The Marketeer's Web

Moving from one end to another in a predefined pattern, meticulously designing and integrating silk threads together to form a mesh like structure, that is how a spider creates a spider's web. Spiders are known to catch their prey by trapping them in spider's web and once any prey is snared in it, chances of its survival are next to zero. Not only this, spider's web is also the saviour of spider from any enemy attack and calamity.

Humans have always learned from nature, animals, insects and all the other entities of nature. Many product designs and concepts have been outcome of inspirations from nature, so this time what a marketeer can learn from a spider and its web!?

It is something which has changed the whole marketing across the globe. It is not just a marketing tool, but a whole strategy which enables a company to entrap its customers more effectively and efficiently than before. I coin this as "Marketeer's Web", which gives competitive advantage over the other players in market and also adds lubrication, which is required during rough days of market.

Why do Marketeers need Web !?

With increasing awareness among customers and increasing competition in market, it is becoming more and more difficult for the companies to survive on the small share of pie they get out of whole pie. If a company tries to have more share, it had to spend more money which is not always possible and this was the reason for cremation of many companies.

This created need of developing some technique so that a marketer can get more share of pie while spending same amount of money. Earlier marketeers tried to communicate to customers by randomly spending money in different channels by their gut feeling or by industry standards. That might worked in some cases, but in most of the cases customer used to forget about the offering because the communication was not able to sustain in his mind.

What is Marketeer's Web !?

Just like a spider creates web to snare its prey, a marketer creates a marketeer's web to persuade his target customer to buy his offering. Marketeer's web is a timely planned and well integrated exposure of communication about an offering which a marketeer want to sell to his customer. It is planned, designed and executed in order to get a position in the TOM (top of memory) recall of the customer and maintaining the place there until customer himself wants your offering.

Let me explain the idea of marketeer's web by a real life example,

This web starts from a direct mail received by a QSR (quick service restaurant) for trying out an offer on their new pizza. I ignored that mail as likely to be done my most of us. I switched to a new tab of the browser, opened Facebook, was scrolling down and saw the same offer which I got at mail. Then I opened Youtube and clicked on a trending video to watch. What can you expect at this time..Yes!! an advertisement which I could not skip and it was again of the same offer by same QSR. 

I went out to my friend's place and on my way I turned on radio in my car, listened to one song and next thing which comes up is an advertisement of the same offer as that of Youtube. At my friend's place, we switched on TV and saw an advertisement of tasty looking pizza and at the end mentioned same offer which I heard on radio. Before watching this ad, I did not want to have pizza, but after seeing tasty pizza I gave it a thought of having it. In next few minutes, my phone got new notification, it was a cash back offer by an e-wallet company on purchase of the same offer which was mentioned on TV.

The next thing I remember is me and my friend having the pizza from same QSR availed same offer and of course 15% cash-back too.

The above example shows the power of web which marketeer created around customers like me to trap us into their web. This has to be done in a very subtle way so that customer even did not realize that he is going to be trapped in web.

How to create this web !?

To fabricate spider's web, spider uses its silk, in the same manner for creating web marketeer requires some material which is provided in the form of communication channels.

The marketing communication channels includes:

• Advertisements: TV ad, Print media Ad, Radio Ad
• Public Relations: Press Release, Special articles, interviews, Cause activities
• Direct Marketing: Direct mails, Direct messages, Shopping Channels, Telemarketing
• Personal Selling: personal meetings
• Sales Promotion: Loyalty Programmes, premiums, samples
• Internet Marketing: social media marketing

Marketeer should knit his web around customers by utilizing communication channels appropriately.


Once having a consortium of channels to create a web, marketeer should focus on nitty gritties of designing the web, which includes following things,

• Type of Spider and Prey: If a spider does not create its web according to the type of prey it want to enmesh, it should forget its meal and if a marketeer does not use communication channels according to the type of company he represents, type of product he offers and type of customer he is targeting, he should quit the job. Every company's requirement of communication is different, which depends on type of products it is offering and to which type of customer it is catering to. Hence, It is very important to select the right type of channel, in right quantity and at right time.

• Understanding Prey: When a prey lands in spider's web, the spider is already aware of its next step and has prepared itself and its web accordingly. A marketeer has to understand the consumer behaviour and customer journey, both before and after his customer lands into his web.

          A marketeer should be clear about

• What is the most effective channel for which type of customer
• What will be the recall and recognition of his customers when they will be exposed to the communication
• What would be the reaction of his customer on which type of communication channel.

        If he doesn't understand his customers, he will fail to design a good marketeer's web.

• Web Design: Web fabrication, the way it is designed plays the maximum role. He should assess the actions of customers, design the web accordingly to assist customer what to do next, so that he straightway moves towards product purchase. If not designed appropriately, potential customers will be lost and expenditure to have one customer will be higher.

In todays fast changing world, moving with time is crucial for success and tactics like marketeer's web is going to be essential for survival.