Author Archive
The agony and the ecstasy at the NASSCOM Product Conclave 2009
Entrepreneurs may conceptualize a product idea like a bolt of lightning but getting into the development process and then taking it to market can be a fairly agonizing experience. At every stage they need healthy doses of guidance and encouragement as well as a good team to go to market.
Fix your internet strategy with good content
I met an interesting young lady this morning who is pursuing an MBA at Lancaster University Management School in the UK and has taken up as her area of research the adoption of social media in B2C selling among Indian companies. While the topic is fairly ambitious, it is also a little ahead of its time given the general reluctance of marketers in India to fully leverage the web, leave alone social media. Having said that, the effort is laudable and I eagerly await her report which should be out in the next few weeks.
Spend less and invest more
Given the grim economic scenario, many marketing executives are hacking through their budgets and resources like adventurers hurrying through an Amazon forest. Many others I have met in recent weeks are propagating a low/no-spend scenario. I believe that these are unviable options given the fact that sales must go on, albeit at lower volumes, thus requiring marketers to be able to smartly adapt to the situation and intelligently reuse resources.
Is the media a monster?
I attended the NASSCOM Summit this year as an entrepreneur who recently started a content marketing consultancy of my own and not representing a corporation as I have done on previous occasions. NASSCOM was also gracious to invite me as a blogger to the event and I had an opportunity to attend a few sessions and interact with lots of people. It also gave me a chance to catch up with some of my friends in the media who were adequately represented at the event.
Failing to respond: Are we eroding brand equity?
A couple of months ago on a Sunday, I was at the supermarket picking up groceries for the week. I am a great fan of confectionary and quickly ended up at the biscuit shelves which had neatly stacked packets of a variety of biscuits, Indian and foreign, piled virtually ceiling high. A new brand of cookies from a local Indian manufacturer caught my eye and I put a packet in my basket. I especially asked the checkout staff to carefully pack all the biscuits I had bought in a separate bag to avoid them crumbling. But to my dismay, I found not even one cookie in its original shape. The least battered one was in three pieces!! I quickly realized that while I had taken all the care possible, the biscuits had probably lost their original form while being transported from the factory to the store.
Build your offerings around the customer
With an unexpected guest at home last night, we decided to call the nearby Chinese takeaway, from whom we have been ordering food on a fairly regular basis, rather than rustle up a hurried meal. The attendant who picked up the phone greeted me with the message that home delivery orders would only be taken if they exceeded Rs. 500. A little surprised, I asked him if this was a new management rule and he said it had come into effect since the beginning of the month. He then proceeded to ask me who I was and if I could identify myself by giving him my telephone number. On looking at the system, he probably realized that I was a regular customer and though the bill amount was Rs. 444 he agreed to deliver. The food was good but put off by the attitude, I have decided not to order a meal from this outlet again and instead try out another Chinese restaurant in the vicinity.
