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CONFLUENCE 2014 – A prestigious marketing conference conducted by the INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY and MANAGEMENT, Chennai, a part of the Pan India ITM group of institutions, is to take place on 8th March 2014.

On an invitation to present a paper, Seshadri, CEO of ESSQUARES, had put in his thoughts and experiences on a niche area, INNOVATIVE MARKETING STRATEGIES, an abstract of which is given below –

The world today is moving at breakneck speed in all spheres of activity. Whether the destination is known or would it remain a mystery is a billion dollar question. Technology seems to be taking ominous proportions in taking the world on paths not treaded so far and even not thought of in, leave alone the past, the present as well.

Keeping pace with such speed demands the best from every organisation, in time and all the time to stay abreast of competition. However, almost negligible product differentiation, constant poaching of talent, insanely low pricing of products and unimaginable freebies and deals have created a major dent on the profitability of organisations. The customer is truly the KING today. His expectations are more often than not, out of the world!

Organisations are hence battered on all three sides – Customers, Products and Technology. Many have meekly surrendered to such pressures, some have perished fighting, a few have managed to survive, and only handfuls today thrive. Exceptions to these are some, who with sheer size and money power, are able to continue their journey as they always had the capital to keep them afloat.

On analysis, one of the important strategies these handfuls of companies had adopted, apart from basics like a high quality product and efficient production and logistics was “Innovative Marketing”.

Marketing Strategies built specifically for geographies, Demographics, occupation, availability of disposable money and the like paved way for optimised sales. Needless to say, such organisations had understood and adopted strategies prior to their competitors and hence have tasted success. Product pull then took over to ensure customer retention to some extent and continued offers and schemes took care of the rest ensuring market share retention thus helping such companies embrace adverse global conditions as well without any grave consequences.

I would like to, in this paper, present in detail, more insights and share my thoughts on the need for Innovative Marketing strategies for organisations in known segments, some strategies, examples of organisations who had benefitted from such strategies coupled with case studies of my own experience of having played a part in creating and implementing innovative marketing strategies including Guerrilla Marketing.

I look forward to interacting with all on the above during the confluence and am excited to be a part of a select team!

Wishing the MEGA EVENT a GRAND SUCCESS!!

Its strange to me that with such advancements in technology, most business are not even being maintained despite overall growth in their segment, leave alone growth!! Even growing organisations tend to have a lean patch.

Understand that established organisations have problems retaining their market share, but why are small and growing companies facing a mountain at times... Sure, the top management would be intelligent enough to understand the market and weave through the road. But it does not happen often.

Alas, a common feeling by them is that today's junior management is not upto the mark. They do not have commitment, are not concerned, do not want to take pressure.... the complaint list goes on... But who is to blame if it is so.... The middle, senior and top management only isn't it? Would you agree?