If I had to sell myself

In exhilarating hour past midnight I am coiling up here in an uncomfortable Yogic stance in a secluded corner of my bed hitting Google search results one after the other. My vagrant instincts has taken up an exceedingly irksome task of finding basic difference between "Marketing" and "Advertising". Well; I know thrilling as it sounds; the final and inviolable intention is to conduct an experiment and to cross verify that how well the idea has seeped down through my lipid head into the brain.

My superfluous nature often keeps me off these electrifying grounds of business and market research as I have no more interest in it; than that of a Pigeon in his droppings. However, there is this idea which has been resonating inside my head for sometime now. In last awards ceremony of my organization; a question was simply put to management; "Why don't we focus more on advertising?". And answer was as expected; that being a relatively small firm we do not have sufficient funds to erect up billboards and distribute printed media. Moreover I don't think that would even serve the purpose.

Anyway, while that question was being asked; I had an epiphany and three things suddenly came rushing to my head:

1. Being a SaaS (Software as a Service) company; are billboards and public prints really the pertinent media of advertising we should go for? Especially when we target a very concentrated market and a specific segment of domain?
   
2. If whole purpose of advertising and marketing is to tell people that you exist and what your capabilities are; what is the best way for a organization like us to go into market and show case your brains and brawns without having to pay gold chests as the incurred cost.
   
3. What if we spearhead a new concept called "The Zero Marketing" or "The Zero Advertising". And that in no way relates to much infamous "e-mail spamming" and "pop up or push" advertisement which are slapped into the face of a consumer without choice or voice.
   

Anyway, before I delve into the details as to how I loitered inside my head day after day to find answers; let me summarize what I understand from Marketing and Advertising.

1. Advertising: It is an act (often desperate) to let world know you exist. It is at not neccessarily targeted ONLY at potential clients; instead it's an effort to build a brand or a public image; because at the end of the day you don't need only good clients; but also smart people to work with those clients. After all improvising with few good people is something that will not work forever.

2. Marketing: While advertising is a field in itself; it's only a small part of Marketing. Marketing is a more focused effort of leveraging your brand equity within a target group of people. And more than often they are your potential clients. Apart from advertising, marketing constitutes of multiple sub sections like market research, market understanding, market acceptance, demand etc.

Now that we have a skeletol layout of the "BIG TWO" in front of us; I'll tell you what did I really land onto in terms of answering my questions:

Q1 :: Justification for billboards and printed media for SaaS company.
A1 :: "Customer is always right". While this may be true what should really be noted is that he is as important as an employee; but not more. Because what you really have to know is that while a good employee can generate business and customers; a good customer cannot generate a good employee by itself. So while "Customer is never wrong", you need people who live by that rule. And good people will not come and join you because your name is in bold orange which glows in night; but they'll join you because that glow has a brand associated with it. So even if a SaaS company focalizes on a core section of specific market; it's beneficial to have a public brand; because it attracts talent. Just for the same reason why half of the world is interested in joining Google; while 1/2 of those may not even understand that Google's core business. (That would include me to an extent). So although it would actually be good if we did have billboards; I guess size does matter.

Q2 :: Best way to advertise and market without incurring high cost.
A2 :: World where we live in today; people are more concerned about the paper news is printed on; than news itself. And with advent and deep penetration of friendly consumer technology; no one is too far from internet. While at one point of time "word of mouth" was considered as backbone of advertisement in local topography; today it has been replaced by forwarded e-mails, blogs, discussion forums, groups and unmissable social networking websites. These serve dual purpose in a life of a much proclaimed and hyped software engineering and other technology related profession:

• Kill time while you also inculcate and nurture talents inside you.
  
• Develop a people network; which although may not be as effective as traditional; will still serve you well.
  

But that is not the context of the question. Coming back to that; the premise that I wanted to setup was that with latest technological advancements the advertising and marketing media is changing radically. While at one point of time; colorful label was viewed as an apt candidate to lure and entice general consumer; today's competitive world has made some serious advancements. Now people long for "innovation". Same colors that sky rocketed your sales graph fail to generate even slight fluctuations. "Distinguishing" or "Differentiating" factor is taken seriously more than ever before. And advertising has shed it's traditional form. Today being associated with something or anything which is more innovative or singular is valued more than anything else. To promote yourself you need to create something that "promotes itself".

Idea is simple; even as a SaaS company; if you can come up with an idea tomorrow which employs the power of technological world and is available for world to view and taste for free; it'll promote itself and more importantly you; if you can just hit it right on idea's "singularity" point. With the sound of it; it may look like a tough nut to crack; but it really isnt' so. It's all about the idea. And my personal favorite category is "Flash Advertisements". Here is an example:
Rajini - Boss ka Boss
Notice, how they have added a clip towards the end; so that a consumer waits through the actual advertisement to get a glimpse of their favorite character yet one more time.

So it's really the idea that drives a online marketing and advertising effort and not the cost. More ingenious an idea; lesser it'll hit your pockets.

Q3 :: Zero cost Marketing/Advertising.
A3 :: This is something that I think; I'll sleep on tonight and will reflect upon in one of my other posts. It is going to be something interesting. And it would also depend on my latest efforts to promote my own blog. Let see how this experiment tunrs out. If you are interested keep tuned in.

Well, so much for business jargon in middle of the night. I wonder where are these crazy personal tendencies of mine are headed to. Hopefully towards some greater good.