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)

ORM/Social Marketing- Concluding Part

So, I started off with preparing a grid. The grid is divided into various forms/Categories ike Blogs, Sharing Platform, Answers Forums, Comunity Forums, Deals Forums etc.

And against each category I pointed out specific Objectives/.Challenges and Action points.

This grid can be tracked over a fortnight and since this would be a log term process, I guess this will give us some good information if looked in retrospect.

I had to involve my PR organisation, due to policy and compliance issues, but I am sure everyone will appreciate that Social Marketing/ORM is a more procative and involving form of marketing, and help from PR gives it the credibility and buy-in internally.

While I conclude this post now, very soon I will come back with more stuff on 2 things

1. Mobile Marketing and Scope in India

2. Social Marketing: Scope in India

till then

adios

Social Media Marketing/Online Reputation Management

I have recently initiated, among other internet marketing initiaives in my organisation, something called Social Media Marketing. One of the facets of Social Media Marketing is ORM (Online Reputation Management). Infact it will not be wrong to say that ORM is just another face of Social Media Marketing.

In India there's a fairly low level of awareness about ORM/SMM, and I thought it will be great to start a discussion around similar topics which are cutting edge and in vogue in mature economies, but gradually gaining ground in India.

So here it goes, please do contribute, it will be great to assimilate different ideas:

What is Online Reputation Management?

Online Reputation management is the process of tracking our image and perception in the market among stakeholders, recording the relevant perception pointers and opinions in the market; and creating a response strategy and action plan to either strengthen the positive pointers or weaken the negative perception.

Since a large base of customers/prospects/stakeholders access and share information via websites/blogs and search engines, Search Engine Reputation Management (or SERM) tactics are one of the most integral part of an overall ORM strategy.

3 Prime Focus Areas:

Monitor
Optimize and
Engage

Monitor

We need to monitor what: Brand, Products, Company and Key Executives.

Where: News, Blogs, Forums, Social Media and Search

Optimize

Most of the reputation management companies (and Corporates) often indulge in reactive measures. What they end up doing is chasing the dissenters and do not their brand in a position of control.

In-fact, in India a very common (and uneducated) response would be to ask one’s online agency to remove all bad content about oneself from all blogs in the world!

A few others of similar variety would attribute negative imagery on blogs to competition, and would want the agency or online marketing division to retort back with greater vengeance!

While the competition may be involved in spreading a negative word about you, it will be wise to stay stoic and not indulge in a similar reactive strategy.

What many people forget is that the consumer or the reader is much smarter than what they think of him!

What one needs to have, instead is a well thought –out long term strategy to have their digital communication optimized, so that they are present in the form of blogs, articles, or video content across identified set of sites.

Once one starts participating in selected number of strategic sites, their content will grow, communities around these content areas grow, and subsequently this content starts featuring in search results. Since more sites with positive content will feature in search engine, the old negative content sites will automatically be pushed down.

Engage

Let’s say that we encounter a negative article on a blog, here are steps in dealing with it:

Research the situation – is there merit?
If not, provide the facts and ask for corrections
If yes, then offer to discuss
Be ready to respond with your own blog
Be honest, be transparent and LISTEN
Results can be any anything from a positive turn around to a loyal brand evangelist.

A few tips to interact with negative blogs:

Investigate facts internally before taking action - could this be a competitor spreading rumor? Is there really something bad about a particular service which is being complained about?
Always take the high ground

Be honest!

Explain what you have done to rectify any issue

Offer to resolve any complaints personally - have a senior-level staff member make the offer - try to continue discussion offline and utilize your allies.

Don’t create new “personas” to support your position in blogs, forums and message boards as you’ll likely be caught! As I said the reader/consumer is very smart!

Look froward to the 2nd and concluding part next week!

Part-II, Marketing in Digital Age

Continuing from where we left...

3. To be innovative, in today’s parlance means being simple and straight.

Today’s consumers are younger but much smarter, and they do not want sugar coated message, if one can deliver it straight, one will be able to involve them. If you observe Google: it is not the most aesthetically designed site in the world, it does not have any content of it’s own, it does not have any flashy banner ads, or videos on the homepage. You can rarely see any ads/kiosks/hoardings promoting Google products but still, perhaps it is the largest traffic attracter in the internet space! Why?

Simple yet aesthetic design, fast & responsive service and relevant results. So keeping Google’s case in context, what would have Yahoo done in 1998. They would have tried to make better email systems, and better websites which would be feature rich and attractive.But Google saw two trends very clearly and early:

1. There was a catalytic growth in content on the net and this meant that in future people will need to try harder to get a specific information, since the information would then be spread across millions of ever-expanding worldwide network of websites. Hence a need for a good search mechanism.

2. With the design revolution, most sites will sport flash, video and multimedia content, that will make sites heavier and sites will take more time to load, hence a need for a site/search engine that’s light and loads fast.

(This means there still is an unfilled gap of a search engine that can index and search images, flash and other types of information that are still not indexed properly by Google)

That’s what Google did. Another important observation, which you may appreciate, : The major search sites of that era, ‘Excite', 'Alta Vista' and 'Lycos', also missed this point. They tried to expand into becoming horizontal portals (started to present news, and other information on the search site), and look where they are now!

Again, this also links back to observing the trends of peripheral products/categories (not necessarily customer trend only) and carve an opportunity out of it.

4. Marketing through Blogs:

I am sure you know, people across the world tuned themselves to the blogs, when USA invaded Iraq, to know the latest and real story. It was not the CNN or BBC, which held the attention of millions of concerned viewers across the world, but it were the blogs written by journalists who were on- ground during that time. Blogs are considered to be an honest and personal medium of expression, hence the trust and involvement is more.

Blogs are going to change the face of communication on earth! It’s upto us as to when and how do we want to leverage this. GM, Disney, Sony and various other organisations are leveraging Blogs to their advantage. In India, we have not seen much on this front, but this is what for instance, Maruti SX4 could have done:

1. Launch an extensive online campaign calling bloggers to empanel for test driving SX4.(Promote this offline, to build aspiration and involvement)
2. Select 50 bloggers across different platforms, and ask them to keep an SX4 for 1 week, and write about the experiences.
3. Capture videos, and photographs of bloggers using SX4 and spread them in different media as PR and ads as also post them on corporate site, youtube and community sites.
4. The bloggers eventually post their experience.
5. Integrate those blogs and promote them through online and offline mechanism and ask people to comment, ask questions and register for test drive.This could have given low cost high impact advantage to SX4.

Marketing through Blogs is an extremely interesting topic, and if an opportunity comes I shall be glad to share more on this in future.

I am sure you all have tried similar innovations in various aspects of your corporate life.
It will be great to hear and learn from your experience. Please do convey how you liked this article and share your thoughts.

I conclude by quoting Albert Einstein:
Innovation is not the product of logical thought, although the result is tied to logical structure.

Marketing Innovation in the Digital Age

Marketing is a process to come closer to consumer. How innovatively can one execute this process of coming closer to a consumer, would determine how innovative one is as a marketer.


This is how I decipher marketing!

1. Being innovative in marketing starts with listening to consumers (Not exactly)!
Don’t get me wrong, but in today’s world it’s imperative to observe a customer through all the means possible and not just do a feedback research that’s going to give predicted results.
Because it’s not always the consumer who knows the most about his own needs, or for that matter a product that he consumes!

To put things in context, imagine, how successfully Intel has executed it’s marketing program. It has always positioned it’s products at the top end of performance, and coupled with that, consistently launched new products with higher benchmarks.

Frankly, there is no specific need for me to buy a laptop with dual-core processor and hyperthreading (I perhaps don’t even know what difference can it bring to my life), but still I will think twice before buying an AMD equipped laptop or a cheaper celeron.

That’s because Intel has not necessarily just listened to customers, it has observed the buying behavior (which is simplistically, based on a feeling of consumer insecurity, that arises from less knowledge about technology and a tendency to buy products that comply with latest standards, so that they do not face any support problems later), and based on that configured it’s entire marketing strategy.

Intel is a leader, and as a leader it sets benchmarks…and changes them very frequently…it doesn’t wait for the customers or the competition to action or initiate any change/deviation.
Hence, OBSERVING a customer (see, who are the peripheral users, what are the peripheral needs of existing users, what are the peripheral products, buying behavior and see what best practices can we superimpose in our marketing) is more important than just listening to him.

Another example that comes to my mind is of one of the most impactful registration drive campaigns from Timejobs.com.

Timesjobs.com, observed two pain points,
1. Weak bandwidth/communication links: So when a person would start to register on Naukri or mosnter, many times, the connection breaks and the person has to re-fill the entire form.
2. The forms were so lengthy that, people would fill up half of it and then abandon it, to come back again and fill up at leisure.

(There was no specific complain from the customer, because for the customer Naukri and Monster were two great things that have happened to him, and if it means a little bit more effort to fill-in the form, not a problem)

Timejobs created ads that looked like registration forms and it did 2 things for Timesjobs:
1. The person can fill the form from anywhere (clicking a link from within google, or filling up a form within rediff.com)
2. It was quick and easy. (just 3 steps). A person needed to fill in just about 3 fields to get registered.

This helped in driving traffic, so much so that today, Timesjobs claims to be the fastest growing job portal in India.

Again, Timesjobs may not be a better product, but all it did was observe a latent need/consumer behavior and that made a difference.

2. Segmentise Consumers and make segment specific Product/marketing strategies

I have pondered and discussed this earlier in this blog.
For e.g.: Imagine if a company like HP ties up with a newspaper like Times of India (and their special School initiative), and say 100 Schools across India, and encourage children to come out with a fortnightly school newspaper.

The newspaper can be designed on HP-PCs using a few HP softwares, scanners and printers (they may collaborate with adobe for advanced users), and can be distributed by Times of India.
Imagine the number of young minds you can influence. These youngsters are not just the influencers today, but will be the actual buyers and users tomorrow.

Similarly this can be done for doctors, architects and other segments. All we need to do is to create a difference in terms of reaching closer to our prospects and creating an impact.
It’s a great opportunity, especially for players in the field of online gaming, blogging and social networking to tap into specific segments and leverage.


To be concluded... Please look forward to the concluding part of this article, this weekend. We shall discuss Blog Marketing and other innovative and simple ways to market your product)

(This article was first published on http://www.desicreative.com)

8 Interesting Ways to Reduce Online-fraud!

Before we proceed, it’s very important to look at your transaction data and analyse, which segments need what level of fraud control. For e.g. in some cases high value items attract the most fraud, however in many cases, in 2007, the frauds are happening in low denomination items!.

Hence depending upon, factors, (countries, domains, item value etc.), one needs to decide the investment and resources needed for fraud control:

So, here you go :

1. Extra verification: There is an innovative verification technique, I saw at the telesign website (www.telesign.com)

When the person clicks on submit button after filing up the signup for on your site, within a few seconds he receives a call on the number he has provided in the form...and there is an automated voice with a 4 digit pin no.

The customer needs to put that no. in the verification box on your website

We are assuming that a fraudster would not give his real no. in which case he will not be able to verify.

This entire process would take less than 30 seconds.

2. Motivate people for direct debit: give them incentive to use direct debit facility. One would need to tie up with various banks to offer this facility. Chances of fraud are less in this case.

3. Tie up with a credit card company to launch a corporate card...say… Xyz- BankAm credit cards.

Promote these cards on your website and offer incentives. The credit card company will verify the database and share the same with us. We can also use one extra step of verification (like sending a PIN): THIS pin will be delivered at the physical address of the person who has signed up for the card and is sent by the bank. Once received, the person needs to use that pin, while making any payments on your site.

Another benefit of this idea:

A cash back scheme/ frequent user scheme can be easily deployed for the card holders and will go a long way in promoting customer loyalty.

4. We can ask people to use only corporate/paid email ids. No free email ids are allowed.

(Most of the fraud cases are through free email ids): again this would hold true for the denomination where we see most of the fraud happening (say USD 50 and above).

I feel that in the next 6 months, e-commerce sites are going to be very strict on this, though this may seem a put-off initially, this scheme has a potential to go a long way!

5. Proactively sending emails to people after signups and asking them
to call you directly (and not their ban) if they think there is an error; goes a long way in reducing chargeback.

6. Industry negative database: Collaborate with other players in the industry and make an industry negative list. Or hire the services of a professional firm that can provide with updated negative list.

7. Need of a CSO/online security team for policy, application -implementation and control. A CSO brings in a professional approach to the challenges alongwith a thought-process guided policy, action plan and resources.

8. Order Velocity: Check the order velocity pattern across you site or various merchant sites . Deploy software that can check this, or form an industry consortium, and check this in real time.

Reasons for Chargebacks and Their Remedies

Chargebacks can fall into any of five different reason categories:

1. Processing Errors
2. Customer Dispute
3. Post-Transaction (or non-fulfilment of copy requests)
4. Potential Fraud
5. Authorization-Related
In a CNP scenario (Card not Present), following reasons are most common: Processing Errors, Customer Dispute, and Potential Fraud.

Remedies

By all means online merchants are at a disadvantage when it comes to chargebacks. With no credit card to swipe or receipt to sign, one needs to be innovative to really verify a sale.

For ecommerce players like online gaming or online calling services , the situation is even worse, because the delivery of service is immediate and online.
There are new tools available, and more on the way, that aim to reduce online fraud and therefore reduce opportunities for chargebacks. Two similar technologies, Verified by Visa and SecureCode, provided by Visa and MasterCard respectively, will help to verify a customer's identity at the time of purchase.

Unfortunately, I am not sure what’s the base that these companies have, and then there is always a threat of loosing a customer, since it’s one extra step in the entire ecommerce process and not all customers would remember the secureCode/Verified by Visa code at all times.
So this will have a limited impact for now.

But while you use and adopt the Fraud Management technology, nothing beats a Customer Centric Environment.

I would advise the following :

Analyse the reasons why one has a high incidence of chargebacks.

1. If it is fraud:
a. then one needs to have fraud management system in place. (Connect with Visa, PayPal,
CCavenue or specific security/fraud management agencies and configure policies and
systems around address verification, negative database, verify IP, order velocity, etc.)

b. Share your negative database with your competition and make a Global Industry
Negative Database : Block these cards across the Industry.

2. if it is due to customer dissatisfaction: we need to work towards
a. Better and more frequent communication with customers

b. Put in place a system, that records step by step affirmatives and sign-ups by the
customer. This is proactively recording customer satisfaction and his receipt of service, so
that even in case of dispute the incidence is minimum, and to start with it will help you
have a satisfied customer with less chances of dispute.

c. Have a visible customer contact available at your site and all communications with
customer (including billing).

d. Run a customer loyalty program

At the end of it, as someone said, one needs to progress and become smarter along the way. There is no quick-fix and there is no permanent solution.


Sources http://www.cybersource.com, http://www.visa.com, http://www.sitepoint.com

Charge-Backs: A Deadly threat for E-Commerce Merchants

Worlwide there are about 1.2m credit cards which are either stolen or are at risk. You can imagine if each of these cards do a transaction worth just USD1000, there is a potential loss of more than USD1B to the ecommerce industry worldwide.
According to cybersource (http://www.cybersource.com) approximately 1% of accepted orders turn out to be fraud, and in 2005 we lost USD2.5B due to these.
That’s not all, merchants reject 4% of incoming orders due to suspicion of fraud! (You can imagine the losses here!)
In India, as we embark upon the e-commerce revolution, we need to learn and prepare ourselves from the deadly threat of fraud and more specifically chargeback.
What Exactly is a Chargeback?
A chargeback occurs when a customer contacts a credit card-issuing bank to initiate a refund for a purchase they made on their credit card.
For merchants chargebacks can be costly , because not only the dollar amount of sale is lost, but also there is an added processing cost and time.
The Chargeback Process
Let's take a look at the chargeback process used by Visa and MasterCard. The process is as follows:
1. The customer disputes a transaction by contacting their card-issuing bank
2. The card-issuing bank researches to determine whether the reasoning for the chargeback is valid.
3. A provisional credit is provided to the customer. The card-issuing bank initiates a chargeback process and obtains credit from the merchant's processing bank.
4. The merchant's processing bank researches the validity of that chargeback.
5. The chargeback amount is removed from the merchant's account and the merchant's processing bank provides written notification to the merchant.
6. Did a processing error occur? If so, the sale is re-presented to the card-issuing bank for corrections.
7. The merchant provides documentation to remedy the chargeback. If the provided documentation is found to be satisfactory, the chargeback is declined and the customer is once again charged for the sale. If the documentation is found to be unsatisfactory, the chargeback is successful and the process ends.

Look forward to my next posting on the reasons and remedies for avoiding Charge-backs.

Late posting, but interesting. I was in news sometime back, when I tried to promote this blog through adwords and other search vehicles.

check it out !!


http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/12/googler-with-some-big-adwords.html

Shahrukh Khan and Saif Khan in PC Ads!

Yesterday we were having an intersting discussion within our group, about how the technology (B2C) marketing/advertising is changing in India.

So the discussion started with the observation that increasingly the PC companies are hiring celebrities (mostly from Bollywood) to promote their products, and if we see the statitics, both the brands that hired Shahrukh Khan and Saif Khan, are among the top 3 brands of the country!

This stems out from the fact that , firstly PCs have become a commodity and hence one of the ways to do the differentiation is to attach a specific personality to the brand.

Secondly: at the end of the day it's a technical product and a layman would buy your product based on the applications rather than the technology-which he doesn't understand anyways!

Hence a celebrity can illustrate the applications in Bollywood style, and to add to it will attract a lot of eyeballs.

So both : attraction/visibility and involvement or signifying a USP are attained through celebrity endorsement

This indeed takes from where I left in my last blog (see below, "Lack of innovations ...").

and reiterating the fact that a large volume of the PCs sold in India are sold to Home segment. The major drivers of buying a PC in home are:

1. GAMING

2. Multimedia ( listening to songs, designing a greeting card, watching the digital photographs etc.)

3. Entertainment (mediacentre like capabilities)

4. EDUCATION of Children and

5. Internet (chat, email, search, blog)

So, the moot question still is infront of us: What are the PC companies doing to use the above traits/attributes to sell their PCs?

The answer is: They have hired bollywood celebrities, and that's how far they have gone!

I think that's a good start but we need to go far, and faster.

The problem in India is; We do not think big! We are fearful of visualising a BIG market! We are happy the way things are!

What happens if we take each of the above 5 points , and weave a strategy to achieve the goals (quantitaive: how many PCs sold through each of the above 5, as well as qualitative: mindshare, feedback, leads, brand involvement etc.)

Thinking abruptly: Can we have specialised PCs for professionals:

Can we have PCs for Doctors: Even before that can we have a workshop for Doctors; BUT NOT TO SELL PCs, but to explain them how they can really turn super-imapctful with the use of technology

Can we organsie a workshop for Doctors, and explain them how they can use technology to be more efficient:

1. tell them about how a database management system can help them keep a record of patients' history; trends and help them forecast specific ailments in advance.

2. How they can collaborate and be a part of the worldwide health forums

etc.

Similarly can we have workshops for Architects, Designers, CAs, etc.

If we can help them in meeting their needs more efficiently ; these clusters will prefer buying our brands and more than anything else they will bite into the product category sooner than we think.

The market in India is big! Our thoughts are not! The demand of the time is to allign with similar or different product categories, create customised packages and sell innovatively AND INDIRECTLY: through meeting the needs of core TAs.

The Caveat: It may be slightly more expensive to convert the peripheral customers, and the total cost of acquisition will be higher than one is used to. But that's an investment to secure a future market and building a brand. And in long run: one will be able to run a lower than market acquisition costs.

Source of Pitures of Shahrukh and Saif: http://www.funmunch.com

Holiday in Goa

AIR TICKETS FROM 699 onwards; Stay in Goa from 999 onwards... The ads were screaming fiercely on a website; to get my undivided attention.

And attention they did get! I decided that moment that I should spend my Christmas Holidays in Goa. Not necessarily because the fares were damn cheap; but also because it seemed to me that that there are enough flights and hotels available in Goa even in this peak season! And I haven't been to Goa in a while now! Hence I thought to myself: "Saurabh this is a good place to spend your holidays in peace"

Now that's another story; if I tell you that when I went online to book Hotels; there seemed to be a shortage, but anyhow; I managed to get me and my family booked into Taj Holiday Village and also booked my Air tickets- all this in less than half a day. And thanks to the Travel search engines and the airline portals, I was able to get a good deal on all fronts.

I reached Goa after 3 years; the last time I was there I stayed at the International Centre near Cida de Goa, and I spent a large part of my stay in a training program. In fact to think of it I have been to Goa about 3-4 times till now and have always been on some official training stuff!!

So, this time was different; and I was sure to have a good time.

Goa was hot (31 degrees c) as compared to Delhi (about 15-18 degrees c on that day), but the evenings were very pleasant.

Taj Holiday Village is about 1 hour away from Airport, in a place called BARDEZ. Slightly away from the heart of the city (about 30 mins from Panjim), but the resort is awesome.


We had a deluxe sea facing cottage, with private garden, beach beds, and a personal Hammock!

Things that I would advise you to do :

1. If you have a kid, stay in Taj Holiday Village. Why?

Couples with very Young kids (say 1.5 years to 3.5 years) often complain about not being able to have a peaceful dinner or lunch....one of the parents will always be with the kid, trying to stop him from running away, or throwing spoons here and there...

So at this place there are huge open gardens and parks, and the kids can play without any problem, while the couples can have their meal/coffee/tea sitting by the sea in one of the most amazing restaurant with a breathtaking view of the sea and the Sunset/Sunrise.

2. As soon as you come out of the hotel, you can see a auto rental shop, you can hire a bike, scooty or even a self driven car. And that's the thing to do in Goa. So, try and find a shop like this and rent out a vehicle. They would charge you from 350 INR (24 hours) for a bike to about 1000INR (for a self driven car, 24 hours) in peak season, I am sure the rates reduce to 50% in non-peak seasons.

3. Do not take your blackberry with you !

In my case not only did I carry my blackberry , but also my laptop, and you can imagine what happened to my holidays!


But all said and done; the resort with it's scenic beauty, beach sports, photofinish landscape, and amazing dining by the sea and live music...makes up for everything.

I had a ball of time in Goa this year, and have now returned back to work, re-charged!

Lack of Innovations - Indian PC Marketers?

So, We sold about 5m PCs this year, and total base of PCs in India would be about 20-25m.
If you go deeper into the statistics, half of this installed base has come in within the last 4 years.

What does that tell us about the market: that the rest half is ready for replacing or upgrading their PCs! And that the market for new buyers is of course growing by leaps.

So, while there is a need for customised marketing program for existing PC users, there is a huge and critical need for growing our overall market.

What are the marketers doing in India to tap and grow the market?

So, essentially the marketers segmentise the market into various clusters, each segmented by volume, profitability, demographics, compeitition etc. attributes.

One of the most upcoming and dominant clusters is the Home segment. The segment where people buy PCs for their children, and largely the PCs are used for, gaming, a bit of digital photography, playing education CD ROMs, surfing internet for mails, and using office apps a bit.

Now, I feel there's not enough being done in this market. You may appreciate that the Office segment is laregly a bulk buying division where price, performance and global agreements, integration etc. play a major role.

But it's the home segment where one has the flexibility of innovating...and there's a lot more that we can do!

So, in the home segment, one can be very innovative and sell the products at varying degree of premiumness: I think we are not being very innovative in this segment.

We all know (through popular Intel ads) that a PC can improve educational productivity in a child. Can anyone of us illustrate HOW?

On a similar note how many PC companies have told us/educated us (through their print ads, TV ads or roadshows) exactly how can PCs improve the child's knowledge or educational perfromance?

How many PC companies have tied up with schools to educate children on PCs and applications that can help them research better or understand a topic better.

How many PC companies have a specific customised PC for children (between the age group 11-18 years)?

Leave that, how many PC companies have taken up a program to teach the compute teachers in schools?

There is a unique portal for school children developed by Oracle Corporation, which enables school children to collaborate on their home-works and projects and build a knowledge community. (http://www.think.com)

To the best of my knowledge about 900 Kendriya Vidyalayas are already a part of this collaboration website.

Imagine the awe of a student (and in our country even teachers to a large extent), when they find that they can share knowledge, teach someone a new language all with a click of a button.

Imagine the brand equity that can be built (as also the volumes of hard licesnses, or PCs that can be sold -though at a subsidised rate) amongst the influencer group.

There is a Unique program by Times of India for Schools wherein they distributed free copies of newspaper (alongwith a special education supplement) to hundreds/thousands of schools across the country; Can a PC/Printer vendor tie-up and create a platform where it enables the school children to create and print their own School Supplement through the use of a PC and Printer

Imagine the kind of brand involvement one can create, and the potential market share dominance that can be created through these small, yet segmented and targeted innovations

So, this is just one aspect of the entire segmentation exercise, when you delve on other segments, we can create similar innovation opportunities for each one of them and create dominance .

Instead what we are doing now: is copying US/Europe created ads, adapting them to include Indian faces and currency and publishing them in India.

Come-on India needs specific customised marketing programs, we don't have dearth of money, it seems we have a dearth of ideas and enthusiasm.

So, here's hoping that it will change. Amen!