Impactful Soft Marketing

Traveling Mind: Have you got a copy yet?

I write for a living. I'm not a writer but I do write quite often. The reason is simple. Nowadays people read a lot! Before you roll your eyes, I never said books. A lot of people are surfing the Internet in search of something. Some like to do online shopping, some like to Google information, some like to view pictures, some like to find friends, and the list of virtual activities continue. Google articles, Facebook notes, Twitter links, blogs, tumblr, etc are amongst the most popular Internet reading pleasures. The pieces don't have to be thesis-worth long to gain interest; they just need to be fascinating in some sense. A tv personality said the word "Perspection" on live national tv! was seen on Twitter and the rest of the nation talked about the event where a TV personality was seen asking a Swedish astronaut, "What is your perspection about the event tonight?" The rating for that event shoot up to 3.2mil viewers.

A recent news published that Malaysia ranks first for most online friends, and the trend duplicates in other countries as well. It's apparent that soft marketing in the Internet world in crucial. Soft marketing is the term used to describe when marketing your products without invading individual space or they called it marketing under the radar. To do this, writing is essential. Again, you don't have to seek your professor's approval; you just need to have good idea of what your brand is all about and not to go against your brand value.

What do you see when you watch Fernando Alonso's F1 car? You see Vodafone, you see Shell. That is soft marketing. What do you see when you watch the good looking Fernando Torres trying to score for Liverpool? Standard Chartered on his chest and Adidas on his pants. Well, those are expensive marketing venues; product placement on strategic spots during airtime. Seeing Simon Cowell sip on Coke during American Idol made me crave Coke in the middle of the night. That’s soft marketing and the effect is ridiculous! I drove to the nearest 7-Evelen for a bottle of cool fizzy tasty CocaCola.

How do we do it at a lesser cost? Spend some time to write and publish it regularly on strategic spots. Most business websites that I stumbled upon have very stiff business writings and are mostly not updated regularly. Many also make efforts to join the social media wagon but after some time, fall off of it because of decreased updates and no follow ups. The idea of newsletter is not new, people have been using it for ages but the trick is to do it regularly so that your audience is kept updated with what's going on with your brand. Companies usually have missions and visions on their websites, which mostly are cookie-cutter phrases borrowed from other business sites. Yawn! Yawn! The audience needs more than that.

FingerTec's Tagline Contest on Facebook has just ended and that for us is soft-marketing. Something fun that gets the crowd to know the brand. We blog about our brand and we hope you do too. We want to tumblr as well. We create FingerTec games. And definitely we want to do more in the future. FingerTec is not a consumer product and it’s even tougher for us. Therefore, we treasure your ideas if any. Please do contact us at editorial@fingertec.com. In the meantime, it'd be great if you could soft market FingerTec too. Thank you.

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

FingerTec in ISAF - Wooing An Istanbul Distributor

Tamy received a lot of Konichiwas

The show in Istanbul just ended today leaving us with a feeling of hope. Turkiye is one of the important markets of the security industry; made strong by its geographical location, vastness and economic power. ISAF attracted vendors from various sectors from CCTV, fire security, turnstiles, gates, etc and biometrics certainly is not a novel technology in this show. People are already familiar with this solution or at least know that fingerprint products are available.

The main challenge now is finding a right partner which could carry FingerTec's brand essence without compromising on price factor significantly.

And I received a lot of "Are you a muslim?" question. :)

The first and second day of the show were rather slow on Hall 10, where we were located along with the fire security companies, as compared to Hall 9, which was a little bit happening with some songs on loudspeakers. The next two days were much better for us. Everybody was looking to view the price list and not so much on the product specifications. The fact that China made products have been flooding the Istanbul market made our price seems a bit on the higher side. This fact needed some explanation and our audiences understood the fact after being presented with the resources we offer them as our resellers. Interestingly, unlike many other places we've been to, many are interested to become resellers to a Turkish distributor. They are willing to pay higher price rather than dealing with importation of products from abroad. We find this situation quite unique as compared to many countries that always want to be distributors despite how low the quantity of their orders. :)

The show started to draw on crowds on the weekend

This time we didn't hire any translator because the one that came to work didn't know English. She understands Turkish and understands English (as what she signaled to me) but she couldn't speak any English except "so-so" and then she flashed a big smile to us. We had to send her back without any replacement. And surprisingly, people who are interested to deal with us came back with their translator to make things easy for both parties. Marketing your products in English in Turkey is a no-brainer. It is our mission to find a partner that can communicate in English but we will definitely do our marketing and resources in Turkish to capture this market. Translations of our software and hardware in Turkish are done so far and we will move on to other data sheets and materials. We already made a few acquaintances in Turkey to assist us on good translations.

ISAF is definitely a good platform for the security industry and we are proud to be apart of this growing market. All we could do now is to be hopeful that we could secure a good partner that could bring FingerTec to a greater height in this great country. Any party interested, please email me at info@fingertec.com.

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

Istanbul – A Reminder of What Would We Left Behind

I am in awe by the majestic yet melancholy views of Istanbul city. A place so rich in history and culture once glorified by its gigantic and powerful empire and then succumbed to the fall of the westernized Ottoman Empire, now is a desired tourist destination the world over. The beauty of Istanbul at both sides of the Bosphorus River is as subtle as the drawing of Melling, understated but impactful. I left out a sigh for not being able to capture the desired snapshots of Istanbul, the feel of the city is not justified by any photographs.

The landmarks of this great city like the Hagia Sophia, the Sultanahmet Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome, would leave all visitors with at least a tinge of admiration regardless of one’s religion, to the level of dedication and passion this city had on beauty, intricate details and on arts itself. Modern design is just an excuse word to escape being labeled as lazy, in my opinion.

A step into the Saint Sophia made my heart skipped a beat. Though it looks tired at some angles, every inch of the building spills professed love of the devotees of Christianity and Islam to this place of worship. There are huge calligraphy arts at a diameter of 7-meter wide each hanging high inside the building bearing the name of the Creator, Allah, Muhammad the messenger and his respectable caliphs. At the same time, in every corner of the first floor right wing, there are several mosaic arts made of real gold depicting the hand over of the city Istanbul to Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary by Constantine, “my Istanbul (Constantinople) is your Istanbul”

Every door is carved with intricate details, the mimbar, the prayer area of the Sultan – everything exudes handcraftsmanship at its highest level of perfection. A visit to Sultanahmet Blue Mosque confirms the same attitude the Istanbullus possesed in creating a monumental landmark. The grand mosque was built in a mere 5 years by 10,000 workers has every detail of precision and delicate designs to make it stand out even after the tests of time.

The art and culture are deeply rooted in the heart and soul of the Istanbullus. I stood in the middle of the night admiring the beautiful mosaic piece on the wall of its Metro station. I find joy strolling the city of Istanbul with the rests of millions visitors admiring the bits and pieces of the city’s uniqueness.

I couldn’t let go of the fact that we have come so far in ignoring the needs in paying attention to small details, and to always strive for excellence in everything that we do, even how trivial. Today’s generation are so void, engulfed and engaged on Facebook and the Internet without realizing that we have lost so much of our own identity and pride over time.

What would be our legacy to the next generation and would they be in awe when they think about us and the stories we left behind?

FingerTec Bringing Malaysia To The World

There is a television ad going on in Malaysia right now where a lady was torn between a locally made product and an oversea made product sold at the same price. When feeling the local product, her recollection of childhood’s memory came flashing back and she ended up buying it; the product/brand was sentimental to her. Both my husband and I rolled our eyes in disbelief. It’s a bit pretentious, isn’t it?

AirAsia is always preferred by many because of its pricing strategy

Between a renowned world brand and a locally made brand similarly priced, no way we are going to choose a local brand, unless it is also a renowned world brand. And I believe majorities of people are on my side. It’s not about me being less patriotic or I have lack of nationalism, it is simply about brand value.

Renowned international brands are preferred because of their higher brand values. Between a Proton and a Honda, the only factor that drives consumers to choose the former is the price. If both are offered at the same price, I doubt anybody would go for the former. It’s nothing to do with loving the country less, as a consumer we are just being sensible and looking for the most value for our money. Royal Selangor, AirAsia, Secret Recipe, Maggi, Stage Makeup are all good international brands and they are local brands as well, and consumers would be willing to pay extra for the experience, wouldn't they?

What separates a good brand and a substandard one? Quality. Customer experience. Appeal. Prestige. Presumed or not. It doesn’t matter where the products are made of as long as the brands fulfill the expectation of the consumers. Good brands usually do. A lot of Nike’s products are made in Malaysia but Nike is not a Malaysian brand. There are a lot of clothing lines made in Bangladesh but certainly not the brands originated from Bangladesh.

FingerTec is a local brand but we aim to play at the international platform and indeed we are thriving around the world. We don’t beg that consumer purchase our products just because we are Malaysian product; we want that decision be made based on the fact that our products fulfill what they desire as a consumer. And we are certainly proud to be a Malaysian brand that’s making its mark around the world.

Exactly one week from now the nation will celebrate its 53th year of Independence. We have come so far since 1957 and I believe that the nation has the capacity to go even further with the right plan, determination and attitude. Happy Birthday My Malaysia. I heart you.

Jalur Gemilang is the nation's beautiful flag

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ