Making Marketing Frugal - Start Up

The Economic Times, 27 July 2007 Page 17
Jacob Cherian, jacob.cherian@timesgroup.com

The optimal route to making marketing frugal will always be to have a good enough product that markets itself.

Jagdeep Kapoor (Samsika Mktg) says: "to build a brand the least you need to do is to spend money. Instead you need to spend more time and dhyaan (thought)."

If an entrepreneur needs to spend on marketing then he does not deserve to exist," says Mahesh Murthy (VC - Seedfund). We discourage the entrepreneur to spend on advertising; instead we tell them to focus on spending the amount on differentiating the product. We look at how we can tweak the product to cause insane consumer delight. The key, he says, is to make the product so interesting and useful that people recommend it to others; thereby stimulating word-of-mouth - the most effective form of marketing.

Murthy emphasizes: 'When you are small it is imperative to have a differentiated product. Only when your company is big and fat you can spend on marketing a 'me-too' product.

Jageep Kapoor warns, "Use advertising like you are using salt. To make a serving of dal, use a fist of dal and a pinch of salt." According to him a little advertising is sufficient with other attributes of the product in plenty.

For details see the article in ET.