The new 4 P's of Marketing

Marketing has always been about establishing a relationship with customers and opening up channels of communication so that well-crafted messages can be delivered to the right demographic. The marketing approach of yesteryears has evolved quite rapidly from time and resource intensive productions to nimble and dynamic campaigns. The art of reaching customers has added new dimensions, making lives for businesses more demanding and dynamic.

Today’s marketer is expected to be on top of all the latest trends if they want to influence today’s customers who are savvy and well informed. It becomes all the more critical for marketers to ensure that they have a clear understanding of how their consumers are accessing information and how they are influence in their purchasing decisions. Marketing is about creating the near perfect experience for customers. The new 4Ps must find a place and in fact form the pillars of any marketing strategy aimed at the consumer in new age.

Power of Data – Everyone has data, but only the progressive organizations harness the power of data for business success. Many organizations overwhelmed by data because they haven’t figured out the right approach to manage it in a way that makes it their greatest asset. The experience business hinges on channeling a wide range of data ranges to provide insights that can help make intelligent, data driven decisions on how to reach and retain customers.

Personalization – Marketing campaigns must aim for personalization that reaches out to customers with messages that are most interesting and relevant to them. The messaging must extent to cover multiple media channels and devices in a consistent manner. Omni-channel marketing is based on the fact that customers interact in a variety of different ways with a brand, whether someone is online shopping, wandering through mall or flipping through TV channels, their perceptions of a particular brand have to be consistent and appealing. The power of data gives us the ability to tailor content to match customer’s interests, which in turn increases engagement, revenue and ROI.

Phygital – Our world is evolving from a physical one to an increasingly digital one. The experience business must bring together the best of both into Phygital approach to marketing. Data is not always digital and many organizations have amassed legacy data that can provide a wealth of customer insights. Phygital provides the opportunity to combine the physical and the digital, thereby converging data from different sources in a productive manner.

Platform – It is where all efforts especially those around the earlier Ps, converge. It is crucial to choose platform carefully. The right marketing platform can handle all data, automation, metric management and measurability, execution and is the most important weapon in a digital marketer’s arsenal to engage customers from initial contact all the way through to the sales funnel.

It is believed that Future of marketing settles solidly on these 4 Ps: Power of data, personalization, Phygital and platform. The nature of the experience business will continue to evolve. Many tedious tasks will be automated by a rich and versatile platform and the creative aspects will gain prominence. Numbers and data driven intelligence will continue to become increasingly important as will the ability to visualize data as an extension of our customers. Even as market dynamics shift, the 4Ps will continue to serve as a sound basis for keeping in touch with customer and their changing preferences and succeed in the experience business.

How to get started with Bitcoin Mining?

Bitcoins or Cryptocurrencies are like digital currencies and act like a tender or an asset class. However, Bitcoins are mined like gold. If mined properly and taken the right investment risk, you could be successful in mining your own Bitcoins. Bitcoin was first introduced in 2009, when the algorithm was created under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. He also set a finite limit of 21 Million Bitcoins that would ever exist, of which close to 17 Million are in circulation. That means a little less than 4 Million Bitcoins are waiting to be discovered.

What is mining? - One can obtain Bitcoins in three ways – directly buying it from any cryptocurrency exchange, accepting Bitcoins as a mode of payment for goods and services and by mining new Bitcoins. Bitcoin Mining is the processing of transactions in the digital currency system, in which the records of current bitcoin transactions, known as blocks, are added to the record of past transactions, known as the Blockchain. It is simply the verification of Bitcoin transactions.

Originally, Bitcoin mining was conducted on the CPUs of individual computers, with more cores and greater speed resulting in more profitability. However, over the years, the system is dominated by multi-graphics card systems; Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASICs). The constant elevation in technology has made it more difficult for prospective new miners to start. To get around that problem, individuals often work in mining pools.

What is Blockchain? – Blockchain is a digital ledger that forms the backbone of Bitcoin. The Blockchain is extremely different from other conventional databases. Blockchain tends to distribute its data among a network of Bitcoin software’s rather saving everything in a central location.

A complete history of every bitcoin transaction is stored on the Blockchain, and all of these recorded transactions are open to public scrutiny. Before a bitcoin transaction is approved and processed by the network, it is verified using a cryptographic algorithm that checks the transaction against the histories stored on every computer in the network.

This process is complex, but it has one big advantage: it makes the Blockchain very difficult to hack. Blockchain allows two parties to execute a transaction without any intermediary. Blockchain allows financial institutions to execute and verify transactions discretely without any human intervention.

What are Nodes? – A node is an authoritative computer that runs the Bitcoin software and helps to keep Bitcoin running by participating in the relay of information. In a distributed network, the simplest way to define a node would be to say it is a point of intersection or connection with the network. It can act as both a redistribution point and a communication endpoint. Nodes spread bitcoin transactions around the network. However, Bitcoin doesn’t just need nodes; it requires lots of fully functioning nodes that have the bitcoin core client on a machine with the complete Blockchain. The more nodes, the more secure the network is.

By solving a complex mathematical puzzle that is part of the Bitcoin program and including the answer in the block. The puzzle that needs solving is to find a number that, when combined with the data in the block and passed through a hash function, produces a result that is within a certain range. Once the miners solve the puzzle, the block pops open and the transactions are verified. Miners used to get awarded 25 Bitcoins for finding this key, but in 2017 this has been reduced to 12.5 Bitcoins and will continue doing so every four years.

Future of TV Ads in Digital World

Television continues to play a central role in the way that we consume news and entertainment, whether the content comes from a traditional network or via a streaming service. While viewing habits have shifted, cords have been cut and mobile phones have become first screens, we still like watching TV. We still define the content we watch as a “television program” and we often still want to view that content on a TV set in our living room or den.

In many cases, TV set is just one of many screens that we are cycling through as we participate in social media conversations. Our viewing habits have been evolving ever since cable was introduced in the 1970s and they will no doubt continue to change. But for now, TV in its new and advanced form remains a central part of the media ecosystem.

As streaming and over-the-top (OTT) distribution models have matured, a new umbrella term has emerged to describe what TV has become: Advanced TV. It represents the convergence of old-style linear TV with streaming video delivered through OTT platforms and digitally enabled connected TVs. Marketers and brands must grapple with all that Advanced TV offers because it provides marketers with a full-screen captive experience with the targeting power of digital.

Advanced TV enables marketers to optimize reach and influence today’s hyperconnected consumer. Marketers can now serve the most impactful advertising content, trigger campaigns that sync with local events or weather conditions, deliver ads based on first-party data and get real-time analytics of viewing habits, depending on the sophistication of the TV platform, network and/or provider.

Currently, Smart TVs, OTT devices such as Apple TV or Roku, game consoles such as PlayStation and connected TVs offer the most digital bells and whistles, but more and more households are becoming directly addressable through the cable and satellite providers, meaning that brands can target individual households within the broadcast environment of linear TV.

There is not currently a unified measurement standard that aligns broadcast and digital reach, and audience targeting is still complex. Nielsen released its cross-media measurement solution, Total Content Ratings, after media companies reportedly pressured Nielsen to slow down the rollout because it was not ready for prime time. Privacy is a key consideration that must be navigated.  However, emerging measurement and data techniques are arriving from all corners of the industry, with the ability to provide more advanced data than ever before, helping marketers to more easily reach their objectives.

Book Review: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

In The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, Mark Manson offers advice that’s both punchy and profane. The book is a good guide to figuring out what you want in life and at work and how to achieve it. The route to this lies in not caring too much about everything. Once you give up the need to feel exceptional and be positive and happy all the time, as well as your fear of failure, you will be better off.

For those of us building careers, that would mean taking a hard look at what we want. If you don’t want 60 hour work weeks, long commutes, hoards of paperwork and don’t want to navigate corporate hierarchies that mean you don’t really want to be CEO. If you don’t fancy taking risks, suffering repeated failures and working insane hours devoted to something that may earn absolutely nothing, you don’t want to be an entrepreneur. What determines your success is not what you want to enjoy, but how much suffering you’re willing to sustain to get there.

Improvement at anything is based on thousands of tiny failures and the magnitude of your success is based on how many times you’ve failed at something. If someone is better than you at something, then it’s likely because she has failed at it more than you have. If someone is worse than you, it’s likely because he hasn’t been through all the painful learning experiences that you have.

Manson makes the argument that human beings are flawed and limited. As he writes, “not everybody can be extraordinary – there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault.” He advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults and uncertainties – once we stop running from and avoiding and start confronting painful truths – we can begin to find the courage and confidence we desperately seek.

Author brings a much needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eyes moment of real talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor. This manifesto is a refreshing slap in the face for all of us, so that we can start to lead more contented, grounded lives. These insightful and funny perspectives on life are what make the book well worth a read. Its success lies it the fact it’s all very colloquial and conversational, and so easy to digest.