Branding

Hi everyone,

Please accept my apologies for not writing and not being in touch. Things have been crazy and that would be an understatement. We have grown tremendously over the past six months and working through the challenges. This blog entry is about one of the key challenges that we are facing – branding and perception. I strongly believe many organizations working in the disability space are facing the same. What position to take?

Many people ask me “what is your marketing and brand strategy for Mirakle”. How are you the positioning it.  We are a very young social enterprise and though we are in the process of developing one, I quickly wanted to discuss with our readers what we are thinking about it in terms of the two very important but varied aspects.

Commercial – We at the end of the day are a social business, where the social mission is embedded in the commercial operations. We cannot forget the fact that we are in the express and courier delivery business. What does the client want – his/her shipment should reach the destination within the stipulated period of time. Many of them don’t care that we are employing people with disabilities and their business can help an isolated population. I completely understand that (I also completely understand the social aspect discussed below). We have to give importance to our delivery and service standards. I can think of Fabindia which was set up to improve the income levels of artisans. Nowhere in the store can you see that story. Their clothes are funky, hip, smart and have a strong cool quotient. Some consumers know about it and some don’t. I am sure that consumers who know about it are also not buying the products because of that very social mission. At the end of the day its about pricing, quality of service, customer retention and the product offering. We are very clear that for a while our business will take a lead as we once this takes off then we can take care of our social mission.

Social – Now to the dark side of the moon. Why don’t we just do something or buy something or use at the same quality level which at the same time helps somebody. Here the problem of perception is the reason, especially in sectors like disability which has a strong link with charity as people think that the differently able are inferior. Many times when there is a genuine delay which is not our fault such as the trains are not working. Some of our clients tell me “ koi baat nehi, yeh to disabled hai na to time to lagega he”. This also leads into pricing, I strongly believe that we should get a premium for our services. I know many people think that let the market decide. Free markets. Agree to that but we cannot forget that our training costs are higher, and we have to work harder. I would like this to happen but the opposite has happened. We get calls from people who ask for unthinkable prices because the assumption is that the deaf are hired cheap.

If Mirakle is adding value to a company through diversity and vendor management, then why cant corporations pay a premium for the services. We were featured in Outlook Business for this – the piece is here http://business.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?260080. Unfortunately, everything is looked from the price point of view. Ideally, we would like to be a player that is high on service and quality but at the same time would like consumers to understand that their shipment is giving a salary to someone who has very little opportunities to work.

So this brings us back to the question- our branding and marketing strategy. Any thoughts from our lovely readers.??

Dhruv