Mass = LCD

Marketers have always been very smart indeed. Some brilliant guy introduced us to the concept of service based industry. This means that you might come out with the best product but if it is not backed by CS ( Customer Service) post and pre sales, you are going to fall from the customer’s eyes and you are going to lose business and hence market share. On the other hand if your product is backed by really strong CS, you’re going to be a be swinging high. So you can now rake in the bucks. Your market research can be limited to finding out what other service your customer wants, which in any case changes every 45 days or so – just keep giving them one at a time. Keep them hungry; keep them wanting. Give in slow doses. Customers will pay any price to satiate their desires. Just keep your fingers on the pulse of what is their new desire.

Every marketer knows Mass = LCD. There is no need to think too deeply on these matters. Look at the mobile industry! Move over Karl Marx! And I wish I had been more patient and waited and watched and not starved to buy all the books of Marx and Engels in high school and college.

All that was needed to create a class-less society was the mobile phone! Scavengers and masters alike, your sweeper and your paanwalla, your CEOs and COOs, your house help and you are all carrying a cell phone. You are finally one. No? What about the blackberry and the Nokia 3200/3270/1108/1100 – no difference at all? Doesn’t matter if you ask me. Product differentiation is done to rake in the bucks from all segments of the market.

If you really want to differentiate, it is " people differentiation" that matters. What’s that you ask? It is about class against mass. It’s about class that knows when to say no and also determines how much and no more. As against mass – give me more!

Mass mentality cannot be harnessed just as class cannot be cultivated. You have to be born into it. Let me explain with a simple test you can take. Visit www.littlemag.com If you are already a subscriber, breathe easy. You are not the herd. If you feel an urgent need to subscribe, breathe a sigh of relief. Thank the stars. Water always reaches its own level. However, if you are looking at the names and saying " How boring! Who are Satish Alekar, Tadeus Pfeifer, Ananya Jahanara Kabir and Günter Grass? " Relax! You belong to the vast majority where Mass = LCD. You are the marketers’ delight. You are governed by Lowest Common Denominator.

Thanks to you, corporates are getting richer everyday.








13 June, 2006