Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
The biggest business and networking conference in Slovenia NetPRO, was held on Friday, 20th, October, organised by business system bizi.si and Business Intelligence Centre. This year’s conference was the third. This high quality programme facilitated networking for more than 100 business people and entrepreneurs.
In many ways, this year’s conference was special. Eight well known speakers shared their knowledge, experience and imparted valuable advice to the audience, and participants had an opportunity to hear discussions at two round table sessions.
The veteran of direct marketing and former partner in Studio Moderna, Branimir Brkljac now of Terra Panonica, spoke of marketing in times of scatter gun attention. He pointed out that the media scene and marketing industry have changed radically, and well known marketing strategies are no longer bringing the expected results.
How can a brand attract our attention in times when we can’t imagine our life without different apps which didn’t exist ten years ago? “There is a new profile of a consumer now. The new generation makes little distinction between what’s public and what’s private. They have new means of communicating. Emojis are a new language. We are able to communicate with just a symbol, using no words”, Brkljac said using an example of a football star Cristiano Ronaldo, soon to retire, to illustrate the speed of change. There are apps which allow you to make selfies with him.
“A change has taken place. Up till now, all that was needed was to attract attention, stir up interest and a sale would happen”, said Brkljac whose one of the initial projects was Kosmodisk.
Nowadays, a true strategy is cooperation: “It takes time to create your own tribe. The story has to be sincere and personal. It needs to be believable, People belong only to a story they believe in, and if they belong to it they will share it. The primary goal is to get a following, likes and then customers. Until now, it was “buy my product, I am not interested, I’ll see you when you return for more”. Today, this will only apply to well established brands, but not to the newcomer.”
Brkljac expanded upon this: “When we have a relevant theme, we need to advertise using media that is followed by the relevant target audience. First, establish a primary contact (i.e. We have a solution for back pain). Then establish trust which is achieved by real life experience (i.e. they had good results with the product)”
His advice for companies is not to look for the cheapest media, it is important to use media that is followed by the target audience. “The key to each project is a propelling question. When staring a new project, you will very often hear you can’t do this, you can’t do that. Perspective needs to be changed. Instead asking why something is not possible, the question should be what if? That leads to results.”
“In times of the short attention span, you can attract a customer if you invest your emotions in the theme you are developing. It is all about perspective. For some it is an impediment for others is step forward”, Brkljac concluded.
Andreja Jernejcic, public relations expert of Lin&Nil using real life examples showed how with good PR you can make a mountain from a mole hill, how to high light the specifics of a product and how to persuade consumers to buy a product or a service.
Meta Groselj, time and energy management trainer, offered advice to all participants the importance of learning to say no. Those who say no more frequently are more successful. The difference between a successful and an unsuccessful person is how often they say no.
Matej Golob, IT expert who worked for many years for IBM then moved on to start ups, showed us the secret of maintaining business contacts. “Stay in touch only with those that are useful to you” of this Golob is convinced. During his talk he was mingling amongst the participants, sharing advice and exchanging business cards.