The Law of Singularity - Law #16 under the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
“In each situation, only one move will produce substantial results”. History teaches that the only thing that works in marketing is a committed, single bold stroke that is least expected by the competition.
The law of focus has stated that a brand has to focus on one word that it wants to be remembered for in the mind of the consumers. Similarly, the law of singularity depicts the need of a brand to converge onto one tackle that can bring the competition down to its knees. I call this move as tackle going with the mindset of a wrestler getting into the ring to face the competitor with a focussed approach in which he keeps his best move for the last. All his other moves are to bring the opponent to that position where he can use his master tackle to bring the competitor down to his knees.
It is always good to have a centrifuged focus behind every marketing strategy that goes into the brand building exercise. The first thing a marketer should know is the target market he is looking at and the market leader in that segment. Once you have these two pieces of information in hand, it is then time to start finding the gap in the market through which you can capitalize. Once you have the gap identified that suits your expertise, you are now ready to decide your focal differentiator element that will make you replace the competitor with your brand in the market you seek. You will now start planning and implementing your marketing strategy one after the other with a centrifuged focus to make the competitor react to your moves and when the time comes, you will have your chance to use your master tackle to get the competitor to step aside and you to take the lead.
It is rare to find brands planning their approach with a focused brand positioning strategy in place in today’s market place. Most of the brands are doing anything and everything in a reactive methodology that in a planned manner, take for example TATA. We also have brands such as ‘Ford’ who seems to know what they are doing and where they have to get to and are doing exactly that. Look at the ‘Ecosport’ launch for example, the marketing campaign started almost two years before the actual launch happened. Such should be the depth of a marketing strategy where you plant feeders into the market that will start feeding you with market intelligence. This will act as a learning curve for the brand where in they can fine tune their product or service according to what works best. Here in this case, ecosport was being positioned directly opposite to the then segment leader ‘Renault Duster’.
Ford played a master stroke in the nth minute by announcing the price that could never be matched by the competitors. How did they do it? Simple, during the market study they realized that the Indian market was extremely price sensitive and therefore decided to play that card. Now in order to make a product affordable you will have to either reduce the quality by adopting cheaper material or by reducing expensive imported materials and substituting them with locally sourced materials. Ford was completely tight lipped about the pricing component until the last minute as they knew that pricing was their master stroke and they did not want the competitor to know about it.
Digital media contributed immensely to the overall market study for the Ecosport launch. Ford has been very active on the digital media through their aggressive ad campaigns and social media campaigns. They even went the distance to build their own mobile application unlike any other auto manufacturer in India. These digital channels helped them reach out to the audience independently with minimal support from any third party marketing agency. This also allows them to maintain confidentiality on strategic decisions at the highest level which plays a crucial role in taking a lead in the market.
The future is all about data being available in the form of market intelligence that will help brands make more informed and effective decisions. The most efficient and realistic approach to getting valid and accurate market data is through Digital Media and therefore brands presence on Digital Media will only increase in the following years.
