On way to Sangla, there is a small temple on the road side called Taranda Maa Mandir. Every vehicle on its way to or from Sangla stops at this mandir and the travellers pray at this temple.
People pray and hope that they complete their journey safely. Once they reach safely, their faith starts building in the mandir. More number of safe journeys and faith gets stronger.
In the whole process, they start sharing their experience with others. They also listen to others, who also echo same kind of faith in mandir. After numerous such safe journeys faith is established permanently. But this whole process has taken years to establish.
For ages, marketers have been selling hope.
Consumers try new products in a hope that it will fulfill their want or need. In a hope that product will make their life simpler. In a hope that product will change their life. Once hope is a fulfilled, customer develops faith in the product. This is the tricky part. This is also the difficult part.
Products are sold on hope but brands are built on faith. Faith gets stronger when people share their experiences with others and others echo same sentiments about the product. This requires lot of patience. This also takes a lot of time. This also means products continue to deliver value that is expected out of them. This is not easy, but if it can be established, nothing more is there to worry about.
Selling hope is easy but building faith is difficult.
by Ramesh , on July 14, 2009 5:13 AM
Lovely insight Adesh. Great connection you have made between the temple and a marketing truism.
Btw - kudos to you for posting daily and commenting on all our blogs. We know you have a long commute everyday and must be pressed for time and drained out. Great show Adesh and more power to you !
by A journey called Life , on July 14, 2009 9:06 AM
nice post Adesh and great connecting 2 wholly different concepts
by Dhiman , on July 14, 2009 12:26 PM
Well said "Selling hope is easy but building faith is difficult." a apt post to relate a real life incident with a very useful marketing tip...
by Adesh Sidhu , on July 14, 2009 9:56 PM
Thanks Ramesh. It is flattering :-)
@ AJCL and Dhiman - Thanks man.
by le embrouille blogueur , on July 14, 2009 10:38 PM
Adesh ... so true .. have seen so many of these all my life ...when travelling in India ... great connection ... and like Ramesh .. I applaud your posting everyday !!!