Month: August 2019

Categories
Motivational

Learn How to Develop Personal Effectiveness with 3 Tips

how to develop your personal effectiveness, increasing personal effectiveness

Introduction

  • Are you a manager trying to become a leader?
  • Do you want to develop personal power or positional power?
  • Do you know how to develop personal effectiveness?

Every manager in an organization someday wants to become a leader of an organization.
But do you know, what matters the most in becoming a leader? It is ‘people skills’.

“The higher you go in an organization, 90% is people skills and only 10% is technical skills.”

If you want growth, develop your technical skills.
If you want to grow more, then develop your managerial skills.
For unlimited growth, develop your people skills.

So, you have to develop people skills for growing from managerial positions to leadership positions.

But before dwelling into how to develop ‘people skills’, let’s understand the difference between ‘personal power’ and ‘positional power’.

Personal Power vs. Positional Power
Let us take an example to understand the difference between personal power and positional power, and how to develop personal effectiveness from them.

For Example
Mahatma Gandhi had personal power while Rahul Gandhi has positional power. Similarly, Amitabh Bachchan has personal power while Abhishek Bachchan has positional power.

So ‘personal power’ means ‘ability to influence masses by virtue of their own charisma. On the other hand, ‘positional power’ means ‘deriving power from the position, and it may or may not influence the masses’.

Which kind of power would you like to develop?
According to Verse 3.21 of Bhagavad Gita:

yad yad acharati srestha tad tad evetaro janah

It means ‘जैसा जैसा, वैसा वैसा’, that is, ‘Leading by Example.’
To put it simply, the way a leader does anything, the followers will also do the same.
However, it is not necessary that followers will obey everything instructed by the leader.

Leadership is not by positional power, it is by personal power.
Leadership is not by instruction; it is by inspiration.

So, before developing interpersonal effectiveness, you need to work on increasing personal effectiveness to be a successful leader.

Below given are some of the tips on how to develop your personal effectiveness:

Tip #1: Don’t See Things Worse Than They Are

In an organization, various things happen around you, don’t see things worse than they actually are.

You don’t behave based on what has happened to you, you behave based on what you feel has happened to you.

When you feel bad about something, you behave badly. When you do so, it creates a Negative Cyclic Reciprocation.

When you feel negative, you deal negative.

Tip #2: Try to See Things as They Are
When you try to see things as they are, you give benefit of doubt to a given situation. This, in turn, enables you to see things with a newer perspective. So,

When you change the way you look at the things

The things you look at they change

For Example
If you clicked pictures of a mountain, ocean, or a building and the picture taken is not looking good, then what you will do?

Do you shift the position of mountain, ocean, or building? No, you cannot.

You have to shift your vision to take a better picture. So, change your vision to look at things that are where the need arises to increase personal effectiveness.

Tip #3: Try to See Things Better Than They Are
When you see things better than they are, then you will behave better and develop people skills. It will also help you to develop great relationships.

Beyond a particular point, it is not your technical skills that help you grow; it is your people skills that help you grow. Hence you need to focus on increasing personal effectiveness, not positional effectiveness.
You have to feel better if you want to deal better.

Categories
Motivation & Mind Control

3 Tips to Improve Concentration and Memory

Introduction

  • Are you a student who aspires to achieve the set goals?
  • Are you not able to achieve your goal due to difficulty in memorizing?
  • Do you want to improve memory and concentration?
Yesterday, when you went out, you would have seen a lot of vehicles, people and many more things. But how many of those you still remember? None, am I right?
Why did this happen? It is because your subconscious mind didn’t register them at all.
Now, let us understand why did this happen. If you are able to understand all the facts here then you can easily improve memory and concentration more than ever before.
Let’s see three tips to improve concentration and memory.
Tip #1: Unusual Gets Noticed

If you see something weird, unusual or different from others, your subconscious mind captures it and registers it. Like, a baby of a monkey playing with a tiger cub or a car moving in a river.
This creates an image in your subconscious mind, later; your conscious mind can easily derive the information from it.
So, if you want to learn something and remember it for a long time, then give it a different name something very unusual or picture it in an old fashion.

Tip #2: Extreme Emotion, Good or Bad

People tend to remember something that is related to their extreme emotion be it good or bad.
People remember the extreme cold, extreme summer, extreme happiness, and extreme sorrow. Something that is very good or bad will also be remembered for a long time.
There is a cycle that is created from this picture which results in action and action again sows the seed of a new picture.

Tip #3: Passionate Conscious Goal Statement

A powerful goal statement is key to improve memory and concentration.
Whenever something new goes inside your mind, it registers and stores only what is fruitful to you.
If the data does not help the mind in achieving any goal, then it will leave the data. The conscious mind will take its own decision when you hold the goal statement.
For Example
If you as a student want to learn a subject and you have an interest in it, then you can easily learn it.
On the other hand, if you read something that is uninteresting, then you will have to learn it forcefully.
There are two patterns of thinking ’ Structured Pattern and Accidental Pattern.
In accidental pattern of thinking
, your data is not structured and your mind faces a lot of problems while taking a decision.
In structured pattern of thinking
, all your data is in a well-structured form and the mind does not have any problem in registering things and then finding it.
If you will use any of the above three tips to improve concentration rigorously then you will certainly be able to achieve your goals successfully.
Categories
Business Case Studies

How to understand consumer buying behavior?

Introduction

  • Do you understand consumer buying behavior?
  • Do you want to retain your customers?

Consumer behavior plays an important role in the positioning of your product. So, before launching a product it is certainly inevitable to understand consumer buying behavior.

Variety Seeking Buying Behavior vs. Habitual Buying Behavior

You need to ascertain whether your consumer is exhibiting a ’variety-seeking buying behavior’ or ’habitual buying behavior.
A consumer exhibiting ’variety-seeking buying behavior’ is always looking for buying something new or options. He can never be your permanent consumer.
On the other hand, a consumer exhibiting ’habitual buying behavior’ is not looking for any options. He has developed the habit of buying your products only.
So, whom to focus on? Naturally, the second type of consumers.
But, do you know how to convert a consumer from ’variety seeking from buying behavior’ to ’habitual buying behavior.

Let us take some case studies to understand consumer buying behavior.

#1: PepsiCo

Indra Nooyi, the global CEO of PepsiCo, has earned so much esteem that she was once the part of the advisory team of the American president.

But, when it comes to the products of her company, she goes to the malls and checks all the products with respect to ’Shelf offtake’ and understand consumer buying behavior.

Shelf Off-take means ’How the product is looking in the shelf and how much the customer is interested in buying it?’

She is not just making product innovations, but also bringing innovations in the product designs.

Why?

Because: Designs have a significant effect on the consumers’ buying behavior.

For Example

Indra Nooyi once found that the size of ’Sun Chips’, a product by Pepsico, was much bigger than the bite-size making it difficult for the consumers to eat it.

She not only changed the size of the Sun Chips but also brought changes in its packaging, form, functions, design, and layout of the product.

#2: Coca-Cola

One of the most selling products of Coca-Cola in America is Diet Coke but in India, the scenario is completely different.
In America, sugar is one of the biggest health issues and regular coke contains a good quantity of sugar.
So, Coca Cola came up with Diet Coke that does not contain sugar and is successful in America.
However, in India, a huge population is still malnourished, so, even if they consume more sugar in the form of regular coke nothing will happen to them.
So, after understanding the consumer needs and their behavior, TKK Krishnakumar, the Indian Head of Coca Cola, decided not to take the Diet Coke beyond tier 3 cities.

#3: Nike and Adidas

Both these companies deal in sports gear, wear, accessories, and shoes. They faced a lot of problems when they entered India.

Later, they understood the behavior of Indian consumers and promoted their products accordingly.

For Example

In the North-western states of India, cricket is a popular sport; people here are a huge fan of Sachin Tendulkar, whereas in the South-Eastern as well as North-Eastern states football is the popular game and everybody wants to become Maradona.

Based on this consumer behavior and preferences, Nike and Adidas have positioned and promoted their products in different parts of India.

#4: McDonald’s

When McDonald’s entered India, it failed. Later, they studied the consumer behavior of India and found that Indians use potato as a snack in one or the other form.

So, they introduced Mc Aloo Tikki, which got highly successful in India.

#5: Health Drinks

In India, all the health drinks related to lactating and pregnant mothers failed but children health drinks got highly successful.

Why?

Because: Indian mothers are more concerned about their children’s health than their health.

So, they buy a drink that helps their children to grow well.

#6: Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson studied the behavior of urban mothers in India. They found that the Indian urban mothers are alone at their homes.

There is nobody to advise and help them with what they should do to grow their children well.

After understanding this, Johnson & Johnson launched the ’Best for a Baby’ campaign.

As part of the campaign, they provided content about everything that could help a mother to keep their babies protected and safe.

They also gave many problem-solving videos on their YouTube channel.

With this, they created their recall value among the Indian urban mother before positioning their product.

Do not introduce any of your products before studying consumer behavior, otherwise, you may get fail.
With these consumer buying behavior examples, you can ascertain the market need and integrate the requisite changes in your product.
Categories
Marketing

Tips for Understanding Consumer behavior

Introduction

  • Are you an entrepreneur who wants to become a game-changer in the market?
  • Are you planning to run an ad campaign for your product in a new market?
  • Do you know the importance of consumer behavior in business? 

Launching a product in a new market is not a big thing. But, launching it without understanding consumer behavior of that market is certainly a big thing. 

It may boomerang and lead to devastating results for the concerned business!

The consumer’s behavior understanding should be the top priority for any businessman. In fact, it should precede your nature & type of product, it’s launching, it’s pricing, and its positioning into the market.

So, let’s understand importance of consumer behavior first.

Understanding Consumer Behavior

The behavior of a consumer in buying a product depends on various factors. Depending on the factors, a consumer wears different hats or what we say ‘Buying Roles’.

These ‘Buying Roles’ are:

Initiator – Influencer – Decider – Buyer – Consumer

Initiator: A person who starts the discussion for buying a product.

Influencer: A person who vets the initiator’s decision.

Decider: A person with all powers to take a decision on buying the product.

Buyer: A person who finally purchases the product.

Consumer: A person who consumes the product.

How to Study Consumer Behaviour?

Before deciding your product, positioning its price and profit, you have to develop the ability of understanding consumer behaviour.

You need to understand importance of consumer behavior; that what consumers of a particular

geography need. You have to study following aspects of consumers:

Psychographic | Demographic | Ethnographic | Geographic


Make Perfect Consumer Profile

To study the consumer’s behaviour you have to prepare profile of your target consumers on the basis of following factors: Age, income, gender, marital status, education, location, race, ethnicity, religion, occupation, industry, values, social class,  personality, mindset, urban/rural, lifestyle and aspirations.

Having understood the importance of consumer behaviour, now we will showcase some case studies pertaining to consumer behavior.

#1 Pulse Polio Campaign

The Pulse Polio Campaign was launched by the Government of India in association with World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1995. Amitabh Bachchan was made the brand ambassador of that campaign.
In the campaign, he was seen requesting people to get their babies immunized at Polio booth on given dates.
However, in the first five years of the launch, the campaign failed to drive the mothers to the Polio booths to get their babies immunized from this crippling disease.
Shocked from the campaign’s failure, they decided to go door to door in small towns and villages to understand people’s behavior; “why are they not coming at Polio booth to get their babies vaccinated?”
After studying people’s behavior in the village for months, they came to know that in rural areas, elders were responsible for taking important decisions of household, while babies’ mothers and fathers had little control over it.
Portraying Amitabh Bachchan as requesting people to get their babies vaccinated, had no impression on the minds of elders because they had an image of Amitabh Bachchan as a young angry man.
It led them to change their strategy by portraying Amitabh Bachchan as an angry young man, rebuking people for not taking their babies at Polio booth.
It left a long-lasting impression on people’s minds, and the campaign has been successful in eradicating polio from the country.
#2 Cadbury’s in Early 1988
Cadbury until 1988 used to target children as 78% of their target consumers were children. But they used to leave eating chocolates after growing up.
The result was; Market saturation for the Cadbury in early 1988! They were struggling to retain the market.
In 1990s, in order to sustain and expand their market share, they took a bold decision to “remove children from their ads”.
Cadbury re-directed their campaign strategy to target youths by launching “Kya Swad Hai Zindagi Me” campaign.
Since then, Cadbury gradually moved from “children to youths to the family” with advertisements like Shubharambh and Kuch Mitha Ho Jaye.
They influenced the buying behavior of people of all ages through repositioning their brand by changing their campaigning strategy frequently.

#3 Gillette

Before launching their Gillette shaving razor vector in India, Proctor & Gamble (P&G) did a study on Indian students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for analyzing the buying behavior of Indians.

They thought that the “Made in USA” brand will be enough for their product to be successful in India.
However, they tasted failure! Why?
Because they perceived Indian consumer’s behavior from the angle of Indians in the United States (US).
Never launch a product without having an understanding of consumers’ behavior of the target market.
Realizing their mistake, they brought major changes in their product as per the “needs of Indian consumers” after understanding consumer behavior in India.
Their repositioning brought them seamless success over the years. Today, it is the number one brand in the men’s grooming sector in India.
#4 Maruti Suzuki

Have you heard of Maruti Suzuki’s Alto car? It is one of the world’s highest-selling cars.

Do you know that even after 15 years of the launch of Maruti Alto, it is being sold at the same price?
Even inflation is not able to alter the Maruti Alto’s price!
But how it is happening?
Because Maruti Suzuki kept on repositioning it’s Alto as per the consumer’s behavior and needs.
Maruti Suzuki does a lot of study and research before launching each and every edition of their cars.
These case studies along with the understanding of consumer behavior will help you make your campaigning strategy successful.