BRAND POSITIONING
Positioning Your Brand
In Digital Disruption
By Denis Mbau
M
uch like the pastors who preach
that the end of the world is
near, the discourse that has
dominated the business world in recent
years has been on how digital is disrupting
this and that business.
According to a report by Harvard
Business Review, most business leaders
agree that digital transformation driven by
innovation is disrupting their businesses.
Nearly half of them believed their
organization’s current business model will
be obsolete by 2020. However, only a few
of them have any strategy whatsoever to
address the issue.
Ironically to survive, organisations
should still adopt most of the traditional
marketing principles while incorporating
digital effectiveness in operation, therefore
enhancing survival in a clearly disruptive
environment.
Quality In Product Above All MSME sector are proving otherwise.
The delivery in quality of the product
or service remains the Holy Grail in
marketing. In the book Marketing
Effectively Winner’s Manual, Moi Ali
advises enterprises to make what they can
sell, not selling what they can make. Almost all industries have most certainly
been disrupted. Whether naturally or
through technology adoption, even the
traditional industries have had to change
their mode of operations. Those that did
not adopt and adapt have become extinct
and it’s only a matter of time for those that
still survive by whatever streak of miracle.
Organizations that are product-led
make the product first then engage in
marketing to persuade the customers to
buy. Customer-led organizations create
products and services in response to
customers need and are usually the most
successful.
In Kenya and around the world, more
stress is put on the availability of funds
or lack there-of as the main stumbling
block to business growth. To some extent,
that maybe true, but more studies into the
Customer engagement refers to continually en-
gaging in thought leadership on how to make
your brand ever relevant. Therefore it is of ut-
most importance to use digital analytics to cre-
ate personalized offerings for your clients. An
example is Uber who have continuously intro-
duced new campaigns that keep them ahead of
the pack despite the flooding of copycat brands
in the market.
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The Classic ‘Kodak Moment ‘
The story is told of the way Kodak
invented the digital camera in the 1970’s
and patented it in 1978, way ahead of its
time. However, they did not roll it out
since they were enjoying huge earnings
from photo film paper. In 1998, Kodak
sold 85% of all photo paper and employed
about 170,000 employees. Their laxity in
embracing digital allowed the likes of
Canon and Sony to swoop in and steal
their market share right under their noses
using new technology as bait.
Three years later with the full force of the
digital disruption, photo film paper sales
took a huge dip. Despite putting up a
spirited fight, Kodak filed for bankruptcy
on January 19, 2012.
The New Drivers Of The
Economy
SMEs have evolved to be one of the most
important economic sectors not only
Kenya but worldwide. Statistics show that