Moving on...

Hi there,

I have moved on to my own home (from a 'rented one' here at blogger) @ http://www.atomthought.com

Most of the posts available here can also be read there (I am trying to update and re-publish as many as possible).

so, see you at http://www.atomthought.com

Alootechie- Reaching half-a-billion Indians

Recently Alotechie published this article in their Guest Column section.
http://alootechie.com/content/reaching-half-a-billion-indians

The 3rd and concluding part-Reach Half-a-Billion Indians!

Source: CK Prahlad and Stuart L Hart: The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

I think the idea is now clear, so very succinctly: A student one-box should be a collaboration device, allowing:
1. Shared Learning
2. Collaborated projects and activities
3. Joint creation/output
4. Training, Skills –upgrading and testing

I have already written in detail in one of my previous posts: Lack of Innovation: Indian PC Marketers: http://sycamoreworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/lack-of-enthusiasm-indian-pc-marketers.html

The big idea is clear, but as you can see, this requires:

• Creating an eco-system through strategic alliances (You cannot do this
mammoth of a task alone)
• Building localised business models for specific segments and specific
geographies (a student one box will be different from a daily wager one –
box, in-terms of content, accessibility and design)
• Commitment to achieve an overall enhanced well-being of the target user.
• Focus,once again, on distribution, accessibility (overcome language ,
disability, environmental and cultural barriers), pricing and usability.

It’s imperative to build an ecosystem of products and create an opportunity for people to become more efficient and raise themselves in the value chain, apart from localisation of content and distribution to achieve the objective of reaching out to the next half a billion people in India.

Oracle has already started a somewhat similar initiative with schools in India, through it’s www.think.com endeavour. Microsoft also followed with Project Siksha.

Organisations like Unilever have very successfully crossed the chasm and so have ideas like : Gramin Bank and Gramin Telecom.

Concepts like: ‘MICRO-LENDING’ are actually steps in the same direction. While we will take a closer look on Micro-lending and the use of technology and digital medium in a future posting, you may want to take a peep into: lendingtree.com and gauge the potential that it has!

The time has come when we just cannot think about 6 or 10 million PCs sold every year, we cannot not say that we will not lend as banks because delinquencies are huge, and we cannot say that we are satisfied with 35 or 50 million internet users.


We have tapped the top 50 million Indians, it’s time to look at the next 500!


Sources: CIA Factbook, The Hindu, Indian Express, CK Prahlad and Stuart L. Hart: The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, UNICEF, NDTV.com, umbrellakiosk.blogspot.com

Part-II: Reaching Half-a-Billion Indians!

Before we continue into the second part of : Reahing Half-a-billion Indians, let me thank

Sandip Maiti (my ex-boss in Jasubhai Digital Media)

Archana Pandey

and Manuscrypt

for their comments and encouragement.

Archana had a very valid point in terms of using mobile platforms; and Manusrypt also has a very interesting and inspiring blog that one can check out!

So, moving back to where we left, the 6 core needs that cut across the major segments are:
Education
Employment
Banking
Health
Travel
Communication

What if we build a one-box that services all these core needs in a customised way for different segments?

For instance, let’s take 2 examples:

1. Targeting one of the most challenging segment: The Daily Wager/Labour Work Force.

2. Targeting Students

Targeting a Daily Wager

A daily wager, needs to find jobs, needs to register in a Rojgar Guarantee Yojna, needs to transfer money to his family back in village, needs a place to keep his earnings , travel back to his village once a year, be prepared for medical emergency and needs to talk to his wife and parents once every week.

So our one-box is a PC that has advanced touch and speech user interface
and allows one to :

register for Rojgar Guarantee Scheme. (Through a unique verification process, that entails thumb print, triggers criminal checks, and referal/introduction)
register in the employment exchange and check your status through
SMS or biometric touch or speech
deposit cash, transfer money to a local post office or let’s say a local western union unit. (I have heard that daily wagers actually keep their earnings with the local jeweller, now that's a huge potential for banks to initiate micro-savings and micro-lending endeavour)
make a call anywhere in the world.

The One-Box gets attached to a Bank at the backend, hence the Bank now has an opportunity to divert hundreds of millions of Rupees worth of unorganised savings to it’s leverage.

What’s more Bank’s can now do Micro-Lending and the person also gets a default life insurance.

One Box is connected to the local Hospital and the person can be treated free and a history is maintained.

One can book train ticket-through an advanced interactive speech and touch interface. One pays with the attached bank account.

Now the daily wager doesn’t need to know English or know how to use a computer. He operates with multi-lingual Speech, and graphical touch interface.
There may be a need for manned assistance in the beginning.
Also the kiosk should be multi-oriented so that at one given time about 2-4 people can use the same.

Source: www.umbrellakiosk.blogspot.com



And the best part is: One-Box helps the daily wager find a job, save, invest and transfer his money. Gives his family a life insurance, helps him talk and travel easily.

If this one Box can be fitted in a mobile phone- with the use of GPS technology the person can be tagged and in a situation of natural disaster or if the person is absconding we will be in a position to identify, track and trace the person.

Now where do we install this One-Box.

We need to tie up with Banks, Local Authorities & Hospitals and the One-Boxes can be installed at any of these locations.

Another way could be to give Free of Cost mobile phone with One Box features to every person who registers at the Rojgar-Guarantee Yojna or is being employed by let’s say a Big Farm Owner.

The mobile phone acts as a smart card and hence Government’s objective of Smart Card enabling is also achieved.

These mobile phones are sponsored by the Government.

Government subsidises the handsets. The vendor (it could be an HP or Google or Microsoft or Nokia) gets the money from Government and immediately installs let’ say 100 million such Kiosks or Handsets.

The training and upkeep is done by NGOs in conjunction with vendors and local authorities.

The vendor maintains and upgrades the installations as per SLA.

So, win-win for all:

1. The end-users gets an opportunity to scale up in life and feel more secured.
2. Government can now tag and register people and track efficacy of it's social programs apart from keeping a tab on crime and can implement control measures more effectively in situations of natural or otherwise disasters
3. The vendors can not only hope to sell 10 times more but also earn through perpetual maintenance contracts and upselling and cross selling of other products.


Looks simple, but is indeed a Herculean task, and we shall know a little bit more in our concluding part this week-end on: Targeting Students, Requirements for fulfilment and we shall also take a look at a diagram from CKP's Bottom of pyramid, and relate it's context with our thoughts. Till then...have a wonderful week ahead!

The Lowest Common Denominator! How to reach half-a-billion Indians?

10 years back we would not have imagined selling 6 million PCs a couple of million laptops every year, so quickly.

About 40 million people now fly by domestic airlines every year and about 30 odd million people use credit cards in the country.

This sounds good, and more than that it boost the ego of an average Indian, whose country was known as poor and underdeveloped till a couple of decades back.

What if I say that the opportunity for having an installed PC base is at least 500m (as compared to about 30 odd million now), in the next 5 years. (100 m PCs to be sold every year). And in the same breath I also say that the opportunity of internet usage should be at least 100m users every year for the next 5 years!

My thinking is that the real potential of India has not been realised and that the business models for India need to be disruptive for every business (and not just Technology business) that operates in India!

I have been inspired by C K Prahlad’s ‘Bottom of Pyramid’ in writing this article, but even before I read CKP, I had always thought that we are not looking at the big picture as Indian Marketers or MNCs in India.

To achieve this ambitious goal of selling to Half a billion people in India- we need to understand who they are. And my friends, they are people who have very little or no purchasing power!

So, we will need to develop an eco-system of sorts-which will help them elevate their financial position by earning more or saving more through the use of technology. We need to remember that this system will only be successful if we allign with righ partner mix and rope in the government and NGOs for training, space and other subsidies for the common man.

OK....more statistics now...

516 million labourers in India. (Most of them on daily wages, and a large % may include people who earn less than USD1 per day)

At least 40 million students in India (Secondary, Senior secondary and colleges/Universities).

Then there are about 80 million senior citizens in India.

And we are not even talking about people who earn between INR 50000-INR 2Lac a year.

Diverse Segments Need Diverse Solutions

Now that we understand the broad level segmentation; let’s take a look at their Core needs, and how we can build an ecosystem of utilities powered by technology.

By doing this we will help these segments achieve their own goals more efficiently and economically and in due course achieving our own objectives.

So, what are the 6 core needs that cut across most of the above mentioned segments...and what ecosystem are we talking about? Wait for my next post! It's coming pretty soon!

The Story and Strategy of Money Portals in India!

Year 2000. Place : India
DotCom Boom…but hardly any online banking/finance portals. I could remember only Apna Loan which was launched during that phase, and was instantly popular among the early dot com users.

Year 2008. Place : India
At least 20 online finance portals. All with similar strategy and content. ApnaLoan survives the bust but the scene is cluttered with me-too portals with little or no differentiation.

Let’s see how many do I remember, paisawaisa, rupeetalk, ecompare, loanmela, loanwala, deal4loans….and the list goes on!

Why so many online finance portals?

Easy! 40 million people on the net. At least 70% are between the age group of 25-40. This age group is the single largest spending, earning and borrowing group in India. And these 28m people are online, looking for deals and looking for quick and convenient financial assistance!

What have the online finance portals missed?

The 28 million people we are talking about, have the following needs:

1. Un-biased Choice
2. Un-intrusive Service
3. Flexibility and convenience of application
4. Advisory and hand holding
5. Transparency and being in loop (update on status and clarity on product)

Now, I am sure most of us had the (mis) fortune of logging onto one of the above financial portals….and we ended up filling a small form, appreciating the portal’s brains of not bothering us with a 3 page form instead.

But what happens later? The small form that we filled up, actually turns out to be a lead generation form, and the brainy portal sells the lead to 5-6 DSAs (Direct Sales Agents of Banks)

None of the above mentioned portals, seem to have a direct tie-up with any bank in India, most of them actually sell our information to DSAs of various banks and then the end consumer starts receiving incessant calls from various DSAs.

So, who suffers: the consumers (you and me) and also the banks (they just get unqualified leads, which they need to qualify and service). So both the parties are at the bottom of value chain.

And look at the audacity, I received an email from a portal claiming to be running a live chat with various banks directly on the portal, and I eventually found that it was not the banks I was chatting with, but with employees of Direct Sales Agents!

So, not are these portals making a fool of everyone, but also pulling the industry down the value chain. Where is our innovation? Where is our thought process?

There is merit in creating a portal which:

1. Can provide a wide choice of banks
2. Allows to fill application online
3. Allows the convenience of doorstep documents collection
4. Acts as a self-help mechanism
5. Acts as an unbiased advisor
6. Connects directly with Banks and not DSAs.
7. Rates and verifies the consumer- to give him the best deal and provide the bank with a consumer and not just a lead.

This mechanism respects the consumers’ right to choose, right of not to be disturbed, right to be advised when needed, doorstep convenience and avoid multi layering. I started working with these thoughts on http://www.onimoney.com/, and the task is not finished yet! I am working on creating a very exciting web 2.0 application which can compare profile of people in real time and suggest them the RoI and other advantages that people with similar profiles have secured. Hence empowering the end user to receive a better deal from the banks.

In 2008, when we proudly talk about our engineering infrastructure and product development teams, we seemed to have forgotten about the fact that if consumers’ interests are not kept intact, the expensive infrastructure and tall claims may not be able to rescue a falling empire.

The Next Disrupters

There's a very interesting article in a recent issue of Business 2.0 (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/09/01/100169862/index.htm)
about top 10 game changing companies/start-ups. I found a few of them very relevant and exciting, but a few, not so disruptive, for instance:

1) Blinkx: A web video search and ad insertion application- Google is already on it and they are trying to launch an appropriate ad insertion technology(an adsense extension is already in place).
The deviation that Blinkx has introduced is: speech to text technology (allows it to understand relevance and context by reading what is said in the video- and then using the same to publish ads within the video), and the fact that it is an advanced Video Search Engine (which today Google is not!)
I still feel that this is a step forward in creating a disruption, and that a technology like this will display it's real strength and disruption quality when integrated with DTH, video rental sites etc.

There are a few very cool, web2.0 ideas like:
2) Expensr: an online personal finance management site with a difference; it allows you to compare with others of similar profile and let's you know how do you fare against them in terms of managing your finances.
(I am already working on a similar web 2.0 application for www.onimoney.com, (from a loans perspective) and shall be introducing it very soon)

3) Virgin Charter- Book your Flying Taxis online!! An online booking site for chartered flights!

4) Patients like me: Again a web2.0 site, which allows patients to record, track and discuss their medical conditions.

I think this is a very powerful tool- a person suffering with a rare or complex medical condition can actually be a part of a specific community and can in a few hours know what similar patients worldwide are doing to improve. This is a great interactive-knowledge bank. If only there was a possibility to integrate Doctors community also, it would be an awesome disruption.

These are only a handful of the lot that you can read about on business2.com. There are more interesting disruptors around energy, medicine and what have you!

Reading about disruptors makes me feel positive and confident about the future. In these times of inflation and stagnation (stagflation) the disruptors can actually help us carve a future which is exciting and growth led!
Amen!

Do Video Contests Work in India?

A layman's answer would be : NO! And the reason: many people connect the success of video contest with the number of videos submitted! Now, this is not the reason why we would run a video contest, and this was definitely NOT why I ran my World's 1st NRI Video Talent Hunt Program while in Airtel.

Coming back to it: My objective of doing a NRI Talent Hunt was :
1. To create a buzz and chain reaction of sorts.
2. To associate Airtel CallHome with NRIs and represent their passion in a special and relevant way.
3. To allow interconectivity and viral effect for this communication.
And hence I decided to :
1. Do it in a non-branded, unbiased and universally accessed platform like YouTube.
2. Do it on a global and widely used portal like YouTube to lend a global impact.
3. Allow people to share and get rated for their videos.
So my friends, it's not how many videos were uploaded , but how many poeple viewed them and how many of the videos were shared, that counts!
In long run this activity will reap even better results. In long run: the videos keep getting shared, their links keep getting embedded in different sites, and one can always revive and connect them with another activity thus creating a chain reaction.

And that was the purpose of launching Airtel CallHome, World's 1st NRI Video Talent Hunt.

World's 1st NRI Video Talet Hunt

I came across this idea in October 2007 as the head for internet marketing in Airtel-International Calling Service.

I believe that whenever we target a niche set of audience, we should observe what binds them together. Each Niche community is sensitive about certain core and common issues and as a marketer if we understand them, recognise them and represent the niche community, half the battle is won.

NRIs also have a latent need to show and share their Indian attributes, this is one thing that binds them together in a foreign land. And I thought given the high internet penetration, high need for communication and community building, why not launch a video contest program where NRIs share their views about India and being Indian...it could be funny, it could entail any hidden talent or a story.

The second challenge that I had was how to seed this program... and how to create buzz out of it.
I thought of organising this Video Contest in a very simple fashion without too much of Airtel branding. (The moment you make these community programs branded, and splash your logos and brand colors all over-it will loose it's charm)

Hence I thought of doing it on YouTube. I thought this has great buzz value, and had the potential of getting good PR across the world.

While it took over 4 months to conceptualise, doing a test run on YouTube and convinicing the management...but it was all worth it when it went live in March (we had to use rediff ishare instead of YouTube- http://www.ithappensonlyinindia.net)

About 300 videos uploaded so far! And I feel proud because of 2 reasons on this:

1. It's the first of it's kind of a program in itself.

2. Despite Airtel not being no.1 in international calling (in terms of market share or product features)- it is ideas like these that will take Airtel closer to it's prospects and customers.


* I left Airtel in mid-Feb, and thank my team for doing the last mile finishing work. Great work Guys!

5 Myths About Online Social Marketing

1. Social Marketing does not work :
> It Works, and there is no reason why it will not continue to even in future
The only care that one has to take is to segment the communication with relevance to the type of social platform. For e.g. a communication for a blog will have to be different than a communication on a forum than a communication on a networking site than a communication on an answers site ...
which is were advertisers mostly fail। They need not create a traditional ad for social sites, even if they have to the flavour, format and content should be different for different types of social platforms.

2. You cannot get enough CTRs on Social Sites:

> See the indirect results: Communication on social sites will give you volumnous referral traffic from different sites and sources.It has an elastic effect, the responses stretch over a long period, and your communication reaches indirectly to people who you could not have targeted otherwise.
At Bahrti Airtel, I started perhaps one of Asia's first Online Reputation Management and Social Media Marketing, and while I cannot quote numbers, the experience was quite motivating.
Also we need to prune our objectives: the objectives cannot be just CTRs, if that's the game you want to play then hire a lead generating agency, do mass mailings thorugh list agencies and don't bother about where you get clicks from।

3. Social Sites are not good enough for branding.

> No one single vehicle or platform is enough for branding today (even TV)so let's not put this arguement forward against Social Media Marketing.
Internet has the capability for multimedia depiction of communication, and through innovative ways a brand can be built on internet and on a social site।The only thing against this is volumes. However With mobile internet and wimax, internet usage could beat beat TV usage in less than 5 years.

4. Advertising is the only way you can earn money on Social Sites

> May not be an entirely correct statement.
Tomorrow you will have premium networking sites...with membership fee and advantages. In UK there are sites which offer you online security services in case as a female you want to on a blind date with a person you met on that social networking site. So what happens here is that if you went for a blind date and did not come back and deactivate an alarm online within a stipulated time...the site will immediately send alarms to your relatives and friends alongwith address and profile of person whom the female went to blind date with.
These are paid services.
What happens if we have a 'c' class' social network...do you think it will be free?
What about collaborative sites: sites which aggregate music lovers from across the world and let them together create music. The site has potential to charge you for marketing your music, can charge you for providing base audio to supplement your vocals, can sell accessories, memntos etc.For eg. check out http://www.estockmusic.com/.
So social sites will earn from advertisements as also from subscriptions and ecommerce sales।

5. People who come to social sites are not serious snough hence advertising will not work

> There is a reason why people come on social networking sites: And that reason is networking and collaborating।
How can as marketers we extend or enhance "networking" and "collaboration" experience through our communication? This is what we should think instead of CTRs।
If you start thinking about CTRs, then you will be driven by how to increase impressions and eventually become desparate and abandon.
But if you think about contextualisation, collaboration and experience, then CTRs and eye balls will automatically happen.

Mobile Marketing- Random and Quick thoughts

Just thinking aloud on components of a Mobile Portal:

Core Challenge:

1. To build a content ecosystem
2. To build an effective distribution mechanism
3. To create monetising opportunities and action

Positioning and Market Gap/Opportunity

90m handsets sold in 2007:
Total active Sub base- 210million already (adding 2million every month now)
Total PC base is 30m and internet base is 12m. The web penetration is not as much as we thought it would be by 2007, hence there is a clear opportunity to tap the Internet enabled handsets in India.- If we put only 20% of the handsets to be capable of using internet apps: we already have about 40 million users ready to use internet in some form over their mobile devices.
Independent domestic players with individual applications or major players with horizontal offerings but limited to their basket (Yahoo GO!). Hence a clear opportunity for a player that can serve cross-vehicle content (right from Yatra’s content to Magic brick’s content to content from Naukri)

Creating an effective content ecosystem:

Demands clear market segmentation
i. Youth
ii. Corporate
iii. Rural/Semi Urban

Creating relevant and compelling mobile internet experience
i. Video and photo sharing, social networking, Blogging, Multiplex, Fast Food, jobs, gaming, chat, answers.
ii. Flights, Gadgets, Business Content, jobs, gaming, easy notepad, alerts, business applications, online shopping. GPS maps etc.
iii. Voice based, whether, railways, movie clips, lingual content

Relevant users can download widgets and make their own mobile portal. Alternatively, they can be packaged and distributed.

Procuring the content

i. Tie up with content providers: essentially those who are not web savvy but have a compelling offline presence. Or have a pressure of expanding reach fast. like Enadu, Kumudam in south, India today’s newspaper-metro today, live mint, meta search engines like: zoomtra or desiya
ii. Need to have flagship content providers: People will not download the entire mobile portal unless one has buzz creating brands like: amazon, google, linkedin, orkut, apple-itunes etc.
iii. Create an adsense kind of a network:

1. Ask content providers to submit their content/site and get paid on per download basis or
2. advertisement revenue sharing basis


Build an effective distribution mechanism:

a. Through web portals
b. Through Mobile operators
c. Handset manufacturers
d. Create pull from end users through consumer marketing
e. Tie up with content providers- their users will automatically transit/upgrade to a mobile version of content

Advertising Monetisation

Various Objectives for advertisers: each objective can be monetized:

Core Objectives of an advertiser:

1. Reach:
2. Relevance
3. Action
4. Tracking and RoI

· Couponing: sales promotion
· Form Filling: lead generation
· Behavioral advertising: targeted advertising for branding
· Location based advertising: contextual advertising
· On demand: extension of distribution (for eg. Click for an HP cartridge and get it delivered to your home)

So this was a macro perspective on Mobile advertising and marketing. I guess it's just a matter of time when Marketers and Agencies will receive an opportunity to reach out to their TA in rural, semi urban and Urban areas with customised , close-loop-able and trackable communication.

It will make great sense for : Banking and Finance, Classifieds, locals and Travel companies.

However, two things need to be considered:

1. The communication and platform needs to be designed for mobile access.

2. Due to emphasis on privacy, Mobile communication will all the more depend on permissive marketing- hence the need for technology disruption (how to create an easy to navigate and action oriented mobile platform -which will automatically optimise basis screen size and resolution, for instance) and an opportunity to command premium precisely due to this from dvertisers (and may be consumers)