Keyur Shah, Country Head, SB Engineers.
With marketing playing a key role in shaping the business of the company, Keyur Shah, Country Head, SB Engineers, spells out the marketing strategies of the company.
ACQUIRING a degree and an MBA, Shah has a rich experience of more than 15 years in handling solutions for kiln and cooler monitoring-kiln shell scanner, kiln burning zone camera and cooler CCTV. The rich experience has made him master the art of sales and marketing, which has played a vital role in shaping the business of the company. The company has worked with all major cement manufacturing organisations, consultants and OEMs. His path-breaking marketing strategies have made the company reach new heights.
Choosing from the host of marketing gimmicks, Shah points out to one of the most successful strategies, which was his brainchild for the launch of a new product for the cement industry."The campaign consisted of display of product at an industry specific exhibition, immediately followed by direct mailing through post and email to target audience."
The company prefers a mix of print and online marketing as an ideal tool for marketing since TV commercials are not relevant to his business. Despite the growth of online media, Shah firmly believes that print media is very much relevant for capital equipment. The major part of the company’s marke ting strategy involves direct selling to the customers, which includes mailers, regular visit to the customers and attending industry exhibitions and conferences. Though the recent trends in the cement and concrete equipment industry marketing is promoting products online, the marketing guru says,However, I think it’s not too far to have marketing campaign designed for mobile devices."
As a part of the company’s marketing strategy, both PR and advertising campaigns are essential for the company. However considering the kind of products the company deals in, PR campaigns are preferred. Shah is of the opinion that PR campaigns have a better recall value as compared to advertising. Emphasising on the relevance of PR campaigns to their business, Shah elborates,"For direct selling of capital goods, long term contact and relationship with end-user is vital." He also believes that over a period of time, the customer’s decision- making process has undergone paradigm shift. Also, the buying pattern and buying channels are becoming more complex, which is the main thought process behind designing all the campaigns. As a marketing professional responsible for developing communication for mass audiences, the main responsibility is to develop a relationship of partners in progress instead of that of customer-supplier. He belives that the customer- supplier relationship might not last longer as compared to the relation of partners in progress. Shah further says that one also requires keeping customers informed about the solutions which can be helpful."In all aspects, remaining truthful has to be motto," he concudes.
As a marketing professional responsible for developing communication for mass audiences, the main responsibility is to develop a relationship of partners in progress instead of that of customer-supplier.