MARKETING IS EXPLOITATION

Marketing is a prominent element which determines how well a product does in certain market, obviously the product also has to be top of the line. You can't expect crappy merchandise with a mind-blowing marketing strategy to sell extremely well, err.. in some cases it does sell well, but it's not long time until the sales go zero and the balance sheets are not even making upto break-even point.

Source: Google

To be honest there is no limit to how much success you can get with a perfectly executed strategy, but also remember some marketing strategies works and some don't and it neither the fault of creative team, nor the product they are marketing. The same set of people can produce good stuff and bad stuff, there are few things that never work no matter what and that's how the world operates

When big corporates expand their business around the globle they study, they study a lot about the people, culture, the taste, the liking everything.
Not just the multinational businesses even local business also do some sort of analysis pior entering new market places. This study is about everything from your company to your consumers to your competitors is know as SWOT ANALYSIS.

SWOT ANALYSIS

The SWOT analysis is the primary step in strategic management business follow prior entering a new market inorder to make sure they understand the operating of the market. The SWOT analysis refers to analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The analysis of the internal environment reveals strengths and weaknesses of the firm, and the analysis of the external environment reveals opportunities and threats for the firm.

• STRENGTHS are the positive competencies of a firm as compared to its competitors in the areas of production / operations, marketing, finance, personnel and management.

• WEAKNESSES are the negative competencies of a firm as compared to its competitors in all the functional areas of the organisation.

• OPPORTUNITIES are the favourable circumstances or the situations which the external environment offers or provides to organizations, and every firm tries make an attempt to grab the right opportunity at the right time.

• THREATS are the unfavourable situations, which the external environment imposes on the organizations.

STARBUCKS

A  Brand well known and famous enough that needs no introduction, they claim to serve the finest coffee. They make more than 30 blends with single-origin premium coffees. Handcrafted Beverages: Fresh-brewed coffee, hot and iced espresso beverages, Iced Coffee, Cold Brew, Nitro, Frappuccino® coffee and non-coffee blended beverages, Starbucks Refreshers® beverages, and so on. Starbucks may be the best in the west but all of that failed, failed wretchedly and not just in one particular country, but in many countries. Starbucks is a prime example why SWOT Analysis is very important and why a company has to compromise certain things because culture, perspectives and  taste changes from country to country. When they entered markets like India and Vietnam one thing they forgot was these are tea drinking country they produce and export finest tea leaves. It's not like people don't like coffee in these countries it's the taste that didn't suit and the pricing is way to high. It's understood that they want to serve coffee to the Elite group of people, it has a awesome image of great people, great music, a comfortable/upbeat meeting place having outlets in high traffic areas like malls and busy street corners, but obviously all of that doesn't justify the act of not adapting to the local taste. Additionally it's not just the non-coffee drinking countries, Australia and Italy are among those who drinking a lot of coffee but not from Starbucks. Reason you ask? Taste.

The stubborn child like attitude of not adapting, and providing same menu around all the outlets in the world has cost them a lot. On top of that they never marketed themselves they believed they were popular enough (which they are) but people need to be  aware of your existence in their country.

Starbucks

BRANDS THAT DID IT THE RIGHT WAY.

McDonald's

McDonald's Worlds Biggest Hamburger Chain Restaurant wanted to step into indian market in 1991 a year after they joined China. It was obvious India was a big opportunistic market with over 1.1 Billion population and around 300 Million destined as middle class, the business looked simple. The problem was 1 out of 5 people would turn out to be vegetarian on top of that how do you sell burgers in a land where cows are sacred? In 1996 McDonald's opened their very first vegetarian only restaurant, they were the second largest fast food outlet after subway they mastered in beef and pork they had a very successful recipe but still it didn't work in other parts of the world, they studied Hindus see cows as sacred and avoid beef, while Muslims view pigs as unclean and avoid pork but they learnt Indian's loved potatoes and spices what did they come up with? McAloo Tikki it's a signature dish for Indians by McDonald's, not just that they had to come up with meat-free menu to make sure they attract everyone. McAloo Tikki is accountable for 25% of its total sale, and then slowly came up with non-veg burgers and now what we see is a 50% veg and 50% non-veg menu.
Now if you see their marketing tactics they always show the advertisement of happy meals and toys or some veg burger with a combo of coke and so on, no non-veg burgers  in the Ad, at max you occasionally might see a McEgg burger and that's all nothing above that. Now you see a existing customers knows they serve both veg and non-veg food but a potential customer would never know until they walk-in.
McDonald's part of success in India was their adaptable nature. They studied the taste, the culture & they adapted it.
Surprisingly McDonald's wasn't the only brand that had to change their menu
Sandwich giants Subway And Domino's had to rework their menu's to adapt the vegetarian appetite.

Source : McDonald's

Amazon

The online shopping brand providing anything and everything ranging from A to Z. Very successful in delivering products at your doorstep without even you having to move from your couch. Didn't start well in India, struggled miserably. See people in foreign countries are open minded they don't mind spending money on things that might not deliver, but that's not the same case in India. What they understood is Indian's would love to buy the product at the comfort of doorstep delivery but aren't willing to pay for it online. Survey said if people don't see the actual product how and why will they pay online. Obviously internet was a new thing back then, buying goods online was new, will I get scammed? That's the first question that would come to our minds right? Everybody wants that security of delivery of the product and not getting scammed into something.
They had one and the only option PAY ON DELIVERY/ CASH ON DELIVERY but didn't have the infrastructure to make it work, it was complete unknown what Amazon came up with. If you as a customer seek for assurance of getting the product, even the company wants that assurance of getting paid it works both ways, both parties blindly trust each other. If they had to make it work they had to take a major risk. They took the help of Indian Postal Service and it worked. Soon COD was the most successful idea, worked for Amazon more importantly worked for us. Now all of us have certainty of getting the product and we trust this online shopping platforms, time has changed we also happen to pay for few things online. We know that the infrastructure is reliable we have customer service support from both ends from Amazon and from your bank, our money is safe and we will get the product.
In the mean time Amazon also understood Indian culture and how we Indian's celebrate each and every auspicious occasion, and so they wanted to capitalise on such opportunities of high sales period. Amazon Great Indian Festival, Independence Day Sale, Republic Day Sale and they Advertise those sale all day long.

Source : logodix

Cadbury

There are no restrictions on chocolates right? Everyone has right to eat any amount and any type of chocolate. Also Chocolates are something that only children are mad about adults kind of drift apart from chocolate. So how a brand make sure they keep everyone eating chocolate and not drift away slowly. Cadbury came in India in 1948 and has been doing business for over 72 years one thing Cadbury saw was Indians love to bond, people valve the relations they have with others, the feeling of being related so somebody else even if they are not part of your family, that what they learnt. Chocolates are not for any specific age but the way Cadbury presents their Ads is amazing, they want every age group to eat those chocolates. Here are few examples.

• Cadbury Dairy Milk Lickables :- Chocolate with toys inside, definitely excites the hell out of a 5 year old but not so much for a adult.

• Cadbury Dairy Milk :- Remember those Ads of a family fighting after the dinner who will have the last piece of dairy milk. Chocolate presented as a dessert, something sweet or the newer Ads where a driver and a man share a chocolaty moment, the driver offers Dairy Milk to the man as a thanks for coming to drivers house to pick up drivers son and drop him at school. See the bond, the relationships.

• Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk :- The world famous song "kiss me close your eyes and miss me" Always a Ad involving couple or some kind of fling going on between a boy and a girl. You get the idea of chocolates you can gift to your loved once.

• Cadbury Celebrations :- We often end up giving this to our beloved sister's. Cadbury understands the importance of Rakshabandhan & Bhai Dooj. Chocolates for special occasions, bodes well with the tag line "Kuch Mitha Ho Jaye".

So now you don't expect 10 year olds making a move on the girl's they like with a 5 Star or Gems, they know Silk gets the job done.

Source : Cadbury

Instagram

You would be surprised to see this social media platform in this list but read it, makes more sense once you know it. Instagram has been a major game changer for social media platforms it just blew up, it becomes so popular within the teenagers and was quickly gaining the market, and Facebook let that happen, so they bought Instagram. But the app that took everyone by surprise was Tik Tok it just flipped people up-side-down. You can be creative, you can make videos and what not, it's evident Facebook can't let that happen either. User's shifting and more and more people getting registered to Tik Tok slowly it got so famous it was a war YouTube vs Tik Tok remember?But still Instagram had the upper hand on this so called SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS, they were famous for what they did on Tik Tok, but majority of their fan base was on instagram itself. So when Tik Tok got banned in countries including India, USA, Bangladesh, Indonesia. Instagram took the opportunity & within a week of ban on Tik Tok, Instagram Reels was rolled out. No new app, no registration nothing, same account same followers, just a new tab, where you can see trending short format videos, no hassle.
Now Instagram knew how much famous Tik Tok was in India, it obviously needed to reach wider audience and get every single of those Tik Tokers back in the game, so they advertised a typical TikTok like video and slapped the Instagram branding on it, Yeah mission accomplished.

Source : Instagram

Not just Instagram many similar app platform took this opportunity to boost their business even same was the case with PUBG MOBILE & FREE FIRE both were competitors from the start but with major blow to PUBG, FREE FIRE had the upper hand and promoted themselves as a better alternative.

So now you see how brands have changed the tried and tested approach to something totally new to fit in the market. We saw Cadbury despite being so big in India had to rework itself to make a different stand in all age groups and sell those chocolates to everyone, they used their strength of being well known and famous and built up on that. We saw all of them using the opportunity to its best and not losing out, trying every last bit to make it work and not backing out mid way. All the tried and tested formulas failed and the brand's had to reflect upon those to turn the tables it showcased that even big business fail regardless of years of experience they still can make mistakes. It shows how Instagram took advantage of Tik Tok when it was having hard time, obviously if Reels would have released earlier when Tik Tok was ruling the market, it would have been very hard to fight, and so they waited for the downfall of the competition.