As I swung my car into the driveway, our security guard ran up to hand me a thick manila envelope that had arrived by courier. The year was 2010.
I drew out a red cover on which was printed – “Wishing you a Happy New Year”. Inside was a desk calendar. The first leaf had an image of a neon light, on the front facade of a cinema house. The words said – “Now showing Guru. Premier Tonight. Azra Fathima in a Leading Role.”
“What’s this?” I was confused. And then, as I flipped through each leaf, I smiled. The smile and the wow grew bigger with each turn of the leaf.
Using a simple, time-tested formula, Airtel had reinforced the power of brand personalisation. Every calendar month had my name etched, glorified, immortalised in a series of well thought out
messages and complementing pictures.
Even as a dyed-in-the-wool marketing professional, I responded and reacted just like any other customer – absolute delight!
The warm glow of brand loyalty did not stop with me – softly, but surely spreading to my 11-year old, who has been showing off the calendar to just about anyone who’s been visiting home. No prizes again for guessing what will be her first choice, or at least the first brand in her consideration, when she starts to go mobile.
If the timing of sending this calendar has been part of the strategy, (and not a horribly gone wrong design-print-production delay), then it is brilliant. No one expects a calendar in April! Airtel combined the oddity of the timing with the awesome power of personalization. It’s precious, everlasting and forever. And it’s going to replace the nicest desktop calendar on my table.
Personalisation and customisation are age-old
and revered laws of marketing.
However, its implementation is a labour of love.
You have to be in love with the customer,
the recipient of your message, the person you love!
But first, you’ll have to take yourself out. When you do that and put the recipient in the centre of everything you want to say,
your brand, your message and ultimately – you, will be loved.
Paradoxical, but true.
Brand personalisation i.e., brand to customer / company to customer is not easy.
But personalising a message for a loved one i.e., person to person – whether a simple birthday wish, a congratulatory message or a difficult letter, is even more difficult.
Personalising a message for a loved one
requires an intimate understanding of the context
and the skill of a diamond-cutter
to present the ultimate message that touches the heart and soul.
Communicating to create and leave a lasting impression 