Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Marketing with a Cause; not just Vision

It's like a mandate that you are ought to have a vision before starting any venture. Not that I don't believe it but there is something much bigger, better or simply more important than that.

This story from Church of the Customer moved me deeply. Its about a small time upcoming shoe making company called TOMS Shoes. It was founded by Blake Mycoskie in 2006, a former contestant of "The Amazing Race" who got inspired by low-cost Alpargatas (espadrille-type shoes) during a trip to Argentina. His vision was to bring those shoes to US and give it a fashion makeover.

But something else also happend simultaneously. He decided to give a pair of shoes to those shoeless children in third-world countries for every pair sold in US. By far, he has sold about 2,00,000 shoes and donated equal number too. He also went ahead and struck a deal with Fashion Label Icon Ralph Lauren & retailers like Whole Foods too.

(Church of the Customer quotes) TOMS Shoes has buzz for a variety of reasons, which include:
  • An uncommon product amidst of sea of commonality.
  • A simple, yet inspiring story that's easy to tell and therefore spread.
  • An accessible and well-spoken leader who'll tell the story to anyone who'll listen.
  • A strong culture of participation among employees and customers that's ingrained into the DNA of the company.

Apart from all these there another dimension on which I started writing this post. Thinking about what sells in the marketplace; is it Blake Mycoskie's Entrepreneurial spirits or something which is deeper than that? I always believed that conviction of the entreprenuer is very important but not more than the CAUSE for which you are competing in the marketplace, which is much higher than your vision. Your cause shows you care; not only about profitability but the core entity of any business model i.e. Customers.

N.B. What do you think? Without Cause can a business model survive the test of time or it is just a by-product of Vision?

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Why Marketing "Cuil" as "Google Killer" a bad idea?

Is the hype on the latest search kid on the block i.e. CUIL over? Though I may assume it should be but still it isn't (Me going by the trending topics of Summize- oops now Twitter Search on 29th July,08 also). So here are my own perspectives. You may not agree with me here but that's what I want as then we can have elaborated conversation in this blog or start-off by shooting a mail at sampad[at]gmail[dot]com.

Firstup, some facts: Ex-Googlers launched a new search engine called "Cuil" on 27th July, 2008 with an index of 120 billion web pages which makes them arguably the most comprehensive search engine on the web (Thinking about Google's index worth- They proclaim it to be more though- Read more on the launch on Techcrunch). Since TechCrunch has already covered the who's who and where about the launch I wont dare fiddle with it. What I want to point out is this: IS Marketing CUIL as GOOGLE KILLER a good idea? Ask me, then my answer will be NO WAY, NEVER. Here are some of the conversations happening around the Web:

- Will Cuil Kill Google? - Motley Fool.
- Is Cuil the next Google? - Management Today.
- Ex-Google workers launch Internet search rival Cuil - AFP.

Reasons for me going against the tide are listed below:
  • Don't go against your dad when he's still giving your pocket money- Conversion: When search audience knows search more by Google (want to say Yahoo also, but...), no point showcasing yourself as the next Google Killer as you're raising expectations manifold. And you won't be surprised what happend next...They Crashed though not Burned!
  • A great search engine provides two core competencies: relevancy and trust. I did not see any higher levels of relevance in these search engine results that I am not already getting from Google, Yahoo or Microsoft and based on the categories referred back, it will be difficult to earn my trust with these types of results. (Courtesy: Six Pixels of Separation).
  • Surprise the Buck to Kill the Buck: You can't expect to do everything the same way as others have been doing and win the game. You have to do things differently. Try out innovative or a newer approach towards it. (Remember there's nothing called Free-Lunch in this world- If you're thinking for a free tip here :-)

Finally, I won't sound too pessimistic here since its early days for CUIL. But their initial PR programs of being the next Google Killer was totally inappropriate. So I don't expect CUIL to take over Google in the recent times for sure.

P.S. This blog is not being indexed properly by CUIL (pronounced "COOL") if I try searching it by my name in the first page w.r.t. Google with PageRank 4. So no brownie points on that note.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

First year of blogging completed

Today, technically speaking I completed one year of blogging. Learnt so much and yet so much to learn.

Would take this oppurtunity to thank all my readers who have been reading my blog and commented, criticized and even appreciated me in the process. Believe me, it has a great journey all the way and I hope to continue blogging in the years to come.

THANKS A TON :-)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The “X”-ing Generation: “SOS-CAR” Model

Click to enlarge the image above.
Internet Generation (or Net Gen) can be classified into 3 broad categories:

1. Wiki Generation

2. B.S.O.S. (Bright & Shiny Object Syndrome) Generation

3. Baby Boomers Generation

First of all, understanding the SOS-CAR model, we have to first see what all activities are being performed by internet users. The activities can be broadly classified as Searching (S), Reading (R), Scrutinizing (S), Authenticating (A), Collaborating (C) and Organizing (O).

The whole analysis will flow like this:

1. Firstly, understanding the WHAT aspect of this model.
2. Secondly, the WHERE aspect.
3. Lastly, WHEN aspect of the model.

(I) “WHAT” is “SOS-CAR” MODEL:


Internet surfing (according to the web parlance) consists of these 6 steps which we can identify with. Searching (S), Reading (R), Scrutinizing (S), Authenticating (A), Collaborating (C) and Organizing (O). Putting it accordingly, the step by step process goes like this:

Searching>>Reading>>Scrutinizing>>Authenticating>>Collaborating>>Organizing

1. Searching: In this step, the user seeks information in the infinite information-soaked world of the web. E.g. - Google, Yahoo, Mahalo, Craiglist.
2. Reading: Once he gets his needed information, he reads it to know much about it. E.g. Blogs, News site like
NYT, WSJ or Technology info site like TechCrunch, Engadget.
3. Scrutinizing: After the initial phase of reading, he wants to scrutinize it by checking or cross-checking it with other related information. E.g.
Robert Scoble for Technology etc.
4. Authenticating: In this stage, he tries to authenticate it by getting in-depth into the information by narrowing his interest. This stage also involves going through opinionated bloggers or site pertaining to specific information. E.g. Information only about Apple iPhone’s launch blogs/news.
5. Collaborating: In this, he tries to collaborate with others by writing in blogs, bookmarking in
del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Digg etc or spreading the word through Twitter, Jaiku or Friendfeed etc.
6. Organizing: In this final stage, he organizes the much needed information in Readers or keeping a copy for future references, both online or offline.

(II) “WHERE” is “SOS-CAR” MODEL:


The basic understanding of the different facets of the model helps us to segregate different kinds of users based on the activity they perform most often. The users are differentiated as:

1. Wiki Generation: This generation of people will be found in the wee hours of the night Digging/Stumbling some news article. Dubbed by some as geeks and nerd by others (but personally I believe, these are the people who make the floating data in the web more filtered for me and many more).

2. B.S.O.S. Generation: Dubbed as Bright & Shiny Object Syndrome generation, these people are mostly short in attention span but very high on filtration rate. They quickly filter any important information and pass it down via their blogs or bookmark it for the whole world to see. So if you hear that the next big things are Web 2.0, Social Media or stuff like that then accuse them for sure since they are responsible to carry the baton ahead (Pun intended).

3. Baby Boomers Generation: They are the passive recipients of mass consumer culture and often refrain from getting into the groove of spreading online and restrict only to minor personalization of information.

(III)“WHEN” is “SOS-CAR” MODEL:

Firstly, hate to break the news but slowly & steadily, the audience is dying (mostly in terms of attention span), which makes it imperative to reach them and add value to their lives. One of the ways would be to look beyond demographics to wants & desires. For Net Gen, it is crucial to create such content which will allow your audience to add more value to their lives. Ask me why? It’s because in today’s low-trust world you will definitely want to permeate into people’s consciousness and then try engaging them which pulls your audience further into a dialogue (far different from traditional monologues) and then into a rich & insightful conversation.


N.B. My analysis is partly inspired from Wikinomics.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Community-led Business Model Monetization for Twitter

A VERY interesting & innovative approach by Len Kendall to solving Twitter's service woes (See the inset picture above). Could this be the future of "Community-led business model monetization?" (via Joseph Jaffe). After my last post on Twitter, I feel initiatives like these, though may not turn out to be money churners but surely is hinting towards a broader trend in the near future.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Mobile Social Networking in India: A Futuristic Analysis

Words are out- one speculative and the other one recent Industry news. Read this from InformationWeek and this too from Agency Faqs. Some of the crucial points these two different disjointed reports have covered which show more or less similar trends are:

  1. InformationWeek has projected a significant transformation in Media, Technology & Telecommunications over the next 10 years because of Wireless Social Networking Revolution and AgencyFaqs reports that DOT (Department of Telecommunications) in India is thinking to allow 9 players in 3G or Third Generation services in place of earlier 5 players.

  2. Secondly, by 2020, about 7 billion accounts will co-exist (with many having multiple accounts) and if I'm right then opening up of Indian 3G platform will enable Indians to participate in the Mobile Social Networking ball-game with its huge population size.

  3. Reports say that Technology, Media & Telecom represents about 5% of global GDP, so with India going to be No.1 in terms of population in few years (though nothing to be proud off), Indians have a better chance of capitalizing on this developing trends since cheap labor and expertise and recent capital deployment abilities can nurture this sector a lot in the near future.

  4. Lastly, the latest development of Symbian Foundation by conglomerate of Mobile devices & software companies like Nokia vis-a-vis Google's Android poised to keep the competition abreast. In middle of these, two Indian majors have forged alliance with Symbian i.e. Sasken & Wipro which again will keep us upto date with the recent developments happening in the Wireless Telephony market which will drive the Wireless Social Networking Revolution further ahead.

These are the 4 broad reasons I feel wireless industry as a whole is heading. Now lets discuss on the same to have a higher understanding of the matter. Feel free to criticize, comment too!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Fail Whale

Again today, the same state of much loved or rather irritatingly loved micro-blogging site Twitter. This screenshot image called "Fail Whale" has become more or less synonymous with Twitter.

Quickly something has to be done or else people will find newer places to hang out. Though they bought out Summize (a Twitter search tool), but recently I'm seeing some tweets being missed and confirmed too.

So one request to all twitter guys : Please don't kill Twitter, at least for our sake and quickly monetize it so that you can save it at least from the clutch of budding competitors and industry behemoths.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Overservice

Few days back, a friend of mine availed courier service to transport her vehicle from one city to another. Now this post isn’t about how bad their customer service is but it’s about over-service.

Some of the reasons for me to reach the tipping points are:
  • They kept on SMSing every half an hour about the whereabouts of the shipment to enforce that they are working well until I started cursing them.
  • This process of enlightenment went on whole night to piss me off.
  • I’m not too sure that they have something called “BUZZ OFF” option in SMS tracking.

This is not all. The height of serviceability is that the consignment didn’t reach me on time and it got delayed for a day.

So what you make out of it? When you are promising world-class service to your customer, remember to carry it all along the way. Otherwise, the chain breaks and the customers don’t like it. And I don’t think I’ve to mention what happens next- THEY IGNORE!

So remember, the maxim was right all way through- Under-Promise & Over Deliver. But if you have already put yourself in high regards in front of your customers, leverage on it. Don’t pull it down by your stupid execution.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Accountability, Metrics & Marketing

Thought about this ever: CEO's of most companies nowadays have come from Sales/Marketing background; though there are exceptions like Indra Nooyi etc. Why is it so? Has marketing become so hot nowadays that they are occupying a relevant/strategic position in every company.

How I see it is a bit differently. It's not marketing which has become like a hot-pancake but the functions that modern marketing under takes. For example Accountability viz. ROI, Return on Sales and so on & so forth. This single parameter is responsible to take Marketing to its zenith. Not forgetting marketing is sole responsible to understand, interpret and satisfy customers (though it shouldn't be - I can post about it sometime later). So most customer interfacing companies have Marketing folks as their heads. (READ THIS on the "Sorry State of Marketing")

Moving forward, today I read an article on TNS Unveiling "In-Store Metrics" For Grocers. This clearly shows the trend we are following i.e. more & more stress on metrics and accountability in Marketing. Though I personally believe it is important but when your differentiation factor diminishes because of you keeping track on metrics and stuff like that, then who's the loser on a longer perspective? YOU!

So more & more companies should try understanding one fact: THEY KNOW YOU ARE MARKETING! So stop marketing and start getting into conversations. And when you get into it, you exactly know whom you are conversing with and metrics & stuff like that can be taken care off easily (remembering that it's always important to check & measure) as your conversational audience will care about you. So stop acting like day-to-day operational firm and get into more conversations with your audience.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Interesting versus Boring Customers

Ask this question before thinking why you hit southwards in your balance sheet. It is not that your product is worth nothing or your market strategy is bullshit. How about this proposition: Are you targetting the right customers? In this media-frenzy society where everyone is connected somehow, either via SNS like Facebooks, MySpaces etc or through Twitter, Friendfeed blah blah, so how can you think that your customers are not influencing each other. They are!

So that makes segmenting and targetting the right customers all the more important.


Look at the proposition above. When smart & interesting people talk about you or your product/brand par se, it generates something invaluable which your stupid ads doesn't since they are more often than not slapped on the customers face when they never wanted it in the first place. But targetting those invaluable customers who wants to listen about you makes sense since he will do the last bit of word of mouth for you.

Now the million dollar question is how you can you find those interesting people who can turn out to be your customers? Remember loyalists, early adopters, early innovators- It's just a clue.

Please comment/criticize/appreciate and discuss from your own experiences.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Indian Internet Audience Growth is highest in Asia-Pacific

Comscore recently published the growth in Internet audience for Asia Pacific region, with India registering highest growth for the first time. According to the figures, India stands 3rd after China and Japan in the total number of Internet Audience.

Until now it was all hunky-dory. But before going crazy about the position of No.1 the moot question to be asked is How many v/s Who? And also the comparison would be meaningless without thinking about how much is our population vis-a-vis China (data above shows that how much is China ahead of us). So the growth percentage looks good on paper but otherwise quite debatable in this context.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

237 Interesting Conversations

Though I’m late at sharing something but as they say it’s never too late. So I’m posting it now. We are inching close to the August release of The Age of Conversation 2008. What’s interesting are two things which caught my attention: One is that 237 authors will be sharing their stories and insights which itself is an eye-opener (Oh it’s for a noble cause too) and secondly 3 Indian authors figure in the list. Check it out for yourself and correct me if I’m wrong @ sampad.s[at]gmail.com

So here is the long and quite impressive list of linklove & 237 conversations as Greg Verdino
would say in alphabetical order:

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

So enjoy reading!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Marketing with a Cause; not just Vision

It's like a mandate that you are ought to have a vision before starting any venture. Not that I don't believe it but there is something much bigger, better or simply more important than that.

This story from Church of the Customer moved me deeply. Its about a small time upcoming shoe making company called TOMS Shoes. It was founded by Blake Mycoskie in 2006, a former contestant of "The Amazing Race" who got inspired by low-cost Alpargatas (espadrille-type shoes) during a trip to Argentina. His vision was to bring those shoes to US and give it a fashion makeover.

But something else also happend simultaneously. He decided to give a pair of shoes to those shoeless children in third-world countries for every pair sold in US. By far, he has sold about 2,00,000 shoes and donated equal number too. He also went ahead and struck a deal with Fashion Label Icon Ralph Lauren & retailers like Whole Foods too.

(Church of the Customer quotes) TOMS Shoes has buzz for a variety of reasons, which include:
  • An uncommon product amidst of sea of commonality.
  • A simple, yet inspiring story that's easy to tell and therefore spread.
  • An accessible and well-spoken leader who'll tell the story to anyone who'll listen.
  • A strong culture of participation among employees and customers that's ingrained into the DNA of the company.

Apart from all these there another dimension on which I started writing this post. Thinking about what sells in the marketplace; is it Blake Mycoskie's Entrepreneurial spirits or something which is deeper than that? I always believed that conviction of the entreprenuer is very important but not more than the CAUSE for which you are competing in the marketplace, which is much higher than your vision. Your cause shows you care; not only about profitability but the core entity of any business model i.e. Customers.

N.B. What do you think? Without Cause can a business model survive the test of time or it is just a by-product of Vision?

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Why Marketing "Cuil" as "Google Killer" a bad idea?

Is the hype on the latest search kid on the block i.e. CUIL over? Though I may assume it should be but still it isn't (Me going by the trending topics of Summize- oops now Twitter Search on 29th July,08 also). So here are my own perspectives. You may not agree with me here but that's what I want as then we can have elaborated conversation in this blog or start-off by shooting a mail at sampad[at]gmail[dot]com.

Firstup, some facts: Ex-Googlers launched a new search engine called "Cuil" on 27th July, 2008 with an index of 120 billion web pages which makes them arguably the most comprehensive search engine on the web (Thinking about Google's index worth- They proclaim it to be more though- Read more on the launch on Techcrunch). Since TechCrunch has already covered the who's who and where about the launch I wont dare fiddle with it. What I want to point out is this: IS Marketing CUIL as GOOGLE KILLER a good idea? Ask me, then my answer will be NO WAY, NEVER. Here are some of the conversations happening around the Web:

- Will Cuil Kill Google? - Motley Fool.
- Is Cuil the next Google? - Management Today.
- Ex-Google workers launch Internet search rival Cuil - AFP.

Reasons for me going against the tide are listed below:
  • Don't go against your dad when he's still giving your pocket money- Conversion: When search audience knows search more by Google (want to say Yahoo also, but...), no point showcasing yourself as the next Google Killer as you're raising expectations manifold. And you won't be surprised what happend next...They Crashed though not Burned!
  • A great search engine provides two core competencies: relevancy and trust. I did not see any higher levels of relevance in these search engine results that I am not already getting from Google, Yahoo or Microsoft and based on the categories referred back, it will be difficult to earn my trust with these types of results. (Courtesy: Six Pixels of Separation).
  • Surprise the Buck to Kill the Buck: You can't expect to do everything the same way as others have been doing and win the game. You have to do things differently. Try out innovative or a newer approach towards it. (Remember there's nothing called Free-Lunch in this world- If you're thinking for a free tip here :-)

Finally, I won't sound too pessimistic here since its early days for CUIL. But their initial PR programs of being the next Google Killer was totally inappropriate. So I don't expect CUIL to take over Google in the recent times for sure.

P.S. This blog is not being indexed properly by CUIL (pronounced "COOL") if I try searching it by my name in the first page w.r.t. Google with PageRank 4. So no brownie points on that note.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

First year of blogging completed

Today, technically speaking I completed one year of blogging. Learnt so much and yet so much to learn.

Would take this oppurtunity to thank all my readers who have been reading my blog and commented, criticized and even appreciated me in the process. Believe me, it has a great journey all the way and I hope to continue blogging in the years to come.

THANKS A TON :-)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The “X”-ing Generation: “SOS-CAR” Model

Click to enlarge the image above.
Internet Generation (or Net Gen) can be classified into 3 broad categories:

1. Wiki Generation

2. B.S.O.S. (Bright & Shiny Object Syndrome) Generation

3. Baby Boomers Generation

First of all, understanding the SOS-CAR model, we have to first see what all activities are being performed by internet users. The activities can be broadly classified as Searching (S), Reading (R), Scrutinizing (S), Authenticating (A), Collaborating (C) and Organizing (O).

The whole analysis will flow like this:

1. Firstly, understanding the WHAT aspect of this model.
2. Secondly, the WHERE aspect.
3. Lastly, WHEN aspect of the model.

(I) “WHAT” is “SOS-CAR” MODEL:


Internet surfing (according to the web parlance) consists of these 6 steps which we can identify with. Searching (S), Reading (R), Scrutinizing (S), Authenticating (A), Collaborating (C) and Organizing (O). Putting it accordingly, the step by step process goes like this:

Searching>>Reading>>Scrutinizing>>Authenticating>>Collaborating>>Organizing

1. Searching: In this step, the user seeks information in the infinite information-soaked world of the web. E.g. - Google, Yahoo, Mahalo, Craiglist.
2. Reading: Once he gets his needed information, he reads it to know much about it. E.g. Blogs, News site like
NYT, WSJ or Technology info site like TechCrunch, Engadget.
3. Scrutinizing: After the initial phase of reading, he wants to scrutinize it by checking or cross-checking it with other related information. E.g.
Robert Scoble for Technology etc.
4. Authenticating: In this stage, he tries to authenticate it by getting in-depth into the information by narrowing his interest. This stage also involves going through opinionated bloggers or site pertaining to specific information. E.g. Information only about Apple iPhone’s launch blogs/news.
5. Collaborating: In this, he tries to collaborate with others by writing in blogs, bookmarking in
del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Digg etc or spreading the word through Twitter, Jaiku or Friendfeed etc.
6. Organizing: In this final stage, he organizes the much needed information in Readers or keeping a copy for future references, both online or offline.

(II) “WHERE” is “SOS-CAR” MODEL:


The basic understanding of the different facets of the model helps us to segregate different kinds of users based on the activity they perform most often. The users are differentiated as:

1. Wiki Generation: This generation of people will be found in the wee hours of the night Digging/Stumbling some news article. Dubbed by some as geeks and nerd by others (but personally I believe, these are the people who make the floating data in the web more filtered for me and many more).

2. B.S.O.S. Generation: Dubbed as Bright & Shiny Object Syndrome generation, these people are mostly short in attention span but very high on filtration rate. They quickly filter any important information and pass it down via their blogs or bookmark it for the whole world to see. So if you hear that the next big things are Web 2.0, Social Media or stuff like that then accuse them for sure since they are responsible to carry the baton ahead (Pun intended).

3. Baby Boomers Generation: They are the passive recipients of mass consumer culture and often refrain from getting into the groove of spreading online and restrict only to minor personalization of information.

(III)“WHEN” is “SOS-CAR” MODEL:

Firstly, hate to break the news but slowly & steadily, the audience is dying (mostly in terms of attention span), which makes it imperative to reach them and add value to their lives. One of the ways would be to look beyond demographics to wants & desires. For Net Gen, it is crucial to create such content which will allow your audience to add more value to their lives. Ask me why? It’s because in today’s low-trust world you will definitely want to permeate into people’s consciousness and then try engaging them which pulls your audience further into a dialogue (far different from traditional monologues) and then into a rich & insightful conversation.


N.B. My analysis is partly inspired from Wikinomics.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Community-led Business Model Monetization for Twitter

A VERY interesting & innovative approach by Len Kendall to solving Twitter's service woes (See the inset picture above). Could this be the future of "Community-led business model monetization?" (via Joseph Jaffe). After my last post on Twitter, I feel initiatives like these, though may not turn out to be money churners but surely is hinting towards a broader trend in the near future.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Mobile Social Networking in India: A Futuristic Analysis

Words are out- one speculative and the other one recent Industry news. Read this from InformationWeek and this too from Agency Faqs. Some of the crucial points these two different disjointed reports have covered which show more or less similar trends are:

  1. InformationWeek has projected a significant transformation in Media, Technology & Telecommunications over the next 10 years because of Wireless Social Networking Revolution and AgencyFaqs reports that DOT (Department of Telecommunications) in India is thinking to allow 9 players in 3G or Third Generation services in place of earlier 5 players.

  2. Secondly, by 2020, about 7 billion accounts will co-exist (with many having multiple accounts) and if I'm right then opening up of Indian 3G platform will enable Indians to participate in the Mobile Social Networking ball-game with its huge population size.

  3. Reports say that Technology, Media & Telecom represents about 5% of global GDP, so with India going to be No.1 in terms of population in few years (though nothing to be proud off), Indians have a better chance of capitalizing on this developing trends since cheap labor and expertise and recent capital deployment abilities can nurture this sector a lot in the near future.

  4. Lastly, the latest development of Symbian Foundation by conglomerate of Mobile devices & software companies like Nokia vis-a-vis Google's Android poised to keep the competition abreast. In middle of these, two Indian majors have forged alliance with Symbian i.e. Sasken & Wipro which again will keep us upto date with the recent developments happening in the Wireless Telephony market which will drive the Wireless Social Networking Revolution further ahead.

These are the 4 broad reasons I feel wireless industry as a whole is heading. Now lets discuss on the same to have a higher understanding of the matter. Feel free to criticize, comment too!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Fail Whale

Again today, the same state of much loved or rather irritatingly loved micro-blogging site Twitter. This screenshot image called "Fail Whale" has become more or less synonymous with Twitter.

Quickly something has to be done or else people will find newer places to hang out. Though they bought out Summize (a Twitter search tool), but recently I'm seeing some tweets being missed and confirmed too.

So one request to all twitter guys : Please don't kill Twitter, at least for our sake and quickly monetize it so that you can save it at least from the clutch of budding competitors and industry behemoths.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Overservice

Few days back, a friend of mine availed courier service to transport her vehicle from one city to another. Now this post isn’t about how bad their customer service is but it’s about over-service.

Some of the reasons for me to reach the tipping points are:
  • They kept on SMSing every half an hour about the whereabouts of the shipment to enforce that they are working well until I started cursing them.
  • This process of enlightenment went on whole night to piss me off.
  • I’m not too sure that they have something called “BUZZ OFF” option in SMS tracking.

This is not all. The height of serviceability is that the consignment didn’t reach me on time and it got delayed for a day.

So what you make out of it? When you are promising world-class service to your customer, remember to carry it all along the way. Otherwise, the chain breaks and the customers don’t like it. And I don’t think I’ve to mention what happens next- THEY IGNORE!

So remember, the maxim was right all way through- Under-Promise & Over Deliver. But if you have already put yourself in high regards in front of your customers, leverage on it. Don’t pull it down by your stupid execution.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Accountability, Metrics & Marketing

Thought about this ever: CEO's of most companies nowadays have come from Sales/Marketing background; though there are exceptions like Indra Nooyi etc. Why is it so? Has marketing become so hot nowadays that they are occupying a relevant/strategic position in every company.

How I see it is a bit differently. It's not marketing which has become like a hot-pancake but the functions that modern marketing under takes. For example Accountability viz. ROI, Return on Sales and so on & so forth. This single parameter is responsible to take Marketing to its zenith. Not forgetting marketing is sole responsible to understand, interpret and satisfy customers (though it shouldn't be - I can post about it sometime later). So most customer interfacing companies have Marketing folks as their heads. (READ THIS on the "Sorry State of Marketing")

Moving forward, today I read an article on TNS Unveiling "In-Store Metrics" For Grocers. This clearly shows the trend we are following i.e. more & more stress on metrics and accountability in Marketing. Though I personally believe it is important but when your differentiation factor diminishes because of you keeping track on metrics and stuff like that, then who's the loser on a longer perspective? YOU!

So more & more companies should try understanding one fact: THEY KNOW YOU ARE MARKETING! So stop marketing and start getting into conversations. And when you get into it, you exactly know whom you are conversing with and metrics & stuff like that can be taken care off easily (remembering that it's always important to check & measure) as your conversational audience will care about you. So stop acting like day-to-day operational firm and get into more conversations with your audience.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Interesting versus Boring Customers

Ask this question before thinking why you hit southwards in your balance sheet. It is not that your product is worth nothing or your market strategy is bullshit. How about this proposition: Are you targetting the right customers? In this media-frenzy society where everyone is connected somehow, either via SNS like Facebooks, MySpaces etc or through Twitter, Friendfeed blah blah, so how can you think that your customers are not influencing each other. They are!

So that makes segmenting and targetting the right customers all the more important.


Look at the proposition above. When smart & interesting people talk about you or your product/brand par se, it generates something invaluable which your stupid ads doesn't since they are more often than not slapped on the customers face when they never wanted it in the first place. But targetting those invaluable customers who wants to listen about you makes sense since he will do the last bit of word of mouth for you.

Now the million dollar question is how you can you find those interesting people who can turn out to be your customers? Remember loyalists, early adopters, early innovators- It's just a clue.

Please comment/criticize/appreciate and discuss from your own experiences.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Indian Internet Audience Growth is highest in Asia-Pacific

Comscore recently published the growth in Internet audience for Asia Pacific region, with India registering highest growth for the first time. According to the figures, India stands 3rd after China and Japan in the total number of Internet Audience.

Until now it was all hunky-dory. But before going crazy about the position of No.1 the moot question to be asked is How many v/s Who? And also the comparison would be meaningless without thinking about how much is our population vis-a-vis China (data above shows that how much is China ahead of us). So the growth percentage looks good on paper but otherwise quite debatable in this context.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

237 Interesting Conversations

Though I’m late at sharing something but as they say it’s never too late. So I’m posting it now. We are inching close to the August release of The Age of Conversation 2008. What’s interesting are two things which caught my attention: One is that 237 authors will be sharing their stories and insights which itself is an eye-opener (Oh it’s for a noble cause too) and secondly 3 Indian authors figure in the list. Check it out for yourself and correct me if I’m wrong @ sampad.s[at]gmail.com

So here is the long and quite impressive list of linklove & 237 conversations as Greg Verdino
would say in alphabetical order:

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

So enjoy reading!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Marketing with a Cause; not just Vision

It's like a mandate that you are ought to have a vision before starting any venture. Not that I don't believe it but there is something much bigger, better or simply more important than that.

This story from Church of the Customer moved me deeply. Its about a small time upcoming shoe making company called TOMS Shoes. It was founded by Blake Mycoskie in 2006, a former contestant of "The Amazing Race" who got inspired by low-cost Alpargatas (espadrille-type shoes) during a trip to Argentina. His vision was to bring those shoes to US and give it a fashion makeover.

But something else also happend simultaneously. He decided to give a pair of shoes to those shoeless children in third-world countries for every pair sold in US. By far, he has sold about 2,00,000 shoes and donated equal number too. He also went ahead and struck a deal with Fashion Label Icon Ralph Lauren & retailers like Whole Foods too.

(Church of the Customer quotes) TOMS Shoes has buzz for a variety of reasons, which include:
  • An uncommon product amidst of sea of commonality.
  • A simple, yet inspiring story that's easy to tell and therefore spread.
  • An accessible and well-spoken leader who'll tell the story to anyone who'll listen.
  • A strong culture of participation among employees and customers that's ingrained into the DNA of the company.

Apart from all these there another dimension on which I started writing this post. Thinking about what sells in the marketplace; is it Blake Mycoskie's Entrepreneurial spirits or something which is deeper than that? I always believed that conviction of the entreprenuer is very important but not more than the CAUSE for which you are competing in the marketplace, which is much higher than your vision. Your cause shows you care; not only about profitability but the core entity of any business model i.e. Customers.

N.B. What do you think? Without Cause can a business model survive the test of time or it is just a by-product of Vision?

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Why Marketing "Cuil" as "Google Killer" a bad idea?

Is the hype on the latest search kid on the block i.e. CUIL over? Though I may assume it should be but still it isn't (Me going by the trending topics of Summize- oops now Twitter Search on 29th July,08 also). So here are my own perspectives. You may not agree with me here but that's what I want as then we can have elaborated conversation in this blog or start-off by shooting a mail at sampad[at]gmail[dot]com.

Firstup, some facts: Ex-Googlers launched a new search engine called "Cuil" on 27th July, 2008 with an index of 120 billion web pages which makes them arguably the most comprehensive search engine on the web (Thinking about Google's index worth- They proclaim it to be more though- Read more on the launch on Techcrunch). Since TechCrunch has already covered the who's who and where about the launch I wont dare fiddle with it. What I want to point out is this: IS Marketing CUIL as GOOGLE KILLER a good idea? Ask me, then my answer will be NO WAY, NEVER. Here are some of the conversations happening around the Web:

- Will Cuil Kill Google? - Motley Fool.
- Is Cuil the next Google? - Management Today.
- Ex-Google workers launch Internet search rival Cuil - AFP.

Reasons for me going against the tide are listed below:
  • Don't go against your dad when he's still giving your pocket money- Conversion: When search audience knows search more by Google (want to say Yahoo also, but...), no point showcasing yourself as the next Google Killer as you're raising expectations manifold. And you won't be surprised what happend next...They Crashed though not Burned!
  • A great search engine provides two core competencies: relevancy and trust. I did not see any higher levels of relevance in these search engine results that I am not already getting from Google, Yahoo or Microsoft and based on the categories referred back, it will be difficult to earn my trust with these types of results. (Courtesy: Six Pixels of Separation).
  • Surprise the Buck to Kill the Buck: You can't expect to do everything the same way as others have been doing and win the game. You have to do things differently. Try out innovative or a newer approach towards it. (Remember there's nothing called Free-Lunch in this world- If you're thinking for a free tip here :-)

Finally, I won't sound too pessimistic here since its early days for CUIL. But their initial PR programs of being the next Google Killer was totally inappropriate. So I don't expect CUIL to take over Google in the recent times for sure.

P.S. This blog is not being indexed properly by CUIL (pronounced "COOL") if I try searching it by my name in the first page w.r.t. Google with PageRank 4. So no brownie points on that note.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

First year of blogging completed

Today, technically speaking I completed one year of blogging. Learnt so much and yet so much to learn.

Would take this oppurtunity to thank all my readers who have been reading my blog and commented, criticized and even appreciated me in the process. Believe me, it has a great journey all the way and I hope to continue blogging in the years to come.

THANKS A TON :-)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The “X”-ing Generation: “SOS-CAR” Model

Click to enlarge the image above.
Internet Generation (or Net Gen) can be classified into 3 broad categories:

1. Wiki Generation

2. B.S.O.S. (Bright & Shiny Object Syndrome) Generation

3. Baby Boomers Generation

First of all, understanding the SOS-CAR model, we have to first see what all activities are being performed by internet users. The activities can be broadly classified as Searching (S), Reading (R), Scrutinizing (S), Authenticating (A), Collaborating (C) and Organizing (O).

The whole analysis will flow like this:

1. Firstly, understanding the WHAT aspect of this model.
2. Secondly, the WHERE aspect.
3. Lastly, WHEN aspect of the model.

(I) “WHAT” is “SOS-CAR” MODEL:


Internet surfing (according to the web parlance) consists of these 6 steps which we can identify with. Searching (S), Reading (R), Scrutinizing (S), Authenticating (A), Collaborating (C) and Organizing (O). Putting it accordingly, the step by step process goes like this:

Searching>>Reading>>Scrutinizing>>Authenticating>>Collaborating>>Organizing

1. Searching: In this step, the user seeks information in the infinite information-soaked world of the web. E.g. - Google, Yahoo, Mahalo, Craiglist.
2. Reading: Once he gets his needed information, he reads it to know much about it. E.g. Blogs, News site like
NYT, WSJ or Technology info site like TechCrunch, Engadget.
3. Scrutinizing: After the initial phase of reading, he wants to scrutinize it by checking or cross-checking it with other related information. E.g.
Robert Scoble for Technology etc.
4. Authenticating: In this stage, he tries to authenticate it by getting in-depth into the information by narrowing his interest. This stage also involves going through opinionated bloggers or site pertaining to specific information. E.g. Information only about Apple iPhone’s launch blogs/news.
5. Collaborating: In this, he tries to collaborate with others by writing in blogs, bookmarking in
del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Digg etc or spreading the word through Twitter, Jaiku or Friendfeed etc.
6. Organizing: In this final stage, he organizes the much needed information in Readers or keeping a copy for future references, both online or offline.

(II) “WHERE” is “SOS-CAR” MODEL:


The basic understanding of the different facets of the model helps us to segregate different kinds of users based on the activity they perform most often. The users are differentiated as:

1. Wiki Generation: This generation of people will be found in the wee hours of the night Digging/Stumbling some news article. Dubbed by some as geeks and nerd by others (but personally I believe, these are the people who make the floating data in the web more filtered for me and many more).

2. B.S.O.S. Generation: Dubbed as Bright & Shiny Object Syndrome generation, these people are mostly short in attention span but very high on filtration rate. They quickly filter any important information and pass it down via their blogs or bookmark it for the whole world to see. So if you hear that the next big things are Web 2.0, Social Media or stuff like that then accuse them for sure since they are responsible to carry the baton ahead (Pun intended).

3. Baby Boomers Generation: They are the passive recipients of mass consumer culture and often refrain from getting into the groove of spreading online and restrict only to minor personalization of information.

(III)“WHEN” is “SOS-CAR” MODEL:

Firstly, hate to break the news but slowly & steadily, the audience is dying (mostly in terms of attention span), which makes it imperative to reach them and add value to their lives. One of the ways would be to look beyond demographics to wants & desires. For Net Gen, it is crucial to create such content which will allow your audience to add more value to their lives. Ask me why? It’s because in today’s low-trust world you will definitely want to permeate into people’s consciousness and then try engaging them which pulls your audience further into a dialogue (far different from traditional monologues) and then into a rich & insightful conversation.


N.B. My analysis is partly inspired from Wikinomics.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Community-led Business Model Monetization for Twitter

A VERY interesting & innovative approach by Len Kendall to solving Twitter's service woes (See the inset picture above). Could this be the future of "Community-led business model monetization?" (via Joseph Jaffe). After my last post on Twitter, I feel initiatives like these, though may not turn out to be money churners but surely is hinting towards a broader trend in the near future.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Mobile Social Networking in India: A Futuristic Analysis

Words are out- one speculative and the other one recent Industry news. Read this from InformationWeek and this too from Agency Faqs. Some of the crucial points these two different disjointed reports have covered which show more or less similar trends are:

  1. InformationWeek has projected a significant transformation in Media, Technology & Telecommunications over the next 10 years because of Wireless Social Networking Revolution and AgencyFaqs reports that DOT (Department of Telecommunications) in India is thinking to allow 9 players in 3G or Third Generation services in place of earlier 5 players.

  2. Secondly, by 2020, about 7 billion accounts will co-exist (with many having multiple accounts) and if I'm right then opening up of Indian 3G platform will enable Indians to participate in the Mobile Social Networking ball-game with its huge population size.

  3. Reports say that Technology, Media & Telecom represents about 5% of global GDP, so with India going to be No.1 in terms of population in few years (though nothing to be proud off), Indians have a better chance of capitalizing on this developing trends since cheap labor and expertise and recent capital deployment abilities can nurture this sector a lot in the near future.

  4. Lastly, the latest development of Symbian Foundation by conglomerate of Mobile devices & software companies like Nokia vis-a-vis Google's Android poised to keep the competition abreast. In middle of these, two Indian majors have forged alliance with Symbian i.e. Sasken & Wipro which again will keep us upto date with the recent developments happening in the Wireless Telephony market which will drive the Wireless Social Networking Revolution further ahead.

These are the 4 broad reasons I feel wireless industry as a whole is heading. Now lets discuss on the same to have a higher understanding of the matter. Feel free to criticize, comment too!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Fail Whale

Again today, the same state of much loved or rather irritatingly loved micro-blogging site Twitter. This screenshot image called "Fail Whale" has become more or less synonymous with Twitter.

Quickly something has to be done or else people will find newer places to hang out. Though they bought out Summize (a Twitter search tool), but recently I'm seeing some tweets being missed and confirmed too.

So one request to all twitter guys : Please don't kill Twitter, at least for our sake and quickly monetize it so that you can save it at least from the clutch of budding competitors and industry behemoths.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Overservice

Few days back, a friend of mine availed courier service to transport her vehicle from one city to another. Now this post isn’t about how bad their customer service is but it’s about over-service.

Some of the reasons for me to reach the tipping points are:
  • They kept on SMSing every half an hour about the whereabouts of the shipment to enforce that they are working well until I started cursing them.
  • This process of enlightenment went on whole night to piss me off.
  • I’m not too sure that they have something called “BUZZ OFF” option in SMS tracking.

This is not all. The height of serviceability is that the consignment didn’t reach me on time and it got delayed for a day.

So what you make out of it? When you are promising world-class service to your customer, remember to carry it all along the way. Otherwise, the chain breaks and the customers don’t like it. And I don’t think I’ve to mention what happens next- THEY IGNORE!

So remember, the maxim was right all way through- Under-Promise & Over Deliver. But if you have already put yourself in high regards in front of your customers, leverage on it. Don’t pull it down by your stupid execution.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Accountability, Metrics & Marketing

Thought about this ever: CEO's of most companies nowadays have come from Sales/Marketing background; though there are exceptions like Indra Nooyi etc. Why is it so? Has marketing become so hot nowadays that they are occupying a relevant/strategic position in every company.

How I see it is a bit differently. It's not marketing which has become like a hot-pancake but the functions that modern marketing under takes. For example Accountability viz. ROI, Return on Sales and so on & so forth. This single parameter is responsible to take Marketing to its zenith. Not forgetting marketing is sole responsible to understand, interpret and satisfy customers (though it shouldn't be - I can post about it sometime later). So most customer interfacing companies have Marketing folks as their heads. (READ THIS on the "Sorry State of Marketing")

Moving forward, today I read an article on TNS Unveiling "In-Store Metrics" For Grocers. This clearly shows the trend we are following i.e. more & more stress on metrics and accountability in Marketing. Though I personally believe it is important but when your differentiation factor diminishes because of you keeping track on metrics and stuff like that, then who's the loser on a longer perspective? YOU!

So more & more companies should try understanding one fact: THEY KNOW YOU ARE MARKETING! So stop marketing and start getting into conversations. And when you get into it, you exactly know whom you are conversing with and metrics & stuff like that can be taken care off easily (remembering that it's always important to check & measure) as your conversational audience will care about you. So stop acting like day-to-day operational firm and get into more conversations with your audience.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Interesting versus Boring Customers

Ask this question before thinking why you hit southwards in your balance sheet. It is not that your product is worth nothing or your market strategy is bullshit. How about this proposition: Are you targetting the right customers? In this media-frenzy society where everyone is connected somehow, either via SNS like Facebooks, MySpaces etc or through Twitter, Friendfeed blah blah, so how can you think that your customers are not influencing each other. They are!

So that makes segmenting and targetting the right customers all the more important.


Look at the proposition above. When smart & interesting people talk about you or your product/brand par se, it generates something invaluable which your stupid ads doesn't since they are more often than not slapped on the customers face when they never wanted it in the first place. But targetting those invaluable customers who wants to listen about you makes sense since he will do the last bit of word of mouth for you.

Now the million dollar question is how you can you find those interesting people who can turn out to be your customers? Remember loyalists, early adopters, early innovators- It's just a clue.

Please comment/criticize/appreciate and discuss from your own experiences.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Indian Internet Audience Growth is highest in Asia-Pacific

Comscore recently published the growth in Internet audience for Asia Pacific region, with India registering highest growth for the first time. According to the figures, India stands 3rd after China and Japan in the total number of Internet Audience.

Until now it was all hunky-dory. But before going crazy about the position of No.1 the moot question to be asked is How many v/s Who? And also the comparison would be meaningless without thinking about how much is our population vis-a-vis China (data above shows that how much is China ahead of us). So the growth percentage looks good on paper but otherwise quite debatable in this context.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

237 Interesting Conversations

Though I’m late at sharing something but as they say it’s never too late. So I’m posting it now. We are inching close to the August release of The Age of Conversation 2008. What’s interesting are two things which caught my attention: One is that 237 authors will be sharing their stories and insights which itself is an eye-opener (Oh it’s for a noble cause too) and secondly 3 Indian authors figure in the list. Check it out for yourself and correct me if I’m wrong @ sampad.s[at]gmail.com

So here is the long and quite impressive list of linklove & 237 conversations as Greg Verdino
would say in alphabetical order:

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

So enjoy reading!