Empathic design is a concept in vogue these days, as through this approach, a user-designer curates a product simply because he/she personally saw the need for such a solution from own experiences. Another way to design products is via ethnographic marketing research which surveys people to understand their usage and habits to develop solution as done by design company IDEO. A third method is where one temporarily adopts the position of a user to understand what kinds of solutions are truly needed. This is also a management training technique applied by several firms especially hospitals to educate personnel and extract crucial insights. Another way is to immerse oneself in the culture of the other. This gives deep insights which in turn bring out ideas, competitors can never come up with. A last method is to create prototypes in the mould of a cognitive artefact which allows physical reminders of what are needed. When the physical model mimics the real space, user-friendly ideas tend to get generated from brainstorming sessions.

Source:https://hbr.org/2017/11/5-ways-to-design-products-customers-love

Uploaded Date:21 November 2017 

The fields of marketing and advertising are among those being disrupted the most with the trend set to continue in 2018. Terms such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality and internet of things are getting widespread in use. Historically, marketing and advertising could be clubbed within two broad groups. They were clients or marketers themselves and the agencies. Clients were the companies while agencies were those offering specific services like strategic, creative, digital or a combination of all three. Now the market has become more diverse with ad tech firms joining in plus behemoth platforms such as Google and Facebook. There are others dealing with specific components such as wearables, celebrities, drones, content, mobile, social or events. A number of young people are at the heart of this transformation. Take Stephan Goss for example. He is the founder of Zeeto, a digital marketing agency that is now worth US$ 43 million working from the San Diego office. Other similar rock-stars leveraging the latest trends are the likes of Nina Yiamsamatha who created Instagram Stories, Ben Conway of VNTANA, Shirley Chan of Narrativ, Marlowe Williams at PepsiCo, Sara Sindelar who created IBM Millennial Corps, Rachel Mercer at Deutsche New York and Eric Mogil who is in charge of digital business innovation at Michael Kors. Another interesting story is that of Anna Hu who cofounded Brizi, that shows ads at major sporting events.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferrooney/2017/11/14/the-30-under-30-game-changers-in-marketing-and-advertising-2018/#55bc4ec53d9f

Uploaded Date:16 November 2017

Certain trends have been identified for 2018, that are sure to cause the greatest of disruption in marketing. The first is that, brand purpose must be placed at the core of any business’s corporatestrategy. This is a natural swing from CSR and cause marketing that dominated the last few years. In order to drive the greatest impact of digital marketing, an emotional connect is necessary with the customer. This emotional engagement must be driven alongside the rational side as the two appeal to the heart and minds of customers respectively. It is well known now that customers these days are keen on stories rather than products. They buy into an idea thanks to the mix of creativity and technology. The data driven science and the creativity inspired arts side must both be run side-by-side to convey authenticity of the brand.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/billeehoward/2017/11/12/disruptive-marketing-trends/#656c1bd26eda

Uploaded Date:16 November 2017

When companies evolve from being start-ups to larger units, employees’ expectations from their seniors changes as well. The seniors on their part need to change from being reactive when demands pour in to being proactive before issues can come up. Any company, unless it folds before time, goes through five broad stages in its evolution. These stages are – Founding, Early, Mid, Growth and Scale-up). At the Founding stage, there are a maximum of five employees, so it is essential not to optimize for efficiency. Customer support must be used to improve work processes and team must meet regularly. There exist five to twenty employees at Early stage. Focus must now be put on corporate communications and customer self-service tools. One must avoid too much dawdling on process, sophisticated models or vocal customers. At the Mid stage, employee base increases to around 100. Now key metrics need to be applied to measure work, so data warehousing must start before clinical analysis. A knowledge base needs to be set-up, distribution channels incisively set up and specialization of certain types may get initiated. Cost reductions concerns must not distract away from the focus of work. The Growth stage sees, employee strength grow up to about two-hundred and fifty while it keeps rising at the Scale-up period.

Source:https://hbr.org/2017/09/scaling-customer-service-as-your-startup-grows?utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Uploaded Date:27 October 2017