Corner Marketing

“That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spot light, losing my religion.” So sang Michael Stipe in the cult REM song “Losing my religion”. Though the song is open to exploration, it definitely brings out the most important thing in everything-the corner. Something we continently ignore. Something that we, who run businesses, conveniently ignore.

A corner is perhaps the most important part of any logically useful structure. It not only supports the structure but also lends it extra strength. But it is also the most ignored part of anything. It not only gets the least attention but is almost never ever explored. A corner is just as important to anyone’s life as it is to any business.

Most of our attention is always taken up by the walls that make up the corners and the angles. We pay special attention to the colours on the walls, decorations, paintings and photographs on a wall. How often do we pay attention to the corner that joins the three sides of a room? How often do we plan to check if a particular corner is well equipped to hold the walls well? Is the corner hollow? Has it been exploited by rodents or ants? We almost never do that.

While being a novice at the strategy meets of my company, I realized a very important but highly inconvenient truth-that the erudite and the experienced always never explore corners. All they are concerned about are the walls. How can we better service the walls? How can we better walls to glorify our achievements of painting and decorating them? The corners were always conveniently left out.

A new product is always aimed for the general masses. A hair gel, for example is always aimed at the general city dwelling youth. The broad walls. Can’t a country dwelling young man ever have the urge to use hair gel? Yes he can. But why will he use it when he can achieve almost the same result with oil. This is the most likely argument in almost all marketing strategy meets. The corner always being ignored.

When a new banking product software is launched, it is always targeted at banks on an international scale. The broad walls. Can’t small co operative banks feel the need for an integrated system? But that would be a corner the great strategist would never explore.

The social business was one such corner.

Corners exist everywhere. In every business opportunity and every nook and corner of an expansion strategy. A new product could always be launched for a specific consumer group. A new service could be started for an untapped market. Finding the right corner however is the biggest challenge of the strategist.

It is always very difficult to look away from the big picture and concentrate on something that doesn’t seem really small. And all it really takes is that one small thing to start up something big. On a strategy discussion meet recently, one of the hallowed sales figurines monitored us to divert our attention to the big studios. That was where the money was supposed to be. But that was where the competition was also supposed to be. When I pointed out that we would be wasting valuable time and resources competing, I was told I was a novice and asked to concentrate on the learning. My point was however proved when we lost out on 90% of all the projects we bid for. There were so many unexplored small corners we never explore. Never.

The best strategies never emerge out of management theories or books and rules. Finding a corner needs just the one thing we tend to push behind books-common sense. But we manage businesses by rules and not by the mind.

All that needs to be done to find the right corner is what REM has pointed out-me. Put yourself in the mind of the customer and you will find the right corner.

“That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight”