Edelman and Brandtology have jointly brought out the second edition of its Digital Brand Index for India. Covering the last quarter of 2009, this edition of the study tracked 154,492 online conversations pertaining to 104 large technology brands contained in 306 influential channels.

Here are some of the brands that emerged on top of the charts:

From the first edition of this survey in the previous quarter, i.e. July to September 2009, Samsung(Client) is now ranked #4 among the top 10 buzziest brands in India this quarter, i.e. October to December 2009; and the only consumer technology brand to feature in the top 5 (Google#1, Microsoft#2, Yahoo!#3 and Apple #5) during the period Oct-Dec 2009. With Samsung showing a significant leap of 3 positions in the list of top buzziest technology brands, it is reaffirming to know that some of the social media work we did for Samsung India's Social Media campaign has shown results.

The study also derives that there has been an exponential 123% increase in the number of brand mentions for Samsung during Oct-Dec (6,548 brand mentions). The Samsung Corby Colour Wars contest on Twitter as part of our Social Media campaign for Samsung India is likely to have contributed to this quantum leap. Our own post-activity analyses had shown around 3000 mentions of Samsung Corby, amounting to nearly 615000 exposures.

It was also interesting to note that many of the insights shared by the report are being employed by the team in our approach already. Sharing some key insights here:

• Brands should integrate their digital communication along with their offline communication for best results
• Marketers should consider implications of timing, alongside targeting and channel selection as a part of a social media engagement program
• Conversations grow early in the week, spike on a Wednesday, and then taper off towards a weekend
• Leading online content creators (influencers) are actively being wooed by brands
• It's time for brands to build the next set of influencers who are not sceptic about direct communication, and are likely to be influenced by the sheer gesture of reaching out

Do share your thoughts on the study too.

If you are an entrepreneur, you might be able to relate to this slide-show. Let me know what you think :)

In terms of learning, leading to quality of work and the value delivered to our clients; and in terms of longevity and level of engagement with the client.

The approach has been simple, as I fundamentally believe that:

1. Deep rivers usually run wide
2. Width alone is no guarantee for depth

Width is relatively easier to achieve, even water spilled on the floor runs wide, but it doesn't have depth; depth on the other hand is a function of time and rigour. We prefer the latter.

Our client engagements are deep; as is our focus on building our programmes. Starting with a deep understanding of the client's business and starting with a clear strategy usually mean that the programme doesn't run out of breath soon.

And, when clients see rigour and results...referrals and word-of-mouth take over. Very often, customers who work with us/ who have worked with us at any time (or even prospects who simply engaged with us) send more business our way. This works just fine for us :)

What do you think? Wide? Or deep and wide?

Keep writing.

Cheers

Picture courtesy: Khalil Sawant

I just got into the office after a lunch meeting and took an auto ride back as my car was stuck in a jam elsewhere. Got some interesting insights from the driver, a warm gentleman, aged 46.

Our cities are full of opportunities, for the ones who are willing to put in the effort. Money that some of our stereotyped blue collar workers earn sometime beats what our white color work force makes.

Some of these workers are clearly working towards ensuring better opportunities for their children; they are proud that they earn for themselves, and, clearly, don't want to be dependent upon income that their grown-up children bring home.

Some quick pointers. Please forgive any grammatical mistakes - I just wanted to quickly capture the conversation before I jump back into work.

1. My auto driver of this afternoon, works approximately 16 hours every day - throughout the year, other than days when the vehicle is broken etc.


2. After deducting running expenses, he earns an average Rs. 1000/ day - not a small amount by any standard


3. Just a 2 shift rental for his auto would fetch him Rs. 500/ day but he prefers to work (read ahead about the 'ownership' bit)


4. The older of his 2 sons is a graduate, and employed with a top 5 star hotel as a barman. Salary = Rs. 27,000/ month, all of which is his to keep


5. The younger son, studies in class 9; watches movies; already has a mobile phone but is now demanding one with a cam. For this he will have to wait for 2 years, as pa would like him to grow up and make educated choices. Pa himself made some mistakes growing up and is conscious that the younger one is at a vulnerable stage and sometimes uses the phone for wasteful engagements - like games - didn't explain further and I didn't probe


6. The younger son also knows how to work the computer and will get a device of his own, also in 2 years - when he reaches class 11


7. The gentleman recently bought a plot of land for constructing their home, but that will have to wait until the elder son's marriage, which is planned for next year


8. The family has stayed in their current, rented accommodation for 40 years and the monthly rent 'now' is Rs 100/ month


9. Son will likely wed someone from a similar work background (maybe a colleague), and given 'their' status, the wedding will be a costly affair. No dowry will be exchanged and no costs will be spared to see that the wedding is a grand affair

The Indian middle class dream is a reality!

However, this is what really got me intrigued. How much do you think an Auto Rickshaw costs?

I was told, it costs Rs. 1.25 lacs (now I didn't know that) but if I were to believe the gentleman, it actually costs most buyers Rs. 4.65 lacs ( that's more than a car!). "How is that?" I asked.

"It's the permit silly" came the reply. Seemingly, middlemen corner the permits and sell vehicles at a 'huge' premium. Funding is organized through smaller financiers, where the paperwork is avoided.

He bought his vehicle 2 years ago, for some 3.50 lacs (can't remember the exact amount), with 2 lacs as a loan from a private financier. He's already paid it back.

I need to do more lunch meetings.

(You might want to read this post too: Rural Enterprise.)

Update: Forgot to add, the gentleman confessed to his daily drinking ritual - every evening, post work.

I haven't yet gotten over the frenzy of last fall - when I got married - and the wedding season is upon us again.

Weddings, are a burgeoning industry in India, with its size estimated to be Rs. 1,90,000 crores according to this story.

Interestingly, even as more and more of our youth marry for love, the Wedding ceremony, and associated celebrations, clearly continue to remain an 'arranged' affair - with the bride/ bridegroom managing to influence very little in terms of:

1. Size of the wedding/ expenses
2. Guest list
3. Rituals - compounded in inter-caste and inter-religion weddings
4. Or even how much make-up/ jewelery the girl should wear

Most relent out of regard for respective families, or give up after early efforts to persuade family elders, frustrated at the sheer futility of it all. A few succeed (then too - mostly - not without experiencing guilt of having 'denied' their families the joy of wedding celebrations).

Societal and peer pressure on parents and family plays an important role as 'size' (big) gets associated with family status, which no one wants to compromise upon. Even if one side wants to keep it small, there is often resistance and sometimes friction.

The new urban bride too seems hugely pressured by peer behavior to follow the newly romanticized, exaggerated (and regressive) Indian bride's conduct, as celebrated in the 'Saas- Bahu' television soaps that have dominated TV screens for the last few years.

Given that family plays an integral role even for the most modern of Indian youth, the couple often end up in a role-play and heave a sigh of relief when the ceremonies are finally over.

The drama continues for someone else.

Are you getting married this year? Is your Indian wedding fat too? Or on a diet? Is austerity also the flavour of this wedding season ?

Keep writing.

The Samsung Marine has been positioned as a "stylish & durable phone for outdoor lovers and enthusiasts" which is "Water Proof - Shock Proof - Dust Proof'. However, this post is not about the hand-set or its features, but a pointer that the handset game is changing; how we are likely going to consume/ market mobile handsets, going forward.

The accessorization of the mobile handset appears to be going mainstream.

The 'phone-as-a-fashion-accessory' concept is not new, with Vertu, now in it's tenth year, on one extreme having pioneered the concept of luxury mobile phone as the preferred accessory of the super rich; on the other Nokia 'change-as-you like' skins in psychedelic colours were a hit with the masses in the 1st half of this decade.

However, given on one hand, that most handsets today could anyway bundle most features into one, and on the other hand, the average prices falling, the differentiation/ growth has to come from elsewhere.

So far, you, and I, likely carry the same handset to work, to a party, for a holiday - except when we go rafting or rock climbing, when in absence of a choice, we tend to leave it behind, for fear of damaging it; same before a game of cricket or a biking session with buddies. Same perhaps for many other situations/ needs/ uses.

As the market evolves (and even reaches saturation) marketers would be clearly looking to take consumers to multi-handset ownership, and not just focus on the replacement market.

Borrowing a line from Fastrack - another brand we have been associated with :) - the 'How many you have' times have arrived for the mobile phone.

BTW - an interesting read: Watch that phone - watches that are also a phone ;)

How do you see the category evolve. Do share your experiences and thoughts.

Here is the Samsung Marine TVC:

I cringe every time I read the words #FAIL , #boo or thus like on Twitter, from users who might just have given a cursory glance to a tool or barely used a service.

This is someone's brand we are referring to, a brand that's dear to someone; a service in whose creation someone has put a lot of time, effort and money. How easy it is for us, to sit at a distance and boo, setting someone up for failure, without sometimes giving the other party time/ opportunity to make amends on genuine gaps.

I find that on one side social media gives opportunity consumers to transparently share feedback, on the other, our usage of it is often knee-jerk and may I dare say, even juvenile.

Here, however, is a case of genuine customer agony upon discovering at the airport that your ticket for overseas travel; for which you paid in advance; is void. You end up buying another ticket to make it to your destination. This is what happened to my friend, and power blogger, Kiruba. The culprit - Cleartrip.com

I have often said to marketers attending my talks, workshops that how a marketer responds to negative feedback is the key to success with social media. Going on the defensive is not going to help. A mistake has been made - own up; mistakes do happen, and the moment you acknowledge and convey that to the customer, half the battle is already won.

'Resolution' is the only apology acceptable, not a verbal apology that everyone seems to offer. Now go on, top it with something that says 'We care' and you can expect forgiveness, even make friends.

Cleartrip shares how they resolved the complaint in this transparent post - transparency has become their hallmark, besides a clear, purposeful interface on the site.

Cleatrip, is rightly disappointed that not as many people shared the positive resolution, as the ones who contributed to the initial negative burst. Well, you have earned some more trust and customers in the process is all I could say to them. I have been buying regularly from Cleartrip and would not just continue but likely recommend them to more people after this episode.

Thanks Manpreet for sharing the case-study post with me.

UPDATE - 16 June, 2009 at 3.42 pm - Kiruba gives his side of the story on this blog update (2nd part of the story still pending)

UPDATE - 26 June, 2009 at 4.25 pm - Kiruba put up part 2 of his story a couple of days ago. Here it is now.

The rules:

1. Translating from source - the original is in Hindi- I will use text in colour brown


2. Rest of the text, by me, little as it will likely be, in colour black :)

Baloo, a trader, lived in Gujarat. So stingy was he with money that he didn't like spending money even upon himself, leave alone others. Coming back from work one day, he spotted a Date tree with rich fruits hanging near the top...he was tempted.

The question now was, how to reach the top? Paying an expert tree-climber would cost money, and he didn't know how to do it himself. Preferring to save money, he decided to climb the tree himself, and somehow managed to reach the top.

Just as he was reaching out to finally pluck the fruit, he looked down, and nearly fell - land seemed far away, he hadn't noticed how far he had come, and now he had no idea how to get back down.

He looked around for help, finding none, he started to pray to God. He promised that if he reached to safety, he'd feed a thousand brahmins.

The prayer seemed to have bolstered his strength and somehow slipped down a bit, land seemed closer by...and "feeding a thousand brahmins for 'just this much' does seem a bit steep, five hundred should suffice," he thought.

Five hundred became two hundred, and then even less. Finally when his feet touched the ground, he heaved a sigh of relief and promised to God that he will feed ONE brahmin, for sure.

On the way back home he kept thinking about ways to keep the cost of feeding the brahmin as low as possible and decided that the trick would in finding someone who ate really little.

He reached his village and after some asking around, was told that Janki Das, a brahmin, ate very little. What he did not know was that Janki Das was also a very sharp and wicked creature. When Baloo extended the lunch invitation to Janki Das, he promptly accepted.

Baloo reached home and told his wife Shyamali about the promise and about Janki Das coming for lunch the next day. He also advised her to keep the cost as low as possible.

Next day, which was the weekly bazaar day, Baloo thought he would be better off doing business to make up for the loss incurred on feeding Janki Das, and decided to let his wife fulfill the lunch commitment.

When Janki Das, the brahmin, saw Baloo leave for work and landed at his place early, smelling an opportunity. Shyamali was surprised to see the guest come so early. Janki Das told her "I thought let me see if you need any advice on how to prepare for the feast, so enroute to the temple, I decided to stop at your place."

Shyamli listed all items on the menu; Janki Das appeared pleased but cautioned her that while he is coming for lunch alone, quantities for about 10-12 people needed to be prepared. He also advised Shyamali to prepare 3 different sweets to please Lord Ganesha, the remover of hurdles.

Later when Janki Das returned for lunch, he advised Shyamali to offer 2 gold coins as to please the Gods. "Baloo didn't mentioned anything about the coins," thought Shyamali, but not wanting to displease the Gods, she got the coins and offered them to Janki Das.

Janki Das ate his fill, and packed the rest for his family. On the way out, he demanded 10 more gold coins as his dakshina (traditional gift given to a priest as part of a religious ceremony). Shyamali was baffled and knew that her husband wouldn't like this, but, again, didn't want to displease a brahmin either.

Janki Das, satiated, reached home and warned his wife that an angry Baloo would likely come home and explained a few things to her...

Baloo reached home late evening and heard the episode from Shyamali. Livid, he rushed to Janki Das' place, armed with a thick stick.

As soon as Janki Das' wife saw an enraged Baloo coming at them, she started to cry out loudly, beating her chest "You poisoned my husband, what did you feed him? If anything happens to him, you won't be spared by the police, I promise you that..."she cursed.

Taken aback, Baloo was now terrified. "Please don't speak so loudly," he pleaded and continued "Why don't you call a doctor?"

"Call a doctor? Where do I have the money for that. Give me 10 gold coins so I can call for a doctor," said the wife.

"If he dies, you will be dead too."

Baloo asked for the priest's son to accompany him back home, and , trembling, handed over 10 gold coins to the boy.

"God, save me please - I will feed a 1000 brahmins." he promised.

So what are the learning?

1. Some clients are penny wise, pound foolish
2. They'd rather get conned by a dis-honest party than pay an honest expert, their honest fee
3. Some clients have short memories - amnesia hits as the crisis passes, until it hits again

Encountered a Baloo, a Janki Das yourself? :)

Keep writing.

Last night, I and a friend and peer of mine, a very senior & respected public relations professional, were chatting over the phone about personal stuff and the talk swerved towards Twitter for a few minutes.

He, a Twitter newbie, probed on why are people motivated to broadcast essentially one-to-one messages over a public stream on Twitter?

Intuitively I replied:

1. In an increasingly exhibitionist world people increasingly want to 'flaunt their conversations/ thoughts' to a larger audience - ever so often the person with whom they/ we may be conversing with, over Twitter, may in fact be live with us on GTalk too
2. This flaunting is also sometimes about 'who' you are having this conversation with - the equivalent of a 'names dropping' - for fans there is a certain kick in being able to have one-on-one conversations with @gulpanag, on Twitter

Both harmless...

1. In a more productive way, a purposeful conversation that first started one-on-one, might be joined into by our respective friends and peers, adding perspective and thought - not possible in a private one-on-one tool
2. More people in the public stream who found the conversation interesting might join in to add value, and also become friends
3. We/ others could easily share links/ sources/ resources adding further value and knowledge

Collective knowledge creation and sharing...

For marketers and communication professionals like us, Twitter, and other social networking sites, are subject matter about people behaviour and how content and knowledge is being, or will be, created and shared besides trend-spotting.

It's been over a year since I wrote this piece about Twitter uses for HT. What are the new ways in which you are using Twitter?

We had released the findings of India Social Media Survey Report - Edition 1 in a hard copy format at the India Social Media Summit, end March.

The report, available for sale through exchange4media costs only Rs. 1500/- and consists valuable pieces stories and case-studies (you can send us requests for purchase at socialmediasurvey@blogworks.in and we will forward them to the e4m team).

However, keeping with our promise of sharing knowledge for the benefit of the community and marketers, we are today releasing an online version of the survey findings! :)

The Social Media Survey Report- Edition 1 attempts to capture insights and learnings from Corporates and Marketers of India, to get a sense of what's really happening on the ground in the rapidly evolving social media environment.

Results and analysis will surely help understand how peers, from across India, view social media (SM) impact on marketing & communication. This will allow the industry to benefit from shared insights and make for educated decisions.

The survey , undertaken by us jointly with exchange4media.com in Dec 2008 & Jan 2009, takes a deep dive into questions that matters to all of us:

1. Does Social Media enjoy credibility?
2. Does Social Media impact business?
3. Is Social Media based used as a sales tool? Or as a buzz tool? Or for engagement?
4. Do you believe that Social Media impacts purchase decisions?
5. Do marketers understand Social Media?
6. What about Agencies? Do they?
7. Are clients spending money on Social Media?
8. Do they intend to? :)
9. What are the top metrics that marketers believe in, while calculating RoI
10. And much more...

Find out what our respondents said? Were you one of them? :) Some sample slides are here:

You can download the full report by going here. Hope you find it useful.

Do share your feedback and any errors you might notice, by writing to us at socialmediasurvey@blogworks.in

Cheers

While they were launched to co-ordinate with the second season of IPL and push the Value Added Services (VAS) offered by Vodafone, the happiest news is that with Zoozoo, Vodafone has finally found the antidote to the Hutch pug.

The egg-head, as its being lovingly called in many circles, are not even animated characters. Instead, it's humans wearing specialized body suits, shot in creatively adjusted environs. The simplicity of the icon is actually what gave it the edge. With 10 creatives already on air, and 15 more en-route, the team had obviously expected this as well.

The most interesting bit, however, is that the name Zoozoo isn't even mentioned in any of the ads/print campaigns. The popularity of the phenomenon is a result instead, of their attempts on the digital media. See, for instance:

1. The Official Zoozoo fan page - collating their entire online presence on to one, and alongside giving live IPL match updates.
2. What kind of a Zoozoo are you? A quiz, on their website! A temporal & catchy move, Quizzes are the new phase with Facebook flooding up with them anyway. Three questions and they give you an answer. The answer can then be shared with friends on one's blog, through e-mail, on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, FriendFeed, et al!



3. Less than two weeks into the campaign, the Facebook page has over 68,000 fans. Not just that, the much loved Zoozoo who falls into the perils of a crocodile, has a fan page to himself!



4. On Twitter - Well, it's not trending ;), but it sure is invoking a lot of interest. Don't you wonder why the Zoozoos aren't tweeting? ;)
5. An Orkut community, initiated by fans, running polls, forums around the phenomenon.
6. On YouTube, a channel has been set up. People are demanding more videos, and as a result, the making of the Zoozoo is now doing the rounds as well.
7. A Zoozoo community toolbar.

That's more than sufficient buzz. However, a lot of conversations are happening on these fora. What people like - or don't like - from how they feel it reflects on the brand, how it compares to the earlier ads and what they think of the transformation, to even complaints in the VAS offered by Vodafone.

Not just are fans engaging, they are even giving suggestions on Zoozoo merchandise, and what all that should be! Not just the egg-head, the customers are trying to interact with Vodafone as well. Hope someone's listening in to that.

A mix of simplicity, stupidity and hence, the charm, in both the figure and the nomenclature is what's driving the fan-wave for now. That the Zoozoo, like a star-campaigner, may just overshadow the brand, or come to define it in inextricable ways, much like the pug, remains to be seen; but for now, it's generating oodles of revelry.

Do share your Zoozoo thoughts with us :)

I have been a client earlier and an agency too. At this moment, interestingly enough, with Blogworks and Pitchh.com we are both an agency and a client respectively.

This week brought some interesting perspectives.

• As an agency you seek committed relationships, as a client you want to pay for performance and that alone. Retainers/ CPM pricing versus Project Fees/ CPL or Cost Per Conversion.
• As we move into the new financial year, it might be useful to take learnings from consumer marketing. For example the creation of shampoo sachets allowed many more users to enter the category, many who previously purchased bottles also found it easier on the pocket to buy them.

  Byte sized packages, with set timelines and measurable returns would be a good way forward to gain business. Of course more effort will go in, but who knows customers might, in fact, end up buying more sachets.

What do you think?

Rural folk are a smart lot - am sure you have sampled the Jugaadu spirit yourself. Traveling through the sugar belt, and elsewhere, speaking with farmers I have learned how enterprising they can be.

Bhola (name changed), my driver of last evening, left me with much:

I had to let go of my car & driver and needed to take an auto ride instead...first from South Delhi to Mayur Vihar and then back home - all put together, over 2 hours of time spent together . Bhola, 23 years of age, offered me roasted peanuts as I got back after finishing my task - my reward for making it back in 15 minutes, instead of the promised 20 - most people overshoot by twice as promised, he shared.

He had been driving the auto for over 8 years, first in Surat when he was 15 (obviously without a license) and then moved to Delhi 5 years ago. He wakes up at 5 am everyday; bathes and dresses; fetches milk, makes tea and starts work on preparing breakfast. Menu for the breakfast, paranthaas, is the same as lunch; some days he makes sabzi too, on others he would buy that from a roadside vendor.

Work starts at 8 am, and goes on until 11 pm. The auto owner charges Rs. 450/- day as rental, not including fuel; daily sales are between Rs. 1100/- to 1200/- on an average; deduct Rs. 100/- towards fuel (CNG) and the rest is earning. Monthly savings exceed Rs. 10,000/- and are kept aside for sending back to the village.

"Who all is there back home? Will this money be used by them for monthly expenses?" I ask "They don't need the money," comes the reply. The family - mother-father, 3 brothers - 2 married, from what I recall; father & brothers manage the fields - 40 bighaa in all; we grow Mustard and Wheat, which generate earnings of Rs. 2 lacs & 1 lac respectively; half of this is profit; this is used to buy new land, make enhancements and additions to the house etc."

"What about your savings?" I ask him.

"Yes, that's being saved to contribute towards the borewell that's being planned for next year," he says, adding "The canal doesn't reach the village. The water will give us better yields for our own fields and there is great demand for irrigation water in the village. People pay Rs. 100/- per hour of pumping (diesel is paid for by the user) and 3 hours of pumping/ month is required per bighaa."

Continuing, "We will drill upto a depth of 100 feet, ensuring perennial supply of water. At approx Rs. 2.0/ 2.5 lacs of investment, we should be able to recover the investment within a year. What's more, with a borewell, the dowry that my father will receive for my marriage will go up."

I was very curious to hear this in greater detail...and he obliged.

"Last year when my brother got married, my father got Rs. 3 Lacs and a Bolero but then we also made jewelery worth Rs. 3 lacs and my father hosted a big wedding - over Rs. 2 lacs were spent on the arrangements. I should get at least 5 lacs, with the borewell in place."

We spoke about Bandits (his village is was on the fringes of Chambal) who feast at weddings and many other interesting things.

It too cold for another auto-rickshaw ride at the moment, but am looking forward to one soon.

Also, a few months ago, we conducted this qualitative study attempting to capture an overview of the blogs & social media environment in India. The insights were invaluable and we knew then it was time to do a deep dive and a conduct a larger survey amongst marketers & corporates.

So, here we are, along with Exchange4Media Group hoping to put together an insightful study based on 'real inputs' shared by you & your peers and not speculative theories. This will allow the industry to benefit from shared insights & make for educated decisions.

We need your participation:

1. You can take the survey here- open until 24 December 2008 but don't wait until the last day.

All valid participants get a FREE copy of Summary & Key Points from the “Overview of Blog & Social Media Environment in India”, a report prepared by Blogworks – this will be emailed to you. For it to be a valid entry, you must answer all questions.

Once you have completed your entry, do share your feedback on the questionnaire by writing to survey@blogworks.in.There would be mistakes to learn from & things to do better the next time -we'd appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

Media Partners for the initiative: Impact, Pitch and Exchange4Media.com

Two of the full page ads in yesterday's Delhi Times (with ToI) made me sit up and notice, for both represent categories that would logically be impacted/ concerned about the slowdown. It would be interesting to see how they fare:

1. The first one promotes something called 'Gloria - The Brand Show' targeting lifestyle brands for participating in this fashion & lifestyle exhibition. Events like this are typically planned months (or even a year) in advance and I suspect there was little they could do at the last minute, for a cancellation could anyway mean losses. Brands are spending less right now, however, for all you know they may have booked earlier and the event sails through just fine - I pray that that's just the case.
2. This one left me thinking about days of the dotcom boom, except that it comes bang in the middle of a slowdown. Naaptol.com appears to be a social networking site for shoppers. I love the thought of customers engaging with each-other and with brand owners and this may just be the time to seed something meaningful (the site however looks no different from any other brand compare/ buy site, and the community, at this moment, just a fringe feature). Entrepreneurs have to make these interesting decisions - burn money to seed a community right now and wait for revenues; except do we have enough cash to last us the wait...only the entrepreneurs in question can answer.

   Personally, I am gung-ho about a community that allows customers and brands to engage with each other in earnest.

What do you think about spending in times of a slowdown? There is a cost to sell but how would you decide what's necessary, and what's a waste?

Keep writing.

UPDATE: My colleague Rajika's brother, Rajbir, referred us to a document from Knowledge@Wharton series. It's aptly titled "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Don't Skimp on their Ad Budgets" - find it here.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been speaking with a lot of people, regarding the slow-down in the economy, to get a sense of impact on their respective businesses - some are already hit, others are worried about orders/ contracts not being renewed; everyone is bracing themselves for times ahead and planning action; view regarding how long the slowdown will last vary - from 6 months to 18 months or longer.

Salary cuts are being discussed/ implemented (I think, as a necessary first step, a temporary salary cut is an eminently better way of managing the situation than firing staff).

Newspaper reports suggest marketing & advertising budgets are being scaled down.

According to a recent poll by marketing consultancy firm R3 of at least 50 marketers who manage around 100 of Asia’s top 500 brands, three out of every four Indian companies will spend on marketing in 2008-09 as much as or lower than what they did in 2007-08. And a study released recently by media specialist Zenith Optimedia said growth in advertising budgets in India in 2008 would be 4.5% (over the previous year) compared with a 24.5% growth in 2007 over 2006.

>>>

"The events since the credit crunch have hit marketers hard,” said Greg Paull, co-founder, R3. Paull predicts there will be significant reductions in marketing budgets in the coming year, even in growing markets such as China and India.

>>>

He added that at least 40% of Indian marketers said they were going to spend more than originally planned on digital media, direct media and promotions.

Why am I not surprised by the last comment? And, I believe that social media is going to be a large beneficiary of this increased spend.

Last two years have showed that categories, organizations where availability of budgets was an issue, adoption of social media has been faster. Similarly smaller/ mid-sized brands/ organizations have adopted social media faster vis-à-vis large brands/ organizations - they had more time than money and were hungrier.

Now however, many more marketers who had it easy until now, given the boom of last few years, are forced to look at new ways to reach the customer - keep existing ones, tempt new prospects to buy - this in times of salary cuts/ job loss - and do this with same/ reduced budgets.

Add to this Internet's strategic importance and increasing impact of social media on purchase decisions, are you surprised that blogs & social media spell the new wave?

I expect more marketers to:

1. Listen to what customers are saying.
2. Engage with existing customers to build and enhance relationships.
3. Leverage social media to build communities to narrow cast, rather than use expensive broadcast tools.

I expect more organizations to:

1. Engage with stakeholders - internal/ external - to win trust, retain knowledge (crucial if you are gonna ask some people to leave), motivate, bring policy change?

And all the other things we know blogs & social media can deliver.

Adoptions now will, of course, continue to deliver value even as good times roll in... again.

Slowdowns like this are good drivers for innovation, as I witnessed at a workshop recently, but let's keep that for the second piece of the series.

A recent telephone conversation with a friend, a senior communication professional, prompted this post. Do your own experiences as a participant in the communication profession, whether as a veteran or a newcomer, whether an agency or a client validate this paradox? A somewhat controversial one...

It is a paradox emerging from today's business reality and the situations it creates, range from hilarious to frustrating - depending on who you are, and where you are at that point.

The booming economy, of the last few years and (some claim slowing down now) and the resultant demand for communication professionals by organizations has meant:

1. Talent is in short supply, compared to demand.
2. Corporates are often willing to dole out higher pay packets, in comparison to most agencies, leading many executives to prefer these, over an agency job, which is also considered more rigorous/ stressful by many.
3. Most corporates, other than the larger ones, are not able to accommodate very senior talent, given the business need, ability to pay/ justify the payout, match the growth aspirations of these senior professionals and so on...
4. Where the organization is indeed large, senior talent is busy on the big picture mandate and often have a team of mid-level and junior colleagues assisting.
5. It is this layer that often engages with the team from the public relations agency on a day on day basis.

Herein lies the paradox, or the situation.

1. A more experienced team from the agency is engaging a relatively less experienced professional, the client interface.
2. Senior involvement from the agency is 'expected' whereas senior involvement from the client maybe simply be 'not being priority' or not available in absence of said talent.

On many occasions a relatively less experienced client will look to towards the agency leadership for learning and guidance, but on many times ego comes in and the resultant situation may look funny to a spectator, but not so to the agency team and leadership.

1. The senior team from the agency is trying to explain the big picture to a relatively less experienced client, who is just not able see it .
2. A less experienced client sharing a clumsy assignment brief with a much-much senior professional, defeating the very value of 'distilled learning' that experience brings with it.

Net losers:

1. The brand
2. The relationship.

Do share your thoughts and experiences.

I just got back from gurgaon where I was dining along with family and two interesting thoughts I wanted to share:

1. We decided to eat at Nirula's today - the meal was wholesome and nice. Just as I was finishing, I told my girlfriend that I will open a restaurant someday where we'll serve food for free. We'll call it 'free diner' or something. So why will we serve food for free? And how will we make money?

   Well, I believe, in a consumerist society a substantial chunk of revenues, going forward, would come from promotions, advertising, etc. But the thought that struck me today was that we will allow a select guest profile to consume a portion of any one item for free. In return, the guest would help us fill a detailed survey report for a client's brand.

   My girlfriend gave a disapproving look and said, "Would we get the relevant customer profile?" Valid question, I thought and discounted it by saying that as an example, the mall environment where the restaurant might be located will act as a natural filter to audience profile. But would this audience WANT free food??

   Hasn't it been tried before?

   In fact, it makes me wonder what stops the telecom service providers to immediately start a separate revenue stream for themselves, with a built in pay back for the customer, with regular (but not overwhelming), short, one question survey service to an opt-in customer base. For a certain number of surveys that I am required to reply to per month, I get a certain value of my mobile bill added as talk time.




2. On the way back home, we passed 'American Express Campus'. About a dozen workers equipped with pulleys and ropes were installing a large American Express logo cut-out. The office, I could see from the transparent glass facade, was busy working the night shift. Wasted opportunity, I thought.

   Why not get everyone out, make some noise, celebrate, get the team to put up the logo together. Pictures and stories would keep everybody busy for the next few days, and it would become a memory to cherish.

   What do you think?

Two days in a row, I saw a common link in different customer service experiences I had with 2 brands.

1. Day before - Manpreet and I finished our meeting with a new colleague who has just come board and decided to make a stop at a Pizza Hut. This is a brand that has won my heart many times over lately.

   We ordered our drinks and our new colleague ordered a Pan Pizza, while Manpreet and I took a bit longer before we finally decided to share a pizza.

   One of the pizza's landed quickly, but mine and Manpreet's seemed to be taking unduly long.

   I was thinking about calling the the boy serving our table, to check status, when I saw him walk briskly in our direction - he placed a portion of freshly baked 'garlic bread, with cheese' on the table, apologized and explained that the pizza was taking longer due to a mix-up in and if we could bear the delay for just a bit longer. In the interim, he'd be delighted, he said, if we enjoyed the garlic bread - on the house.

   The focus shifted, from the delay in service to "Good people."

2. Yesterday - I finished my interactive session with communication teams from some 'not-for-profit organizations' and asked my driver to collect a friend from the airport who was bringing along a new harmonium I had ordered for my father.

   All cash I was carrying, but Rs. 60/-, went into an envelope, for my driver to hand over towards excess baggage that my friend had already paid. I settled down at a Costa Coffee outlet to work, while he returned from the Airport.

   After working for a couple of hours, I walked up to the counter and ordered a Cafe Mocha - the bill came to Rs. 66/-, at which I asked the gentleman at the counter, who knows me (from another Costa outlet he used to work at earlier and which I am family visited regularly and again from his present outlet where too I, friends and colleagues visit many times during the week) to give me a Cappuccino instead as I wasn't carrying enough cash.

   It took him not even a millisecond to suggest that I continue with my original order and that I could pay the difference next time around. I suggested that I could very happily drink a Cappuccino instead, but he insisted. For all I know he paid the difference from his pocket.

   As you can guess, he won my heart.

What do you say to these instances? Coincidence or Company Culture?

You can clearly see that differentiated customer service is associated empowered employees who can take impromptu decisions, to delight the customer.

You have had some great experiences like this? What's been your learning from those? Keep writing.

Blogworks - Blog the Talk discussion series was conceived to feature the best of learning from the ‘live web’ through panel discussions, talks and one-on-ones – mostly conducted online.

Blog the Talk series is presented by Ideafarms, an IT smart-sourcing company, providing enhanced business value to its globalised clients, through disrupting thinking and innovation.

Growing ambitions of enabled writers who have emerged with the advent of blogs; prolification of digital printing technology; adoption of digital reading; a plethora of tools to disseminate, market and promote content online, among other things, have all led to the emerging phenomenon of 'self publishing'.

Having tasted popularity with their blogs, but not necessarily succeeded in monetizing their blog journals, or to seek even greater authority and stature as thought leaders, many are taking the natural next step by publishing a book.

However, most of the traditional publishing industry, particularly in the India context, continues to operate exactly like it has for years - submit a manuscript; they seek 6 months to revert - rightly so, given that they receive hundreds of unsought manuscripts and quality control is highest priority. However, there is no guarantee that your manuscript will even reach the right hands and be evaluated for its worth. Although some publishing houses have started to look at blogs for content/ writers, but publishing contracts have, so far, been awarded for 'popular' content.

Simply put, writing contracts are not easy to come by. What does an eager author do? Enabled Publishing, as I like to call it is the route that many are choosing.

Read this interesting piece published in Mint recently - large, new players are stepping in too.

Joining me today to discuss the phenomenon is my friend Ajay Jain.

Recently he chose to go with enabled publishing, to publish his first book: Let's Connect - using LinkedIn to get ahead at work.

I wanted to benefit from the learnings and asked him...

All thoughts expressed by participants are personal opinion of respective speakers and do not represent the views of Blogworks or any other company/ organization.

Rajesh:Ajay, congratulations! Tell us about the book.

Ajay:In the world of social media, LinkedIn has emerged as the hottest professional networking site in the world leaving all competition far behind. And India is their third biggest market after the US and the UK.

It is not a user’s guide; it talks of the bigger picture. So don’t expect screen shots, or tutorials on how to use the site. But it does cover the usability factor to the extent you generally know how the site works.

The following extract from the back cover of the book may be a useful read here:

LinkedIn has made the world of business a much smaller place. The contacts you seek are no longer separated from you by six degrees; the number is down to one, two or three in most cases if you are on LinkedIn, by far the most successful and vibrant of all professional networking sites.

And it has leveled the playing field in ways one could not have imagined. The community of LinkedIn users can now be used by anyone for accessing faraway markets, landing dream jobs, raising capital, attracting the best of talent, building corporate brands and more. What you can achieve is limited only by your imagination and effort. The ingredients are all there to whip up something profitable for yourself.

And it is not rocket science.

This book is full of ideas, real cases and suggestions on how to get LinkedIn to work for you. Because, as you will see, LinkedIn works for you even as you sleep.

Rajesh:Do share, why did you think about publishing the book yourself? Why not go with a mainstream publishing house? You have the necessary credentials, you write well – you would have found someone to publish the book for you.

Ajay:I figured this is not a book that can be sold through conventional means; key to its success would be a direct and social media marketing strategy. And there is probably no publisher in the world who would make such an effort; I know of publishers who have come out with books of a similar genre in the US but have asked the authors themselves how they planned to promote the book. In other words, the author has to be the CMO of such a book too.

It would have been fine to let someone publish the book, and I promote it. But the dampener would have been the commercial side of it. Publishers typically pay an author 10% of royalty, and that too after a lag running into many months. Neither the quantum nor the cash flow would have been enough to sustain any marketing campaign by me as the author. I thus decided to self publish it, keep a higher margin for myself and invest that money into marketing. I have already recovered the investment in the first print run by selling only 40 percent of my stock. This would not have been possible with a publisher where I spend on promotions and he keeps the cream of the profits.

Rajesh:So what were the various options you considered for publishing/ printing the book?

Ajay:I did consider print on demand offered by companies like Lulu. But this was an expensive option and would have turned away buyers. Yes, there is no initial investment here but the consumer is more concerned with the end price. Publish on demand works best for niche titles and coffee table books which have a relatively lower offtake. I decided to settle for self publishing by seeking out designers, editors and printers myself (I have considerable experience in such production) and made a go of it. I had to apply for an ISBN number which I managed; you cannot sell any book through trade channels without this.

Rajesh:So finally what happened?

Ajay:The book is out, in select stores but more importantly being offered directly on my blog www.techgazing.com/linkedin (where you can read sample chapters and get reviews, access the media kit and get ordering info) and Amazon. I have come out with an e-book version of the same, and have sold a substantial number of these too.

Rajesh:What were your key learning from the exercise?

Ajay:Lots. And some are still learning-in-progress. Here go some:

1. Setting up a distribution network through brick and mortar stores is a big challenge. I have still to overcome it.
2. A need to ensure the printer is an expert at cutting and binding books as it is a finer process than for a magazine or a newspaper.
3. Setting up online stores on Amazon.
4. Getting ISBN numbers and printing barcodes.
5. The economics of the game: Up to 55 percent of your cover price goes to the distributors + the cost of sending books to their warehouses. You can imagine how much money one is left with after sending books to the US to Amazon: they keep 55 percent + you ship to them at your cost. Add to this the cost of editing, design, printing, promotions etc and you realize why books are profitable only when they have sold a certain minimum number.

Much excitement coming your way with Blog the Talk- 6 lined up. My friend Ajay Jain
shares his learnings on, what I call, enabled publishing. That's in a couple of days...

For now, we go back to the Relive the Learning series that I left incomplete. So far we touched upon:

1. Say more in less.
2. Close the loop.
3. Don't presume, ask instead.

Today I am taking up "Make things idiot proof".

To begin with, let me reverse the title and say it is not the recipient of the message who is an idiot, we are:

1. In presuming that the recepient has the necessary background - when in fact, she/he may not.


2. In using complex language or jargon - when the recepient may not be even be from our industry.


3. In not specifying the sought action - what do you expect the recepient to do after having consumed the communication?

Simple actions might help in keeping it simple:

1. Give each communication a life of its own - make it complete, maybe share a background? Continuity, by the way, is one of the "8 Cs of the communication". Remember them?

   Communication is a continuing process in which repetition is helpful to the memory and understanding.

   Read the document once after you have finished writing it. Does it sound complete? Would you be able to make sense of it if you were not in fact the writer?

2. Keep it simple - I speak no jargon, for I know none. Assuming that you do, must you rely on jargon and complicate your message? Jargon has increasingly become part of common lingo and yet in an increasingly complex world, simplicity cannot but be a virtue.

   If YOU are fundamentally clear about what you want to communicate, it should be possible to keep it simple. Give it a shot, say whatever you want to say - directly, simply.

3. OK I heard you, now what do you want me do? Spell out the action you seek from the recepient. Is it just FYI? Then say so. Do you need to hear back? By when? Anything to be done? Sure, then say so.

   Nothing that you didn't know and yet all of us miss out from time to time, so it's a good reminder for myself.

Like always, the story is not complete without your comments. Keep writing.

In the first piece, titled Hum Blog, Twilight Fairy of Delhi Bloggers Bloc talks about the blogging scene in general and Delhi in particular, online and offline.

The second piece, written by me talks about Twitter.

You can find the newspaper version here.

My longer, unedited version, is below. Choose whichever, but do leave your thoughts:

“Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the most viral of them all?” I asked.

“Twitter, O dear sir!” answered the magic mirror without doubt.

Twitter , the service that lets you stay connected with friends, colleagues and family through exchange of short message updates, sharing “what are you doing right now?” has achieved almost cult following among its users, many of whom are celebrity bloggers and internet influencers from across the globe.

So what really is Twitter?

I could tell you that Twitter is a micro-blogging platform (messages can contain a maximum of 140 characters) and a social networking site (connect with and friends and make new ones). I could also say that it is blogging on the go and lets you disseminate and receive messages using the web interface, an internet messenger/ desktop client or your mobile phone. All of these are correct.

However, think of it as a café, people keep coming, conversations are perpetually on, someone leaves, and someone else joins in. You chat with your friends and acquaintances regularly and ever so often you also meet one of their friends. You join into their conversations and make new friends in the process. Someone you didn’t know earlier reaches out to connect; you do the same when you want to reach out. This café is virtual, but the people are real and they do meet up often – at work, at parties, at Tweet ups (offline group meets of Tweople, or Twitter users).

Like someone said so beautifully on a Social Media Today podcast “Twitter is like talking to friends on way back home from school, reading their blogs is like reading their homework.” No wonder Twitterholics prefer Twittering over even singing ;).

But what makes Twitter so special, so viral?

To understand this, it’s important to understand the genesis of Twitter for the service is based on some powerful insights:

1. The Always on internet environment has less dependency and focus on a web page and that the desktop, widgets, IM are gaining importance.
2. Mobile is quickly becoming the ubiquitous converged device and is increasingly married to the internet.
3. Bloggers, already addicted to posting, were/ are looking for ways to disseminate content quickly, on the go and without having to spend a long time in crafting it. That they were/ are also looking at ways to share their content across multiple platforms.
4. Successful services will be those, which allows users to find unique and multiple uses for the service and that to do so, it would be important to:

   - Becoming the enabling layer

   - Allow other developers to use the Application Programming Interface (API)

   - Create a network but also use other networks to reach larger mass of users/ consumers

The result is a service that lets you use its web interface to push the message, but you could have easily have used your G Talk client or simply sms’d the message instead, using your handset to now an India short-code (5566511).

The moment you did so, the message would be received by people ‘following’ your feed, on their preferred device – mobile handset, IM, or simply their Twitter web-page. You could, similarly, get their messages if you too were following them.

Powerful, you’d agree, but it doesn’t end here. You could display yours and your friends’ messages on your blog using a Twitter widget, let the message be seen as your status update on Facebook (which is where more and more of your friends are) and so on. Add to this many dozens applications and mash-ups developed by 3rd party developers (find them at here) and you have one of the most visible and sticky service on the internet today.

So how are people using Twitter? Honestly, new uses are coming up every minute. Here are a few:

We continue in our business communication learnings series. I am getting great feedback from many of my younger friends and would try and write specifically for them more often.

In this post, I am taking up "Don't presume, ask instead."

“I thought!” is the commonest and potentially the deadliest excuse that anyone can use to explain a task gone wrong. I would rather look stupid, but I would ask and ask again, than presume when I take a decision. Don’t confuse this with strategic risk taking kind of “I thought” but particularly when carrying out a task and specifically when it is an instruction. Also when we are not in possession of complete information.

I will share one of the most powerful learning experiences of my career – this seemingly innocent incident/mistake caused significant damage to MANY relationships.

A very senior artist was our guest of honor for an upcoming annual event- something that been the practice for the last many years. This particular year, the big boss, friends with the gentleman artist, was overseas until just a few days before the event and wasn’t able to do the necessary telephone conversation etc until quite late. The situation therefore needed even more delicate handling…'

Anyway, our guest agreed to come and it was decided that a formal invitation would be hand- delivered home. The responsibility was mine! The function was scheduled for the next day.

I supervised that the invite was carefully prepared and handed it over to my then secretary, with clear and specific instructions that it was to be hand-delivered. He heard, assured necessary action would be taken.

Next evening, Sunday, the guest didn’t arrive until event time. My boss was getting a bit anxious and so was I. He called up the guest, who said that he hadn’t received the invite. I was handed over the phone, same reply.

“Did you check at the studio, Sir, maybe it was delivered to the studio by mistake?” I asked. “No, it isn’t there either, I checked.” was the reply from the other side. No requests could convince him to change his mind. The event of course happened quite smoothly but he wasn't there.

Next morning, a particularly disastrous one on other counts too, was time for us to diagnose the problem.

I asked my secretary if the packet had gone, he assured me that it had and rushed to get the PoD receipt – even as he rushed, he understood what had gone wrong. There wasn’t a driver available to deliver the packet and he had simply couriered the packet, thinking, it would still reach.

It would have been fine too, except he was doing so on a Saturday, for a SUNDAY event, and the packet would reach only Monday – a day too late. Ask, ask, ask.

Mistakes can happen with anyone and the boy was meticulous otherwise, enhancing my own performance many times over. I took the responsibility but it proved to be an embarrassing and a costly episode on counts of relationships it impacted.

Luckily though, my then secretary is now an MBA and doing extremely well for himself and remains family. The lesson served him well and me too. I don't presume, I ask instead.

Cheers.

We continue in our business communication learnings series. In this post, I am taking up "Close the loop". Let me try and share a simple example. I am sure you have experienced it yourself:

1. Our client, Ram (fictitious name), calls me seeking inputs from a recent study. He needs these for a presentation scheduled for tomorrow that he is preparing.
2. I am not at work but call up my colleague Rekha (fictitious name) and request her to send Ram the required inputs.
3. Rekha puts together a summary document, attaches the study and emails these to Ram.She gets busy with piles of other work that she has lined up.
4. I receive another call from Ram an hour later, sharing that he was out of office and wondering if the inputs were sent. I promise to get back to Ram and call up Rekha again, who confirms that the mail was sent an hour ago.
5. I message Ram that the inputs have been sent to him.
6. Nice work Rekha did but forgot to close the loop.

It might have saved the two additional calls (and possible stress) if she had messaged me back confirming that desired action had been completed, or based on the relationship, messaged Ram too, confirming the same.

I have seen a former boss, Managing Director of a large hospitality/ entertainment operation, tearing his hair out day after day, shooting message after message, memo after memo, just to seek confirmation on whether a requested task was completed.

I am sure there are more complex situations that you have encountered in your own business lives where closing the loop could make all the difference.

Save someone the angst, earn yourself the respect - close the loop.

I have, over the last week or so, been sharing some of my business (added later) communication learnings with a younger colleague. These sound very simple, but aren't, and can make all the difference as I found, sometimes after having paid the price for overlooking.

1. Say more in less.
2. Close the loop.
3. Don't presume, ask instead.
4. Make things idiot proof.
5. Your tone will decide the results.

In this post, I am taking up "Say more in less" and will try and complete the entire series in this week. Hope this helps some of my other younger readers.

There are several different mistakes that all of us make in our business (added later) communication:

1. When writing, we like to ramble on, write so much text that even we can’t remember where we started. What was the message again? Hmmm, it got lost somewhere.

   
   I found, and have made it a standard practice, to edit all text after writing it and if possible, share it with someone else who I could trust with further editing. I find that 20 percent less text, without losing any value from the content, is not very difficult and even less when you then hand it over to another editor. Try it, you will find message clarity and retention will be far higher.

2. Similarly, Open-ended sometimes prolongs the process. Think through and then communicate. Sample this conversation over text on a mobile:

   
   Q: Can we meet sometime?
   A: Sure

   Q: How about next week?
   A: Sure, should be possible.

   Q: Ok, thanks, how about Wednesday?
   A: I am out of town on Wednesday.

   Q: Oh, how about Thursday then?
   A: Yes, that should be fine.

   Q: Ok, where do we meet?
   A: You say.

   Q: Costa, GK?
   A: Ok

   Q: What time?
   A: You say

   Q: 3.30?
   A: Ok, what is the context?

Phew. Of course I am exaggerating a bit, but you get the point.

How about this instead?

1. Q: Hi, I was wondering if we can meet sometime next week. Need some business advice from you. Does Wednesday, 3.30 p.m. Costa at GK work for you?
2. A: Hi, sure we can meet. I am traveling Wednesday but Thursday same time, same place should be fine.

Write in your best learnings.

Here we go...I am back in action after a brief hiatus, thanks to nice things that have been happening in life :).

I was at Full Circle, Khan Market, thanks to a canceled meeting, collecting data on price points at which books in different categories are being sold. Obviously there is a science to it, based on many factors like content, category, author, format & printing, expected sales and more but how do you think the price of a book impacts its positioning/ perception in the customer's mind?

For e.g. are you induced to buy a book if it's priced cheaper than expected OR do you end up doubting it's value instead? Do share your feedback.

Coming back to the picture above...

I was making notes, even as I walked to the cash counter, when I saw these and forgot everything for a bit. What you see above is Love Delhi from the Love Travel Guides series.

I must confess I haven't seen any book, at least at that price point (Rs. 220/- or something) look that 'beautiful'. Packed in a fine silk bag, the book itself is printed on fine hand-made paper. I was amazed at the attention to detail. I didn't buy a copy, as I don't really need another Delhi Travel Guide :), but this really sets a new benchmark in the travel/ tourist/ give-away kind of book variety - where value addition/ looks will likely play a role in making the choice.

BTW - publishing is one of my favourites, when it comes to social media relevance/ impact. No one is doing anything in India, yet.

Where reputations are concerned, bacteria's case can safely be termed 'quite weak'.

Generations have grown up being told that bacteria are the cause for many of our health problems. Tiny microscopic creatures have been blown out of proportion - a million times over - to be painted devil in all communication. Products that prevent the entry of bacteria into our food, air, life have thrived. Nobody ever told us bacteria can also be good and healthy.

Then, suddenly, marketers are asking us to gulp some million of them bacteria, over breakfast, and dinner - drink them, eat them, lick them they say. Bacteria can be good for us they tell us; some kinds of bacteria.

Nice, now try telling that to the average guy or better still, the average mom. Try convincing her to give her little ones a dose of health, via bacteria, and you got yourself a task.

Factually correct, scientifically proven, Probiotics have been used in food for many years, but it is urban India's recent engagement with wellness and health that has presented a new opportunity to marketers in our country.

Other additions have been probiotic drinks - Yakult came up with a milk based drink. Mother Dairy has also launched Nutrifit recently, also a milk based drink.

In the opportunity, lie the challenges:

1. Explain Probiotic - the term's fairly new in the Indian context:

   Companies did engage in some communication around the times of launch, leading to relatively better recall and understanding amongst the top-end customer. The masses though will need much more work in form of direct engagement with key influencers - mothers, doctors, nutritionists etc. Yakult, for example, has appointed Yakult ladies for door-to-door education.

2. Reposition Bacteria - changing perceptions around bacteria will be a task:

   Do we keep bacteria on the forefront and make it the hero? A 65 ml bottle of Yakult has 6.5 billion of the live bacteria in each pack, much more than competition.However, I am yet to try the drink, for all its promise, the thought on gulping pure bacteria has been quite unappetizing. It is a perception game.

   Mother Dairy's ad for Nutrifit, on the other hand, brings the promise of 'immunity' upfront and makes a much subtler mention of 'friendly bacteria'. The drink comes in multiple flavours, packing is colourful, so is the communication - featuring a couple of active kids. Nestlé too has done well in terms of multiple flavours for its Nesvita Dahi. That makes the category appealing to a larger audience.

The market is still very nascent, will it mature towards categorization as the average consumer and the serious health conscious? Or, will the average consumer take on more mature offerings (say Yakult) where health comes first, taste isn't primary? Both maybe - time will tell.

Marketers will also do well by differentiating the category through unique packaging and also guiding users on correct usage, including warming any whom the product may in fact cause damage, due to an existing health condition?

Interestingly enough for a category that demands education, not many marketers are using their websites to that effect:

1. Mother Dairy: No mention of the category, no FAQs
'

2. Amul: Has a link that mentions their sugar-free and probiotic offering but then takes you to their cyber-store. There's a press release on an award that they won for the probiotic category at World Dairy Summit. No FAQs


3. Nestle: Has a page for Nesvita and for Nesvita Fruit Yoghurt.


4. Yakult: I couldn't find an India website. UPDATE: Shefali left details of the India site - here you go.

I have been using probiotic yogurt for the last many months - it does work well for my tummy. Have you tried any of these products? How do you think the category will evolve? Social media can play a role, what do you think?

Do share your experiences and thoughts.

I was at our neighborhood Costa Coffee outlet the other day, having decided from work from there that afternoon. At first I didn't really notice, engrossed as I was working my presentation for the next day, but soon I had it coming out of my ears. The same music had been playing in a loop, for the last 2 hours. I requested the staff to change the CD - they were keen to, but that was one of the two CDs they possess and the other one was...well, missing in action.

It didn't have to be a Costa, it could well have easily been a Café Coffee Day or Barista. It could be any of our otherwise fancy malls or it could be any food-court. It didn't have to be 'that' day, it could be just 'any' day.

Ask the staff on why they play the same music over and over? You usually get the same reply - they have just one or two CDs allotted to them. In fact, I think everyone has pretty much the same compilation. The airlines too share a common CD, it would seem. The only difference - instead of popular 80s, they prefer western classical.

Selecting music for a public venue is not easy, having managed the task, among a hundred other marketing and promotions things I was responsible for during my days with a hospitality company. We had many different restaurants, function areas, gym and a health club - each had a unique character and the music needed to be likewise + it need constant updates. It was an interesting, but certainly a challenging task.

We are a 'musical' country, to say the least. Why then would marketers not experiment with music they play? Is it because it's nobody's baby? Marketing? Promotions? Housekeeping?

It's like someone remembers to install that funny perfume spray in the washrooms, but nobody gives a damn about the music.

Couldn't we give our customers, guests something more interesting? Could it become a differentiator?

I can understand that 'folk' or 'classical' might not have universal appeal as landing/ take-off music on a flight, but some nice fusion?

We have some great music being created in the country right now; live gigs have become weekly affairs. Why not play some more recordings from there at our coffee bar or the mall?

Or at least change that damned CD, would you?

Photo courtesy: Dan4th's flickr collection.

It has been among an intense week at work and also of insights.

1. Conversational Marketing is NOT about online, it is about Conversations.

   
   One of the brand managers from a client we really enjoy working with, called yesterday to share a road-show proposal from a community that we have been interacting with online for some time now. We brainstormed for a bit and an exciting idea emerged, which we agreed to pursue. It wasn’t the first such proposal that we have received.

   In just a few months of our interaction, we have seen participation from and buzz within the community that we reached out to through our web initiatives – groups, a surprise marketing idea and pro-active engagement on a feedback and insights programme. We didn’t really interfere in the natural flow of conversations, just kept the direction and flow going through minimal interventions from our side.

   Still early days but the results have clearly been encouraging - conversations, feedback (good and not so good) has allowed the research and development team to get real inputs from customers based on first-hand usage, in real life situations. Customers, used to not being able to reach most marketers, even with complaints, are finding it a change that brands are now pro-actively seeking feedback and engaging one-on-one. That there is, in fact, a real person and not just a ‘Feedback Cell’, who is directly in touch.

   We are now planning the natural next step and hoping to seed a ‘co-create’ programme. The number of people we have been able to connect with is still quite small and it will take effort, and time, to reach a sample size large enough to take diverse demands into account but it’s clearly the way to go. We are also ucky that the brand already enjoys fantastic goodwill with the customer, making the task much simpler.

   However, the point is that online enables conversational marketing like nothing else, thanks to its interactive nature, speed, reach but Conversational Marketing is about real people and two-way interactions first. What we do with them is up to us. That it only starts online and the relationship extends offline is clear - doesn't it work exactly that way for us too, with a community building around our blogs, soon enough we are meeting over coffee, at events and before we know...there's relationship and trust.

2. Clients value our passion, but also our balanced inputs.

   
   An SMS exchange between a senior business leader, whose organisation we have been given an opportunity to work with, and me, reminded me again of the faith (and resultant responsibility) that our clients put into us – it quite humbling - and of Toby’s question for her Valentine’s Day post: What builds relationships between a client and the agency? I had replied “Passion for the client’s business!”

   However, it takes a lot of trust on the client’s part of see value in not just our passion for what’s now ‘our’ brand, but also in the fact that even as we work closely as part of the team, it’s important that we retain balance like sometimes only an external resource could.

   The SMS exchange, which continued intermittently through the day, was us trying to agree upon a differentiated line to sum up our business promise, that we had met to discuss the day before but there was still work to be done.

   We haven’t agreed yet, but are getting closer to our ‘honest to God’ promise :).

BTW, a blog upgrade is underway, but in the interim do write in your feedback to 'comments (at) blogworks (dot) in. I know it's not the same... it isn't even for me and I just haven't written as much since the time comments were disabled. Let me see if we can find a temporary solution by tomorrow. Wish us luck! :)

I really liked the thought and I guess the element of surprise worked in their favour.

More on my surprise marketing theories later (I have in fact experimented quite a bit in the last few months) but then like Sidharth says about Viral videos, surprise marketing is not scalable - what's the surprise if it is popping left-right-centre :).

I wish more marketers were willing to experiment.

I had just finished grilling the sales person at this branded chemist chain outlet, on why I should believe the health benefits on the super expensive pair of Crocs that on first look just seem like designer rubber sandals, and nothing more (actually is proprietary closed cell-resin).

He rattled off a few points and I picked a couple of their brochures that talk about the various models and benefits that range from mere versatility, hygiene to special value for diabetics. I guess am as convinced as anyone can ever be without actually wearing a pair, but that credit goes to their literature and Crocs will need to invest MUCH more in training the sales staff, for the differentiated offering to be conveyed effectively.

Coming back ...other than Dr. Scholl's which is clearly positioned on the foot-care promise and is perhaps the best footwear brand that I have encountered until now, none of the other big brands are talking anything other than looks, and maybe, comfort. On the health promise, yes we have the modern versions of the Khadao (wood slippers worn (mostly) by sages since ancient times), and even the acupressure slippers, but none of them are mainstream or manufactured by big brands.

And then, here is a brand that's going beyond 'foot-care' and positioning the product on an overall 'health and wellness platform'. The distribution strategy too is multi-pronged - I have seen the range at high-end branded chemist stores and also at shoe stores.

That the health & wellness 'niche' is that mainstream that a big brand could launch completely around it is quite interesting.

Will customers pay such high prices for the promise? No easy answers, on one hand high-price point can be a deterrent, but on another may actually make people see 'value' in the offering. Sometimes pricing it low means you are part of the crowd, people don't take you seriously ;).

Your thoughts?

Comments are disabled for a bit, but conversations are not. Write in to comments (at) blogworks (dot) in and I will find a way to share your thoughts on the blog.

My friend Toby decided to explore relationships of a different, but equally important kind, this valentine's - business relationships.

Totally a community person, she reached out to her marketer friends, across the globe, with the question:

"How do you build great business relationships with people? Do "clients" and "partners/vendors/suppliers" (I'm never sure word to use)have different points of view about what is important for each?"

...And she's got 62 brilliant insights on this must read post.

Each one is special, here are a few that stood out for me:

Kaiser Permanente - "Own" the relationship, meaning, "your pain is my pain and your success is my success" -- if you have that from both parties, you will act as one and success will follow naturally. (It's the business version of "walk a mile in the other one's shoes", in a way).

1. 12. Nick Ayres, TheHomeDepot - Never assume - always over-communicate. As simple and "basic" as it sounds, I find I get into the most trouble when I start assuming instead of asking, prodding, inquiring, and generally working to understand exactly where peoples' heads are at.
2. 26. Wendy Piersall, E Moms At Home - My advice on building successful business relationships is no different than building any other kind of relationship - build a relationship with 'people' not with 'prospects' or 'clients'. :)
3. 31. Elaine Fogel, Solutions Marketing and Consulting - When you give great customer service with honesty, integrity, and quality, they will come.
4. 39. Sherry Heyl, Empowering Concepts - When you do not know, say "I do not know".
5. 62. Toby Bloomberg,Diva Marketing - Leave your ego at the door but bring your skills, passion and values to the party. Know when it's time to leave the party too.

Do add your comments on Toby's post or write to me, on this email id: comments (at) blogworks (dot) in and I will publish them below the post (comments are disabled for the next few days as you may remember) and also pass them to Toby for sure.

I love the chocolate éclair at this bakery in Gurgaon, actually it’s not the chocolate that takes me there, the vanilla filling inside reminds of me of ice-cream that, as a child, was my evening staple.

A friend asked me on Twitter last week about the first brand that I remembered being exposed to. This one is simple, Kwality ice-cream - not because of the product itself, but because of, what is still, my most cherished ad. memory.

Some of my ‘not-so-young-anymore’ contemporaries from India may remember that cute kid with an ice-lolly held to his cheek. In absence of a refrigerator at home then, that’s how I liked to test if drinking water being given to me was cold enough to meet my high standards – by putting the glass tumbler to my cheek.

Kwality is now Kwality Wall’s and I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole – it’s like licking frozen vegetable oil.

This post is a journey back recalling memories of some brands that I grew up with but are now gone or may exist in a small way without my knowledge (one is set for revival, or so they say, and may even have already been launched in another part of the country). Am glad that many of my favourite brands are still around and I have stuck with them.

Here we go:

1. Parlé Goblins:

   Soft, chewy and in assorted fruity flavors, Goblins was not a chewing-gum, but neither was it a toffee, it was somewhere in-between. It came in a chocolate bar like pack, with individually wrapped rectangular tablets in assorted flavors.

   Goblins disappeared from my life very early for reasons that I can only ascribe to its cost. Can’t remember how much it cost, but I recall it as somewhat expensive. I miss it practically everyday.

   Ahead of its time, by two decades or so, I think it will do exceptionally well today. Personally, I would give anything to relish it just once again.

   Parlé, of course had many other best-sellers in its portfolio and another one that's gone too, I think – the milder mouth freshener variants from yesteryears the Mint and Rose. Poppins is still around and 'Kismi' remains alternate currency - shopkeepers would use Kismi as loose change during those years when coins were in short supply. Anyone remember those days?

2. Lipton 21:

   I was in my teens when Lipton made their first attempt? to enter the bottled beverage business in India and launched this sophisticated ginger drink.

   I loved everything about 21, from its sexy green bottle that resembled a pint of beer and of course the not too sweet, mildly gingery taste of this crisp-crisp clear drink.

   I was of course in the minority. In a market dominated by colas, the product bombed and soon disappeared.

   How would it fare today when there are many more consumers looking at differentiated, evolved offerings? I so wish for Lipton to launch it again, even if as a limited edition, institutional offering that’s available only at select pubs and bars to save on marketing expenses.

   Another drink that disappeared soon, but while it was around, saved me the constant bothering from my alcohol drinking friends, was Canada Dry – pour it into a beer glass and no one could tell the difference. For once I needn't justify why I wasn’t drinking ‘anything’.

Except that, call me old-fashioned, I cringe every time someone steps on them. It's like stepping on someone.

I understand visibility, but is that all a brand seeks, so blatantly? What about people featured on these stickers? What about the written word that many still hold sacrosanct? And the sanctity of our brands?

These trend prediction things are scary I think. I mean how many of them will be egg in the face? :)

I was taking a peek at my first post of last year, summarizing possible online trends for 2007, to see where we stand - let me know your thoughts:

1. Online will gain ground rapidly - am I imagining it or so much really happened in just one year?
2. Marriage of mainstream and blogs - expect more of it this year.
3. Experts and thought leaders joining the blogosphere - too little really.
4. Aggregators will have an important role to play - expect more of it this year.
5. Human intervention to bring out what’s special - Mahalo - people powered search, is gaining ground; social bookmarking has gone mainstream.

   Sanjay Trehan, NDTV Convergence had an interesting comment at a panel discussion I moderated recently - a study suggests that usage of organic search actually declined by 6%, on the other hand people finding content directly or through bookmarking went up 4%.

Do you smell Mobile-Internet as the thing to look out for this year? Other than consumption of Internet via the mobile - I think we can expect more mobile friendly sites and blogs - mobile enabled communities might be the thing to watch out for.

I was chatting with Gaurav this morning to plan the next Blog the Talk discussion, which I thought should be around Mobile-Internet aspects covering micro blogging tools likeTwitter; community enablers likeSMS Gupshup etc. and how they will likely impact marketers.

My last meeting of 2007 was with a friend who runs one of the leading mobile marketing companies in India. We spoke about possible threats to the traditional short code business, and also the opportunities that the new environment promises for companies operating in the mobile space.

Here is an initiative from Indica V2 Xeta - Xeta Shootout, attempts to benefit from insights gained by engaging the Prosumer? and to get their participation on the communication and product.

So, what is Xeta Shootout? Simple: Lights! Camera! Action! Make your own Xeta commercial and win an Indica V2 Xeta :).

The idea, a brainchild of Gaurav Mishra - the brand manager for Indica and a marketing writer - seems to have evoked keen response. I like the fact that the entry doesn't necessarily have to be a video, pictures and storyboard) on a document or presentation works well for an entry, making the appeal more broad-based.

"1839 people have registered at the website and we have received 70 entries and 476 messages," said Gaurav in my conversation with him. Not bad at all, I think. They can expect more as there are still 9 days to go - contest open until 30 November 2007.

There has been debate about how far should marketers go with official use of consumer generated media but you won't know until you play some. This one is a nice start.

Chhavi included me in the lunch meeting with her friends at the Press Club, last Saturday. Both of us had agreed to meet a bit earlier and were first joined by Piya - her friend & business partner in their exciting - new radio venture. Don't know when the talk shifted towards discussing street kids, selling stuff at traffic junctions - their challenges, their smiles, their lives.

Chhavi and Piya had bumped into a group, the evening before, and had an heart-warming account to share. The kids and their smiles were captured on the hand-phone. Both, back in the country fresh after many years overseas, agreed that the kids were 'wise', besides of course being street-smart.

I have watched these kids go about their work at traffic crossings and, other than admiring the survival instinct, have often thought about jumping in to conduct training sessions, to help them sell better.

Sometimes I roll down the car window and share tips that I think 'might' work:

1. Whenever I see this one happening, I can't help getting upset.

   
   Either you beg, or you sell! If you are not begging, then why is your tone that of a beggar? If you have CHOSEN not to beg, then important that you don't. Don't disrespect your work and yourself by 'begging' the customer to 'buy'. Sell with dignity!

2. Last week, I was approached by a young boy selling paperbacks at the Bhikaiji Cama Place crossing. He had 16 or so books, spread like fans over his two hands, and ONE book he had somehow managed to keep out of the pack as his 'star'.

   
   With barely a few seconds to see which ones he was holding, and the 'star' of no relevance to me, I advised him to try holding fewer and change his 'star' based on WHO he was approaching- management books for those who looked like executives; fashion for women etc. Am sure he had practical issues, like time, to worry about, but I thought it might work.
   
   He said he made Rs. 200+ a day! Not bad at all, already!

3. I have told them that I will never buy that rose for my gf, if they hold it out to me crying and scratching their head, but might do so if they asked me with a smile to take it back for 'Memsaab/ Didi', that she would love it/ love me for it.

Don't know if these or any of my other tips would actually work, but there is no way I would find out until I try. So, if you are reading this and you happen to belong to an organisation working with street kids, I would like to participate.

On the other hand Chhavi, Piya and I agreed that us executives and corporates could actually LEARN from these kids. Now how about these kids conducting training!!?? You agree??

As a marketer is never ceases to amaze me that these companies, their marketing/ communication advisors never seem to worry about the adverse impact on their brand reputation?

I have sometimes wondered if any of them ever considered using a voluntary "No tele-harassment policy", as not just a case of good brand citizenship, but as a differentiated brand promise! Is there a critical mass of consumers who would support a brand on that promise? I would have loved to try with a client in one of the key culprit segments - multinational banks (and their credit card/ insurance divisions); telecom companies; hospitality- Foolish thought? What do you think?

Too late for that to work as a differentiator, for the Do Not Call Registry has already arrived, promising relief for the harassed consumer.

"In a way it will be good for everyone," they say: Consumer gets the needed relief; tele-marketing companies might see higher conversions (particularly in urban markets) with remaining prospects; some might shift focus to semi-urban in pursuit of newer markets, but cost per call will definitely increase, owing to higher investments in connectivity and related equipment etc. Consolidation is likely.

Coming back to the calls...sometimes the predominant sentiment of 'simple' irritation can shift to a sadist and wicked desire to 'give it back!' This was an interesting one - I was initially baffled at hearing from a rather sophisticated gentleman, attempting to sell me high-end investment advisory on behalf of a rather exclusive multinational bank - based on my 'profile', he claimed - I could almost see his expression change when I asked him if based on the said 'profile' they could offer me a business loan to fund my new venture. He promised to have his colleague call back. No, I didn't wait for the call :).

Please DON'T try this at home though!! Chanced upon at a Facebook friend's profile.

I have been posting some updates on my earlier post.

Micro Marketing is the acknowledged way forward for many a brand today. Many individual publishers today enjoy as much credibility, and sometimes reach, as traditional media and marketers are beginning to see value in associating with them.

However, blog advertising, isn't necessarily the same as mainstream advertising - it doesn't have to be; maybe it shouldn't even be...

Reasons are many: where mainstream online ads are mostly focused on numbers and clicks, advertising on blogs and independent author sites may need to focus on brand associations and sponsorships with the site, its popular properties; widgets and other creative and dynamic ways of reaching the audience.

An injudicious focus on plain numbers and traffic, on these neo-publishing platforms, usually leads to disappointment for both the advertiser and the publisher - certainly the publisher.

For example, a blog with page views running into millions is no-brainer, but what is the value of a top research scientist's blog - read in-turn only by a few hundred other scientists - as a recruitment ad vehicle for a research lab? Or to build traction with that community? We think very high - focus on pure numbers, in this case, is not that important. On the other hand a youth blog will perhaps need numbers to support it's advertising claim. Both publishers are valuable, but need different approaches.

Similarly credibility matrix' that are purely based on just 'number of links' can often be misguiding - it is not lost upon any of us how easy it is to generate fake links.

That's where the Blogworks™ Ad Affiliate Network comes in:

What's in it for blog writers and publishers!

1. No worries - you write; we market
2. Creative options - we deploy our past learnings
3. Transparent deals - we value your content and effort
4. Choices - does advertising in traditional media compromise credibility, it doesn't 'have to'. You stay in control, you choose

What's in it for the advertisers/ marketers!

1. Influencers - high-quality; hand-picked
2. Bouquet Offerings - by verticals/ readership/ geographies
3. Single Window - so you could painlessly participate in blogs/ social media
4. Risk free - many options, reduced impact in case of dropouts

If you wish to register your blog into the programme, fill in these details on and send across, with subject line - Enroll for Ads. Feel free to tell your friends too.

We are constantly learning and participating, join in with us.

Disclaimer: Please note:

This is not a 'pay-per-post offer' and wouldn't infringe upon your editorial integrity.

Writing in to us doesn't necessarily 'include' you into the panel or guarantee any advertising

I have been meaning to create a category where I could just write a one-two sentence post to share a thought. Here goes:

Toll Free Number - Ads/ press releases/collateral...ubiquitous the mention has become.

Lifted straight from American jargon, understanding (and therefore impact) of the word 'Toll' is limited in my opinion(You may say "but now highways have toll gates", still :) ). I suggested changing this to Free to Caller and Muft Call on two occasions in the past. I think it works...

Try?

UPDATE 1 July 2007 - 11.00 am
It has been one of my most adventurous talks yet - night before the talk, my presentation - all done, bar some fine tuning - simply disappeared from my desktop and the pen-drive. A near final version, saved per chance on the notebook rescued me though. Any trip to airports is anyway an adventure by itself now - there were delays both on departure and arrival.

I came back with 2 insights:

1. India lives in it's villages airports :)
2. Trees in Bangalore appear to be much bigger than trees in Delhi - weather? likely

Driving towards the event venue, I was engrossed in a conversation with Adarsh from Brand-Comm when I noticed a Rolls-Royce pass us by. A closer look and I saw it was painted red-white with sexy Airtel branding, announcing the launch? of their new mobile store. It was cool I thought and spoke about it at the talk...

The event venue was abuzz with excitement. Anywhere between 120-150 people attended; some interesting presentations; it was interesting to note that MANY presentations before mine had references to blogs, social networks etc; my talk was received well, I hope. Lots of questions ranging from:

1. How does one validate credibility of a blog before making, say, a purchase decision
2. How are blogs relevant for, say, internal research
3. Who is/ should be responsible for blogs - marketing, communication, HR - Sridhar answered this one

I started my talk with the mention of how the game has actually moved way beyond blogs and even within social media tools, the lines are blurring. However we stuck to the agreed 'Blogs for Marketing' yesterday and left some actionable points for marketers to consider and the value of a strategic approach - something that we have worked upon as our differentiated Blogworks offering.

I hope more marketers move forward from just talking about blogs, or indulging in tactical initiatives measured by "200 blogs mein hamaara brand mention hona chahiye!" - that's not measurement; that's not impact or value for the brand either; and that's certainly not assignments that we are hoping to bring alive.

Nice weather; was able to catch up with lots of former colleagues, friends; and made new friends - Bangalore was good.

The first learning on this post from Toby, on consumer generated media and advertising, that I linked to sometime ago read:

1. This is Complex - It’s complex and it carries risk

Yesterday a friend forwarded me this piece in the Financial Express (via their arrangement with NYTimes)

That's exactly what Heinz seems to discovered in its experiment to run a contest inviting consumers to submit their ads.

Sample this:

"In one of them, a teenage boy rubs ketchup over his face like acne cream, then puts pickles on his eyes. One contestant chugs ketchup straight from the bottle, while another brushes his teeth, washes his hair and shaves his face with Heinz’s product. Often the ketchup looks more like blood than a condiment."

Shelly Parmer's post, part of my post on Toby's, too was critical of brands using consumers to generate ads.

I don't think anyone has sure answers on what would work or what wouldn't in an arena so new, not that there were any guarantees earlier. We can only learn from what's happening around.

Tricky, eh?

A series of random events made me think about the 'weak link' in customer service:

1. My mobile rang, the young lady on the phone was calling on behalf of the car company I had recently purchased a new vehicle from and wanted me to participate in a brief survey. This is my second car from their stable and as a happy customer, so far, I agreed. Where I thought, she perhaps wanted my feedback on how the vehicle was doing etc. (it has since had an axle change), nothing like that interested her...

   She jumped straight into a sales spiel - the company had launched a new device to protect my vehicle from theft, would I be interested in buying? I protested that this was not a survey at all and requested a call-back from the Head of Customer Care to share feedback. I did, indeed, get a call back the very same evening. A deputy manager first called and finally succumbed to my demand of speaking with the Head of Customer Care.

   The gentleman, first didn't agree that it was possible his team could be doing something like this (his DM knew) - I told him either he was acting naive; or he thought I was; or if he really didn't know, my sympathies were with him. I told him that I am just sharing feedback that:

   - As a customer who has just posed his faith in his product, the first call I expect from the company should be to take my feedback on my driving experience - he agreed.

   - I don't have a problem in speaking with his team for purchase of another product, but I refuse to be cheated into it by a 'survey' spiel - he agreed.

   A few days later, someone else called to take my feedback - it didn't matter to me anymore; there is feedback form that I received a couple of days ago, it is lying unattended.

   I test drove another of their vehicles recently and enjoyed the experience. My overall experience with the brand, over the years, has been good and I think I will buy again but I do hope they call me to take feedback first, if and when I do

2. A mega jam, en route to Gurgaon on my birthday earlier this year, forced me to request my friend to get a sandwich for dad/ us, from this ultimate brand built on it's promise of 'fresh' and 'healthy' meals, to sustain us until dinner later. Driving on, my friend recounted how one of the boys at the counter was handling veg and non-veg products at the same time, without changing his gloves. It had happened earlier at the same outlet,owned by someone known to me, and I had let the boy go with a warning that I would let the owner know the next time. This time I did...and he promised to look into it.

   Even as we settled for dinner later, my father developed a severe stomach pain and had to be rushed to the doctor - who diagnosed a stomach infection. Did the sandwich cause it? Did the problem go beyond just handling of veg/non-veg together? Maybe veggies and stuff cut and left open? We will never know and it doesn't matter, I discontinued my patronage and am actively dissuading my friends from consuming their products

I visited Mumbai last week for a talk at The Park- Navi Mumbai - a very chic, contemporary property indeed! Navi Mumbai surprised me with its green and space, but then new development seemed to be mushrooming everywhere so looks like it will get busy too.

We were a small group, around 15 of us...

Towards the end of my talk, I shared these points that I think are relevant for businesses (particularly those with global outlook) looking at adopting blogs (and social media):

1. Think Global - it's very easy to get trapped by our own geography and language. Our customers and other stakeholders however may not be limited to just these and it's important to keep that in mind when planning our social media strategy. For example, on the language front, Japanese has already overtaken English as the # 1 language on the blogosphere. Do we have stakeholders in that geography or those who speak that language?
2. Think Local - equally important that we don't just scratch the surface and ignore local initiatives. Again language for example- Hindi & local language is beginning to get popular in India on blogs & social media.
3. Think Engagement - blogs are not about 'selling', though they can lead to enhanced sales - thanks to the help they offer on the customer's decision making process and because of enhanced trust they result in. However, let's not don't get into a sales spiel - think how can we add value to our readers' life.

Gaming is engagement, action and games can have a cult following - makings of a great branding opportunity and many brands are already 'playing'.

However, because top-end game associations can be expensive, it can be a tricky call too - how much branding is too much branding? When does it become intrusive to the gaming experience? And maybe defeat the purpose!

I chanced upon this case-study on Puma and their tie-up with Sony on its game Wipeout Pure. I can't really comment about this particular instance without having played the game, but do check out the slideshow as a generic question.

What do you think about in-game branding? Do share your experiences with any such games you may have played or as a marketer participated in with brand promotions.

Simple then? Actually far from it...my first messaging assignment proved to be tougher than anything I had done until then. It is still very rigorous mentally and even physically :) - This Sunday I spent close to 4 hours+ on round 2 of the probe process, along with the core team of a technology event we are helping craft messaging right now. We are beginning to warm up after a few significant breakthroughs. But, I like it -sometimes bordering towards obsession- looking at messages that brands, corporates are sending out. Do they make sense? How believable are they? Are they any different from what their competition is saying?

Looking at organizations/ brands we often we find that there is a perceptible gap between ‘who they are, what they do’ and who they say ‘they are and what they do’. This usually happens because in any organization or business, there are many things to be said to many stakeholders and it is easy to get lost in the woods.

(What about organizational preparedness – is there a gap between what we say we do and what we ‘really’ do, in terms of our ability to deliver?)

The problem is then compounded when the message travels externally and is often interpreted differently by the stakeholders than intended. Therefore, what they understand, say about/ do about these organizations or brands may be totally different and will therefore not deliver optimal impact on desired opinion, behavior and reputation.

Powerful, differentiated & strategic messaging is, therefore, the perhaps most critical part of the communication process for any organization or brand - leading to strategic planning and outreach.

Over time, I have seen that given extensive involvement of the top management and the senior leadership team, the exercise often allows us a unique view of the differentiated path that the organization has chosen and has the potential to cross over from the realms of communication to an organization's preparedness for meeting stakeholder expectations (that it may fall short upon today), thus delivering long term shift and impact.

Blog\Works Social Media Workshop on Friday, 23 March, New Delhi - Blogs; Wikis; Podcasts; Content Communities; Social Networks...Registered yet!!??

See PDF here:Blogworks Social Media Workshop.pdf

The workshop covers: Concept clarity on web 2.0, social media tools etc.; utility of blogs and other emergent social media tools on/ for corporates and brands; practical walk-through on setting up some of the important tools.

Who would benefit: Leadership and mid-management executives from corporates; public relations & advertising agencies; brand managers; HR professionals looking at blogs and social media for their brands and for clients.

Fee: Rs. 10,000/-, per participant.

Date: 23 March 2007

Time: Registrations begin 9.00 am; Programme begins at 9.30 am sharp (ends 5.30 pm)

Venue: FMCC Campus, Plot No. 8, Balaji Estate, Guru Ravidass Marg, Kalkaji, New Delhi - 110019.

Register by writing to: workshop@blogworks.inor call me at +91 98 106 40163.

Many of these trends are led by the youth and as notebook PCs become mainstream, given the falling prices, I think the individual will seek to stand apart again...with youth leading the trend.

As against mobile handsets, where differentiated design has been as much a driver as the features, laptops have all looked the same - until now!

This piece in The Economic Times today made an interesting read. It says:

"BLOG POSTS are now finding their way into the marketing strategies of motorcycle makers.What started as platforms to share passions and frustrations of bikers are now being tracked by corporates to fine-tune their offerings. Instead of tedious market surveys and data crunching, companies now get reviews within hours of product launch, courtesy blogs."

Delighted to note that marketers are beginning to understand the value of blogs & social media and are using them for immediate, true feedback instead? of commissioned research that's not just time-consuming but also expensive (and often inaccurate?)

I just changed my car for a new one and relied heavily on blog posts, forum discussions, word-of-mouth (company brochures helped me decide the colour, nothing more :)).

In my opinion, however, the loop will not be complete until we put the customer in the center and then surround him/her with peer reviews, expert opinion and marketer's inputs (the last bit is TOTALLY missing today). It is the logical next step and we are hoping to participate in that space.

I was with a marketer friend last week and tried to partly address concerns/ reservations she had about competition using a marketer's blog to malign the brand. A couple of points we spoke about, a couple I am adding now:

No buildings from India, yet, as I tested and found. For example, my 'I Love Delhi' has its 'O' from China :). (Click I love Delhi to see what happens)

St. Valentine's Day Greetings via GeoGreetings!!?? Enjoy!

1. Concept clarity on of web 2.0, social media tools etc.
2. Impact Utility of blogs and other emergent social media tools on/ for corporates and brands.
3. How To! Practical walk-through on setting up some of the important tools.

Write in for the proposal at conversations@blogworks.in

Do write in with comments/ inputs/ workshop requests :).

Cheers!

Edition 1 discusses the Impact of blogging and social media on Indian business and marketing. It was remarkable that each participant, from the heavy-weight (figuratively speaking) panel, confirmed within an ‘Aye’, within hours of my writing to them. Thanks all. The entire discussion happened over an internet messenger – apt, wouldn’t you agree? – both, the message and the method. Our panelists -in no order of preference! :) -

1. Toby Bloomberg: "A real live blogger", "Business blog evangelist" that's what people have called Toby. Toby is president of a strategic and social media consultancy based in the U.S. She has been a real live blogger since the spring of 2004 when she launched Diva Marketing Blog. As one of the most recognised consultants in this space, Toby's passion now is helping organizations navigate the blogosphere and developing social media/blog strategies that support their business goals. Toby is based out of Atlanta, USA
2. Govindraj Ethiraj: Journalist-writer, a keen watcher of the social media and technology space, Govind is the New Media Editor for Business-Standard. A keen blogger, he writes a popular blog at Dateline Bombay. Govind is based out of Mumbai, INDIA
3. Anurag Batra: A dear friend, Anurag is the Editor in Chief & Managing Director of the exchange4media Group - a special interest publishing company which publishes five titles including three titles in advertising, marketing and media domain- Exchange4Media.com , PITCH , Impact and two consumer titles Franchise Plus and Realty Plus . Anurag is based out of New Delhi, INDIA
4. Yours truly moderated the discussion. I too am based out of New Delhi, INDIA.

Earlier this morning, I was reading this article by Govind, most likely inspired by an experience that he had recently, and decided to punch in a post, mostly as a 'notes to myself' reminder, about very logical behaviour by consumers (including myself), the understanding of which marketers (including myself again) perhaps find so elusive that we spend a considerable amount of time, effort, money on paid research, rather than just closely observe ourselves and our surroundings:

Customer expectations are Dynamic

• One of the young executives in my previous office was disappointed that his client score on the service quality index was stagnant for the last 2 quarters, where the team had consistently delivered better results. Smiling, my CEO explained to him that having delivered excellent service in the past, the team will now need to surpass that as the client expectations too had kept pace - the existing high service having become just STANDARD
• Sometimes, the score can actually go retrograde for seemingly vague reasons - I found the customer relations team of my credit card company to be consistently exceeding my expectations, this continued for about a year or so. One day, delighted, I decided to speak with the floor manager and asked him who I could write to/ speak with, to communicate my feedback and congratulate? Obviously happy (how many happy customers actually call?), he asked me to be on the phone for a minute and managed to get the head of customer service to speak with me. The gentleman too was very pleased to learn that his team had done well and gave me his email id, upon asking. I told him that I would write the team a letter of praise - I did. I never got a reply or an acknowledgment from him. From a score of 10:10, I brought them down to 9:10.

Right now of course, they have earned my huge displeasure, for some other reasons. As you gain height, the climb become Steeper

• In one of my previous assignments we found that real journey had just begun, as we touched guest satisfaction of 90% - moving from 80% to 85% was a breeze; the jump from 85%- 90% took twice as long. To wow a customer is not that easy...

Unhappy customers need to be recovered Quickly. Will Govind fly the same airline again, by choice? That would also depend on what Jet did to control damage

• At my aforementioned place of work, in hospitality, based on a daily audit of customer feedback forms, the head of quality would personally call up all cases of critically dissatisfied guests, the very next morning and offer apologies and corrective measures taken by the organisation. Remaining complaints would be mailed a letter, within 24 hours of feedback received, informing guests corrective measures taken
• I rarely mention brands by name, but I think I need to mention my experience with Airtel and how I think they managed to retain me as a customer - this was a few years ago- I was 'furious' with the atrocious quality of connectivity, and handling customer care executives that Airtel offered. The list of complaints just kept piling. One day, simply livid, I somehow managed to get the head of customer care on the phone - we spoke for about an hour. Not just did she listen to me patiently, she made notes, thanked me for the feedback, gave me her personal hand-phone number, in case required for any future assistance and THEN, in about two weeks time, went on to actually execute many of the suggestions I had offered (a significant one, to protect user interest, was my request to display 98 100 98100 (instead of private/ blank/ etc) when a call actually emerged from their network (I had just had an experience, at that time, of someone trying to derive personal information, using a number that proved to be unreachable upon trying to call back). I called the lady on the handphone number she had given me, expressed my thanks, but she thanked me again in turn. I continue to be with Airtel - the general service of course is much better and so is the quality of customer care executives (though I wish they would quit reading the entire 1 minute goodbye spiel: "Thanks for calling customer care. Is there anything else I call help you with? I hope you have a pleasant evening!" even as I am saying...I have gotta ruuunnnn.

I find it funny…

How can the marketer 'own' the customer? Why should the customer be referred to as 'loyal'? "You are our loyal customer, you deserve to be rewarded," we say. Isn’t it derogatory to the customer? Shouldn’t the marketer be loyal instead, and hopefully the customer would reward by buying or if are really lucky, continue to buy and endorse to others.

This large multi-national bank that held my salary account, had extended me a huge overdraft facility, but then, I moved out of my job - the f & f settlement was in process and the cheque was expected any moment. In the interim, I decided to use the overdraft facility and a crucial Service Tax cheque, with last date for payment due, was in the queue. Calling to enquire about receipt of my f & f cheque, I was informed that I was short of funds and the pending cheque would be rejected. The overdraft had been reduced by half. It took half-a-day of requests, follow-ups etc. to get the bank to just HOLD the cheque for another day. My expected f & f cheque arrived the same day, bringing a pile of money and the cheque was cleared.

Of course, it is the bank’s money and they don’t owe me anything to be so generous as to clear the cheque with no funds in the bank, but I think they owed it to me that someone wrote to me/ spoke with me just to keep me informed that they had reduced my overdraft limit. I settled my account with the bank, the same day, and moved the remainder of my money to another bank. I am not likely to bank with them again – too tiny to matter? Of course, but it is those small-subtle things that make a customer stay.

I don’t know if he would agree that this episode could be called breach of loyalty at all, but to still borrow his words - Ashwani may have said something like this “The cup was great, but the coffee was cold”. Doesn’t help.

The hospitality business has great learnings to offer I think:

• You are as good as my last experience with you – you may have served me a a great meal yesterday, but today the soup sucks and I think you are no good. Consistency matters.
• Wow, the food is great but why is the AC so cold (it could also be “Why is it so warm?”
• Wow, perfect food, perfect service… but hey, there’s no soap in the loo?
• Great view from the room, nice bed and room service is great, but hey, why must I suffer the noise if the gentleman next door has a bad case of a Delhi Belly?

The hospitality business appreciates a smile from a guest - they know that they must have done something right to earn it. I also think they understand the value of surprise: When I go to a restaurant, I expect great food; great service; great ambience – that’s what I have paid for. Then one day, the chef walks out of the kitchen, surprises me by greeting me by name and offers to prepare anything special – doesn’t matter if it is not in the menu. Ummm - the meal was just perfect; dessert and coffee follow (the coffee has been specially brewed by her). The cheque doesn’t cover dessert and coffee – “You have our guest many times, the dessert is on the house today. Hope you enjoyed your meal”.Accumulated reward points, to be redeemed at milestones (only to find that the item you received costs half the ascribed value) are not a patch.

I feel frustrated (or amused, depending on my mood) when:

1. I walk into the 'largest' bookstore in town and it is playing LOUD music
2. Each time I ask for a book at another 'large' bookstore, attendant/s have a blank look on their face
3. I am expected to buy music without being able to sample it (and can't help feel guilty when I meekly request the store to open a copy for me, but adding that I may not buy if I don't like it)
4. We take the elevator in a mall and the staff is busy speaking with each-other, loudly
5. We eat at a pizza chain outlet (this happened a few years ago) and the staff delivers a personalised note -complete with drawing of a pierced heart- along with the cheque "It was lovely to have such a wonderful couple dine with us." or something like that (I was out for dinner with my sister and this one brought an amused smile.Their pizza was (and remains) good though and the staff is quite cool now)
6. A tele-executive informs me that they have generously approved a loan for me, based on my past purchase record - the purchase happens to be a medical test I ran

You have an amusing customer service or marketing related anecdote to share? Leave a comment or drop me a line.

Original post is here!

My 'blogs for business and public relations' journey started about a year and half ago and soon thereafter I penned this article (first published for our internal newsletter at Genesis Burson-Marsteller where I was employed until recently). So much has already changed for the Indian blogosphere that many things that the article mentions sound dated. Each day has been new learning.

Anyway, I was invited to speak at a seminar yesterday on 'Blogs for Marketing'. It was great fun to work on this presentation. As luck would have it I was gifted a copy of Naked Conversations (Robert Scoble/ Shel Israel) by a friend and that was very useful too.

Slideshow:

Do write me your feedback so I could imbibe that into my future sessions. I am not able to share the Blog/Works proprietary methodology as I hope to retain that as a differentiator.

Update: Am replacing the presentation and only a sampler is up now. Write to me if you are interested in the entire presentation.

Even as multiplexes expand their presence into B cities and serious talk is now beginning to be heard about cinemas going digital, I think the overall movie going experience has however come down over the years, in cities like Delhi.

The quality of screen, projection and sound is all superb, but what about service quality? I have been thinking about this for the last couple of months and was on a specific lookout today as we went to watch 'Devil wears Prada'.

Compare your cinema going experience with one in any hospitality environment - a restaurant (fast food, casual or fine dining), hotel/ resort; an airline or for that matter any other service industry segment, I think the customer is being short changed in the first. For example, even though the entertainment tax got cut substantially, the ticket price has stayed constant. But let's forget the ticket price completely today and just concentrate on the experience...

My innumerable attempts to buy a ticket over phone have always yielded the same outcome - failure (phone is off the hook or no one picks it up); irrespective of which brand you try it with, the payment gateway on their websites doesn't work (irritating if you have spent 15 minutes, each, registering on respective sites); there's a queue at the ticket counter but only one window, of three, is manned; even when reasonably free, the staff at the counter doesn't even look you in the eye as they talk to you, leave alone smile - the voice is harsh and untrained; the guard's touch doesn't differentiate between a college student, me or my father - it's equally rough; the washroom floor is wet; carpet inside the cinema smelly; air-conditioning gets too cold and needs to be switched off from time-to-time. This is my personal experience with several multiplexes, but of course there could be exceptions and experiences may vary.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to reach out to the cinema manager when the young gentleman manning the ticket counter arrogantly said he only had front row seats left, but his body language was telling me something else. I asked the cinema manager if that was true, he apologized and gave me 2 tickets for the back row!

It's not all complaints, there are a few nice experiences too. Last week, after waiting in the queue for about 7-8 mins (and after being told by everyone that Lage Raho Munnabhai is sold out) I decided to opt for 'Devil wears Prada' and even as the gentleman manning the counter punched my request into the computer, I asked availability of LRM tickets for a show later that evening. He stopped, looked at the chart, gave me 2 tickets of LRM that I wanted- for the current show! I was speechless!

I remember this instance, a few years ago, when I had gone to meet a good acquaintance of mine - head of marketing for one of the multiplex chains at that time - he had called for a fizzy drink for both of us, but upon finding it flat not just did he send it back, but also asked his staff to recalibrate the dispenser immediately; I left my feedback with him about smelly bathrooms at their flagship property and the problem had disappeared next time when I visited the cinema hall. I asked the guard manning the gate today, if they ever greeted their guests with a 'Good Morning/ Afternoon/ Evening' etc. and if they had received any training towards that - the answer was a 'No' on both counts.

I am convinced that a great customer experience has nothing to do with big monetary investments, rather is about training & empowering the staff to delight the customer with little things when they are least expecting it, as my Munnabhai experience would perhaps validate.

I was listening to FM today...

Radio has always thrived on non-traditional & local advertising and one of the prime advertising categories on radio these days, thanks to the continuing boom in the economy, is real estate. There is a constant flurry of ads by builders and land developers, one more obscure than the other, but each claiming to have your and my vishwaas, as if trust was an overnight phenomenon, their right (almost) from the moment these companies were born. It doesn't seem to matter to them that we haven't even heard their names before.

However, an appealing ad 'on air' for the last couple of days is Bank of India's new campaign - the voices are engrossed in an engaging conversation that would usually take place between close friends or relatives, except that one of them eventually turns out to be a banker, from Bank of India, bringing cheerful news (about money of course :) ) to an account holder- Rishton ki Jamaa Poonji. I truly hope it is like this at BoI and that is not just a punchline. My own experience with the banks has been very different and I would happily switch to a bank that invests into relationships - am tired of negligent bankers, intrusive tele-sales agents, recorded voices...

It made me think though - when finalising messaging for clients, the biggest challenge is to identify a true differentiator (What's the offerering? How are we really different? Reasons that the recipient of this information should believe us?). It is an intense exercise and from this is supposed to come the unique promise of a brand. A lot of advertising today seems to just invent a punchline, without much worry about whether the brand really stands for or fulfill the promise?

So just catchy advertising or truly about 'wealth of relationships'? I will have to open an account to find out! Might just :).

Celebrity Endorsement Index (2004)

If you don’t have a great idea, get a celebrity to endorse your product, says one line of thought. But I wonder if the solution is as simple as that. The whole subject of brand ambassador-celebrity endorsement is intriguing. And, several questions come to the fore as one digs deep into the subject.

Take, for instance, the US where 20 per cent of all TV commercials feature famous personalities. Celebrity endorsements there are, as a matter of fact, not directed to push sales alone but to grab the attention of remote-happy television viewers. Hence, close to 10 per cent of television advertising budget in the US goes for celeb endorsements.

In India, Bollywood and sport personalities like Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Fardeen Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and Bhaichung Bhutia rule the mind-space and airwaves.

It is interesting to see Amitabh ‘touching’ our hearts with Nerolac; making a fervent pitch for peace in the public service message released after the Gujarat riots; playing the matrix for Reid & Taylor; doting grandfather in the new Cadbury’s commercial, and so on.

As an endorser, he fulfills all the FRED objectives, namely, Familiarity (target market is aware of him, finds him friendly, likeable and trustworthy); Relevance (which says that there should be a link between the endorser and the product as well between the endorser and the audience); Esteem (the polio endorsement, for example, is successful as the masses see him as a credible name-face-voice); Differentiation (in all his projections, he is seen to be one among the masses, and yet he towers above them. He is different). His appeal is universal, lesser mortals merely cater to specific niches…

So, which celebrity should one go with? Who should be the spokesperson for your product? Who caters to which niche? Does it always happen by trial and error? Should a corporate organisation pay for individual research to find logical fits for their needs/brands?

he US has a popular index, called the Q score, that summarises various perceptions and feelings that consumers have in the form of ‘likeability’ measurements. It measures familiarity and appeal of performers, characters, personalities, etc.

So, how about developing an index in India that would aid companies in reaching out to their respective audiences? The index could be classified on the basis of demographics, psychographics, and geographical demarcations. It would have to be relevant to advertisers and brand managers (who have used any of the known celebrities as endorsers; they could check out the measurable value addition), representatives from respective fraternities/domains, peers, media, etc.

The index could be based on a rating that takes into account agreed parameters/attributes, past-present media coverage/favourability and relevance, ground situation in terms of successful/unsuccessful seasons/tenures, future prospects, etc.Additionally, the index could look at whether endorsements attributed to a particular celebrity have caused a clutter.

The Business of Movie Merchandise

No longer is film merchandise merely a promotional tool used to boost the fortune of a film at the box-office. Worldwide, it has proved to be a successful hook for film studios, itself making healthy contributions to a film’s revenue streams and sometimes (albeit rarely) generating even more than the box-office collections themselves.

Consider this — tied along with the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the worldwide sale/licensing of Harry Potter merchandise has touched US $ 1 billion - figurines, food tie-ups, posters, accessories, comic strips, stationery to magic kits and home furnishings featuring Harry and friends from the Hogwarts school.

And, who can forget Ghost Busters, Jurassic Park, ET-The Extra-terrestrial - ‘stuff’ that legends are made of, literally, for they stood out for their innovative merchandise, as much for their box-office collections.

Synergy is now the key, as web technology is linking the studios and merchandising in ways never thought possible before. Web viewers are already able to link from devoted sites to buy their favourite toys.

Cut now to the Indian film industry and the situation is totally different.