TOP OF MIND : Difficult to be at the Top

We see it and forget it. Top of mind (TOM) recall is an issue that all marketers grapple with and strive to achieve. A plethora of brands in all the segments have established themselves in the market and its becoming increasingly difficult for even the top brand to sustain itself as the customers preferred brand.
With the technology becoming cheaper and ubiquitous and availability of free information, there is little differentiation left between brands which makes the job of a marketer tough because he can no longer sell and promote based on the product attributes. He has to look beyond the product and find innovative ways of communication and create a positive perception in the minds of the consumer. A pertinent example would be the strategy followed by various telecom operators. The top three Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have shifted their focus away from the basic product. While Airtel focuses more on non-verbal communication and plays on the emotions of the people, Vodafone is laying stress on the value added services and Idea concentrates on messages which have a greater social benefit attached to them. With near similar levels of network connectivity, choice for telecom operator is based on the image they have created in the minds of the customer. This also puts additional responsibility and pressure on advertising agencies for they have to come up with innovative concepts which can capture the fancy of customers. An ideal brand image is one which is strong, positive and unique.
To ensure a top of mind recall, it`s necessary to have high level of brand awareness. Ideal brand awareness is one which is deep and broad. With the advent of multiple channels of retailing and marketing, it is nearly impossible for a brand to maintain a high awareness level across all the channels. Thus one has to rationalise and carefully select a channel based upon the product and target segment and then aim towards maximising awareness in that channel through advertisements and appropriate promotion schemes. But, at the same time, one cannot completely neglect a channel, because these days most of the customers have access to all the channels directly or indirectly. Taking internet as an example, though internet penetration in India is just 2-5%, a lot of people have indirect access to internet through the people who have direct access. Parents ask their children to look for products on internet and find out about their performance by reading reviews and information available on the web. This need for multi channel marketing calls for a meticulously designed marketing strategy, because marketing budgets are limited (as we have seen especially during times of recession).
Customer is the king and he has a lot of alternatives at his disposal. Retaining customers is becoming a huge problem and retention ratio is now a key metric in performance evaluation of sales and marketing team. A consistent brand image helps increase this ratio. It is imperative that an organisation maintains strong brand equity in these changing times and adapts itself to the environment lest it fall prey to growing competition.