Mapping the startup landscape can be an insightful exercise, one that throws up as many don’t’s as do’s. In hindsight, successful or failed startups would point to many defining factors and one that invariably stands out is the viability of a venture’s marketing strategy. We are living in times when stories are all that matter - narratives that are endorsed in a social media driven eco-system and which get translated into the right optics for your product or service. Controlling this narrative is a matter of investing in marketing resources efficiently.     In a conversation with Forbes magazine, Kipp Bodnar, CMO of  HubSpot, a business growth platform , has an interesting observation to make regarding startups and their marketing approach, “They have one marketer. They essentially have 30-50 hours of labo u r a week. The firm/marketer decides to do the following 1) W eekly email newsletter 2) Social media communicat ion 3) M arketing automation 4) Monthly ...

A leader who thinks and brings his thoughts to reality impacting several people to learn, inspire, create with his innovative ideas, while demonstrating change and replicating success, at a larger scale comes under Thought Leadership. Such people bring about a radical shift in innovation [1] , design and vision by affecting industries and also entire ecosystems. They revolutionize their surroundings to such a large extent, simply by what they do, that they automatically enroll more and more people to join in their efforts. Thought Leaders are learned and informed people, sometimes with years of research and knowledge under their belt as well as experts in their domain. Their stories are covered widely, contributing to the success they are today. By de facto standards, one looks-up to successful people. It is but natural for human beings to ‘Follow the Leader’ but more so, as it is ingrained in our psyche through several systems such as education, psychology, business modalities, semi...

ABC for Technology a Bangalore-based Edutech bellwether has hired OCMO to helm its marketing & growth function. ABC is a new-age professional training school that creates, curates and imparts knowledge designed to prime grads for employment in the IT industry. The online and offline courses are in Java, Python, Testing, Data Science and Full-Stack. ABC’s programs are marked by their relevance to current and future industry needs and instructional simplicity. The courses prepare young grads for entry and fast growth in leading IT companies. For expanding its foothold in this highly competitive business arena, ABC was looking for a partner with a proven track record, a flexible, cost-effective delivery model and vast experience. It’s search ended with OCMO because it’s unique co-hire model checked all its boxes. The model is a win-win proposition as it gives ABC the services of a seasoned marketing veteran and his entire network of resources to both engineer a...

The latest buzzword in marketing is empathy. Many companies are successfully utilizing the power of empathy to push their brand to the next level.  Some examples: Philips invented a miniature version of a CAT scanner called the ‘kitten scanner’ along with  toy animal characters that were used as patients and a TV screen to dispel the fear of MRI among children   P&G ad released in time for London Olympics 2012 shows the trials and tribulations of mothers raising young athletes.   Microsoft’s interactive site Anatomy of a Data Breach that explains how data is stolen and how one can protect own data. Enhancing empathy not only outside your company but also inside is great for your business.  Yet, according to a 2019 survey by Businessolver, 92% of employees feel that their bosses do not give enough importance to empathy. But what has it got to do with marketing success? The same study says that 93% of employees are more likely to...

Marketers react to a saturated market in different ways. Many are discouraged by the very thought of entering a saturated market, others find it tough to survive in such market yet there are other entrepreneurs who not only survive but grow in a saturated market. Then there are those who are at the start of their business journey but are unfazed by a market filled with potential competitors and carve out a niche for themselves in this very market.    So what is the secret of winning business in a saturated market? A saturated market is, in fact, a thriving market with tremendous demand and hence offers a great opportunity for growth. Thus entrepreneurs need not be intimidated by a saturated market. Instead, they should see it as an opportunity to tap into the tremendous demand that is the hallmark of such a market. According to Seena Sharp the author of Competitive Intelligence Advantage , a saturated market is a sign that there is a lot of opportun...

Every business wants to grow fast.  All businesses want to cut costs. But is it possible for businesses to grow fast and at the same time cut marketing costs? Until recently that question was rhetorical with only one possible answer: NO.  But in the digital world of virtual enterprise and agile startups, a whole new business ecosystem has emerged, where every rule is being rewritten every day. Far from the days of monopolies and proprietorial monoliths, in this new business habitat, enterprises grow at mind-boggling speeds by ‘sharing’ not by owning.  From office spaces and data to logistics and key human resources, success in today’s business depends on how smartly you can “share” and “network”. And in this space sure it is absolutely possible for businesses to grow fast and cuts marketing costs both at the same time!  Outsourced CMO is an idea based on sharing that is helping companies scale rapidly at low costs simply by discarding the archaic ...

Profit being the key driver of any business, all its activities are necessarily aligned to achieving this goal. Employee engagement is one of the means being increasingly employed by businesses worldwide to maximize  their profits. The latest trends in employee engagement indicate that future companies would be driven by compassionate leaders, marked by greater flexibility and much greater influence of big data…all aligned to creating engagement rich organisational cultures.   But regardless of the direction it takes in the future, employee engagement entails both monetary and physical costs. Companies typically spend massive amounts of money on incentives, benefits and reward programs. They must train and develop their employees and also spend on various supporting programs, physical and IT infrastructure. All of this plays a critical role in the success or otherwise of employee engagement.  The problem But despite such massive outlays Gallup’s po...

The Shared Economy Concept, at its core, is based on the most efficient use of money and resources. In the era of start-ups, gathering the resources is the most challenging aspect of any start-up. The broader vision of the founders of a start-up need to be simplified into micro plans so as to achieve the objective initially set. These micro plans focus on the resource requirements of the start –up. By resource requirement we mean all the tangible and intangible forces which are needed to build up the venture. It includes manpower requirements, space requirements and funding to name a few. Since the funds available to a start-up are usually limited, manpower planning plays a crucial role. An essential ingredient to effective leadership is to manage the resources efficiently. As the funds are limited, resource sharing can play an important role in the success of the venture. The technological advancement across all industries today makes resource sharing a very convenient and appropri...

Outsourced CMO is growing up fast! Started as a one-man army and on a simple concept of shared resources, we are now gaining popularity not only amongst SMEs but some well-known and well-established businesses and are close to 10 people strong team. The latest addition to the list is the association of OCMO with Vidal Healthcare, one of India’s top TPA companies offering services to health insurance policy holders. The firm is now expanding its wings in app-only holistic healthcare service provider category. For the launch of this vital app, Vidal’s management wanted nothing but the best in industry. That’s where Outsourced CMO and his team of experienced and strong marketeers were approached to sense the waters and create unique go-to market strategies for the new app launch. Another strong reason that convinced Vidal management that OCMO is the right choice was, within the last 4 years of its existence, Outsourced CMO has been a strong part of more than 11 success stories an...

Block chain and Cryptocurrency seem to be synonymous but they are not. While block chain is the underlying technology that helps manage the digital currency, most importantly, it’s decentralized so no one person, government or business controls it.  For a few months of 2018, whole  of Silicon Valley was wrapped up in a fantasy of remaking the world order with Cryptocurrencies and a related technology called the block chain. And just as the public had been given all possible block chain content that could be written, the whole thing collapsed. The bubble popped.  Bitcoin might be the most significant financial bubble the world has ever seen so far. Every  Cryptocurrency user has to do away with knowing about block chain as such which dominates the world of distributed-ledger technology. One factor favoring   the argument of Bitcoin being a bubble is that there is likely a high-volume of inexperienced investors flooding the Cryptocurrency mar...

In today’s world the success of a person is measured through the riches he has accumulated over a period of time. The first step towards riches is an innate desire to succeed. Quoting Napoleon Hill, a famous American journalist: “It is not a wish! It is a keen, pulsating desire, which transcends                                        everything else” . A successful person chooses a definite goal, places all his energy, all his will power, all his effort, everything, back of that goal. Every person who succeeds in any venture must be willing to wreck his ships and cut all sources of withdrawing back. Only by doing so can he be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as burning desire to win, essential for success. When the going gets tough and the future looks terrible, successful people pull up their spirits and fuel their desire further to reach up to the point of succes...