitter strategy, viral marketing etc. Instead, it offers a framework, which allows marketers to use digital tools as and when…

PMF comes from targeting of marketing — There is no shortcut to product-market fit. It only comes with the good old customer research. Without consumer insights, businesses are gambling to achieve the product-market fit. Before product-market fit, businesses have to find: Potential value of the market. Actual population of the market. Current market share of the business. …

Because of marker orientation — Orienting towards the market and the customers is free. It does not cost to think from the perspective of the customers. Yet, businesses ignore the first step to grow. Nokia was once the number one mobile phone brand. It stopped tapping into what the customers wanted. Apple did the opposite…

Local businesses should not blindly trust digital marketing — Social media ads, updates, and blogs may bring a few additional customers, but without a plan all businesses look and sound the same. Small and local businesses hop on to digital because it is doable and cheap. Businesses are slaves to the social media platforms. Food business upstarts such as…