Microsoft bids for Yahoo at $44.6 Billion

Techworld has reported that Microsoft has offered to buy the search engine company Yahoo for $44.6 billion (£22.4 bn) in cash and shares.

Here is the excerpt:

The offer is 62 percent above Yahoo's closing share price on Thursday.

"We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft.

"Our lives, our businesses, and even our society have been progressively transformed by the web, and Yahoo! has played a pioneering role by building compelling, high-scale services and infrastructure," said Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft.

The bid comes hours after Yahoo announced that Terry Semel was stepping down as non-executive chairman, six months after handing over his CEO title to Jerry Yang. Semel is leaving the board effective immediately, Yahoo announced yesterday. He will be replaced as non-executive chairman by another board member, Roy Bostock, the company said.

Semel was chairman and CEO of Yahoo for six years until he was replaced in a management shuffle last June. Yang, one of Yahoo's co-founders, was made CEO, and Semel was demoted to non-executive chairman.

As CEO, Semel helped to build Yahoo's audience from 170 million to more than 500 million users. But he was also blamed for missteps that allowed Google to build a commanding lead in online search and advertising, prompting last year's reorganisation.

"With the Company moving forward under new leadership, I believe this is an appropriate time for me to step down from the board," Semel said in the statement.
He approached the board several months ago about leaving once a replacement could be found, Yahoo said.

Bostock has a long history in the advertising industry, "an area that is more important than ever to Yahoo's business and our long term success," the company said.

Travel and Tourism 2.0 - Leveraging Web 2.0 for your Business Transformation

Travel and Tourism 2.0

This is in continuation to my previous post on Enterprise 2.o.

MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) have always been a large and rapidly growing industry. So what is happening on this front?

So what happened?

Well a large portion of work being done by local travel agents and DMCs has been taken over by online portals like www.makemytrip.com . www.yatra.com, www.cleartrip.com and the alike. Initially they started off with just travel bookings; however, soon they realized the importance of Hotel bookings etc. and launched more services through their online portals.

Why this happened?

Well ever increasing pressures on reducing the costs and enhancing customer service put pressures on agencies and consultants to find more efficient ways to reach customers and come up with innovative methods for end to end services and better customer satisfaction. As well as ROI calculations on meetings, conferences and exhibitions are showing a clear picture that they are a costlier way of reaching audience. Simultaneously, Incentives industry is seeing more boom because of increasing pressures of employee attrition. HR managers are coming up with more innovative Incentive programs for travel bonuses etc.

What can be done for your organization?

Many SME and large organizations have realized the ROI from exhibitions is way too less as compared to other channels. Organizations are now focusing on companies which provide very focused meetings and congresses like www.naseba.com where the environment is B2B and the focus is business than branding. The advantage for people is interaction on a one-to-one basis which drives the event and delivers much better results than any other event.

So let’s say today if www.cleartrip.com wants to differentiate itself from www.makemytrip.com they can probably look at creating blogs integrated with websites for recommendations on which places to travel, how their website was cheaper in providing travel tickets plus what additional services they were able to get from cleartrip.com. What are the featured destinations and testimonials from people who enjoyed visiting such places using the services from this specific website? Enable interaction through recommendations, testimonials, videos, widgets etc. Direct tie-ups with corporates for special Incentive packages, driven by recommendations from previous users and more. Special prices for let say all employees from Wipro or Infosys if they book from www.yaatra.com .

Enterprise 2.0 – Leveraging Web 2.0 for your Business Transformation

Enterprise 2.0 – Leveraging Web 2.0 for your Business Transformation

As per my previous post on Web 2.0 I tried explaining the various components of Web 2.0. This article talks about how Web 2.0 can be leveraged in the real-time scenarios for transformation of businesses from the regular way to a completely new way.

I have taken some examples of various industries and the marketing strategies which can be implemented to transform the regular way of doing business using Web 2.0 techniques.

Topics that I would be covering:

HR 2.0 – New recruitment methods, HR consultancies and agencies, Job Portals, Online Hiring, Peer hiring, Referral hiring, Professional networking
Travel and Tourism 2.0 – Online travel portals, online tourism portals, importance of blogs and reference communities, New MICE strategies.
IT Services and Products 2.0 – New marketing strategies for IT services using Web 2.0.
Finance 2.0 – Financial consultancies, Credit rating agencies, Credit Card companies, BFSI and Financial Services marketing

Definition Web 2.0:
“Web 2.0 is the advancement in Internet technology. It's like a group of financially viable, socially active, and technologically collaborative changes in behavior, attitudes, tools and applications that are allowing the Web to become the next platform for communication, collaboration, community, and cumulative learning. And off-course drive sales and generating revenues”

HR 2.0

Many online Job portals came into existence few years back. This was more or less a copy of what people did in US and the ideas were replicated well in India and we saw the emergence of online job portals like www.naukri.com , www.monster.com , www.timesjobs.com and many more…

Things are going very fine for these job portals but suddenly the disruptive technology of Web 2.0 is going to change the idea of focused Job portals soon.

So what has happened?
Emergence of Professional Networking websites like: www.linkedin.com, www.xing.com, www.spoke.com, www.ryze.com and many more similar ones.

Suddenly, people started finding the correct people on these websites than on job portals. If you survey the leading HR consultancies today you would realize that they are using multiple approaches in finding the right candidates. Off-course the Top choice will be still Job portals as the database sizes are humongous. However, are consultancies able to find the correct candidates from the job portals? May be you might but not always. With ever increasing demands from the clients to find a specific candidate with a very niche skill set etc it gets very difficult for them so what do they do?
More and more consultancies and specially the start-ups are moving on the newer techniques like searching in professional networking websites. Not only this, with the emergence of niche professional communities like www.toostep.com , www.tribe.com, www.notchup.com , www.theladders.com , www.babajaobs.com, www.whereismyboss.com and many more like this. They are referring to niche groups of premium colleges, yahoo groups and google groups for the same.

In short if you need to hire the right person and meet the demand of your internal audience you need to understand the profile and see what that person likes and where on earth would you find that person hanging out? {if not earth at least on net} Gel in with his / her behavior and offer that person the correct fit that he would want to have.

Why did this happen?

This specific behavior has many reasons, primarily:

-Proliferation of internet.
-People getting socially active.
-Innate need for communication with peers.
-Insatiable desire to learn more.
-Personal feelings to share knowledge.

In today’s world the customer is much more informed than he/ she was 20 years back when the kinship used to provide information on what to do with one’s career. In today’s world people are talking there own decisions based on the knowledge available on line. Today if I want to become a Pilot I can login to some online community and get in touch with some pilot and try to understand what does his job needs him to do on a day to day basis and this will help me take a decision.

Or can we call it “Socially Active” and “Collaborative” attitude using the Web 2.0 tools for the new age “HR 2.0”?

How can your business benefit?

So what should www.naukri.com be looking at in the coming times? They have already attempted a Blog. They run news-letters to distribute the relevant content to the audience, so what next? Well, just imagine, today anyone who is looking for a job, logs on to www.naukri.com and sees a personalized page where he can customize his job needs, manage his resume etc. What if, the candidate sees a small section where he sees some recommended jobs and some other people who are already working in that company can be available to share some more details? More like a social network inside a job portal?

Though people can argue that it might loose anonymity and privacy can be issue, however, constructing something which is just correct for a job portal can immediately boost the relevance of the content on naukri.com and people would love to come back. Not just a social network, if the people of the same caliber want to share the best practices etc? So now it’s not just about finding a job, it’s about learning and networking. “Enhancing Interaction” is the key and giving people a platform for being more “Socially Active” and collaborative. Does it make more sense?



Will be talking about Travel and Tourism 2.0, IT Services and Product marketing 2.0, Finance Marketing 2.0

Will Google Go Mobile? What if, it does…

Will Google Go Mobile? What if, it does…then in future you can talk to anyone on Gtalk running on a Google Phone running on a Google Android having a Google Prepaid or Postpaid connection and browsing Google.com to search for any product on Google’s retail website and buy it through Google Checkout.

Amidst the speculations from the media on whether Google will go the Mobile route or not, this is what you can expect if Google Actually goes mobile.

If google gets the Bandwidth, they will pose a big threat to the Telecom Companies, because Google already have the software ready for the hardware and there have been successful trials and prototyping done.

So if tomorrow Google gets the spectrum it won’t be surprising that they run a parallel program to the open handset alliance and come up with their own revolutionary device the much rumored Google Phone.

So what does it mean for the other Telecom providers? More competition, shifting customer loyalties above all focus on better services and best prices for customers.

If it does happen, the question would be: “Can Google fight the giants in terms of services?” and will a product company completely translate itself into a services company?

The TITANs come together (A little late) – AMEX, Kingfisher, Airtel

The TITANs come together (A little late) – AMEX, Kingfisher, Airtel

So what’s this thing about owning an American Express card? Whenever you flash your AMEX card, there are few heads which surely turn. I was one of the people who used to frantically gaze at the AMEX cards being swiped and I wonder why only the crème-de-la-crème have these cards, just to later realize that AMEX charges you annual fee (INR 5K) for owning a AMEX card when everyone else gives it to you free.

Why am I writing about Credit cards anyway when we get so many annoying calls for the same during the week? So the reason is because I recently got an AMEX card. Now why would I want to do that? Well, its not very difficult to explain. AMEX has maintained its class by not going the “Free, Free” way. They have a class and they stick to it. You are a privileged person if you possess an AMEX card. (or this is what they make you believe). And it ties with your lifestyle. Oh by the way we Indians want things free, so we would not take a credit card until you give us something. So Kingfisher and Airtel joined the bandwagon. On getting this AMEX-Kingfisher First Card you get 1 Kingfisher return ticket in any Indian sector free (off course you have to pay the taxes to govt), and you get the convenience of paying your Airtel bills automatically from this special card. Also, you get a free upgrade voucher for Kingfisher First flight. (Though this is not the first tie-up Kingfisher has tied up with other credit cards too {I think ICICI} for similar offerings.)

So, let me get the Maths correctly: If I buy a kingfisher return ticket, I generally pay INR 8K. 4K Tax + 4K fare. Now AMEX is saying we waive the fare for you; you only pay the Tax, and we give you upgrade vouchers to travel in Kingfisher First. Effectively if you like to travel by Kingfisher and you get this ticket without fare with an upgrade too, you are able to reimburse your 5K annual charge. Well seems like this deal was pushed more from Mallya's team than AMEX. But sounds a win-win situation both for AMEX and Kingfisher. (What’s Bharti Airtel riding on? – I guess their bill payment will get regularized, though, the target audience would anyway be paying on time. And the perfect target audience for their MobileVAS services promotion)

I would want to personally congratulate the AMEX marketing team (though they are late in doing this) for the well thought out and brilliantly executed marketing strategy. This marketing strategy can only be a brainchild of a veteran. Though I would want to find out who devised it, but having said that, let me explain what could have gone behind it.

There was a time when AMEX was under pressure to expand the credit cards subscriber base and simultaneously there was this rat race among all other banks to offer free credit cards. There would have been a meeting where people who thought for years in advance and suggested, that we do not target masses. Our target audience is set of people who are HNIs (high net-worth Individuals). So giving Free…blah blah wouldn’t affect them. What would perhaps affect them would be the premier club that they join and the advantages that they can take.

What they wanted a sales channel which was low cost, a feel of premium brands being associated with, and the feeling amongst customers, that they are joining a premium club with facilities which only a privileged lot gets. And they wanted to still charge people for the credit card.

Strategy Components:

A Paid Credit Card – Amongst dozens of Free credit cards, AMEX positioned itself as the first paid credit card that too in a country like India where people just run to grab anything free. It was able to maintain its premium position and offered its strategic alliances the value for their investments with AMEX.

Sales Channel and Funnel –
->They chose Email Marketing as the channel. Low cost, quick and direct response and effective tracking.
->The email campaigns across India generated leads which were passed on to a 25 odd team in Gurgaon call centre to qualify at level 1 of interest and net worth.
->The qualified leads were passed on to the sales reps / relationship executives on field for final closure.

Brand Association -
->They chose Kingfisher as a brand to get associated with, again a premium brand with high equity.
->And finally they tied up with Airtel (oh by the way, Airtel offered Mobile VAS card free of charge, perfectly thought out target audience).

Service –
->The brand distinction will continue with their high class service.
->They have tie ups with most of the major banks to make online payments for their credit card bills.

Sell More –
->Obviously you won’t stop here; if you take a life time membership for 25K you then get a whole lot of benefits. So let’s say this year you enjoyed the services, you are bound to see more customers lining up though references as well as more renewals. But this is yet to be seen based on how the service promised actually turns out to be in practice.

Probably the next step would be promoting the offerings more over internet, mobile and some more email marketing.

Popularity – How much is enough?

Popularity – How much is enough?

Whenever I think of how technology has impacted life of people I just feel amazed and the way things have changed so much in the past few years. In today’s world we can’t imagine a research done without help of google. We search almost everything sometimes even our own names on google. And wow, google shows you instance of your name or your footprints on web as search results to you. Sometime people debate on privacy and how people are exposed to the world now. I consider it as a free popularity that you get and you can market yourself as a Brand. But How Much Popularity is Enough?

Just look at the hype everyone creates around new launches like Apple did for iPod, like Hillary Clinton or Obama are doing for elections. How Videos these days talk about the real ground situation as well as present to you a very interactive way of communicating.

How blogging and personal blogs have changed the procedure for buying for a lot of people. We look out for users and opinions from other users and mold our decisions based on recommendations. The negative side of over publicity can be something like when a mediocre singer with some good music in songs like Britney spears gets free popularity. How a website selling Steroids which might be good for health in some cases gets spammed because of some spammers who are selling some harmful drugs.

What would any baseball or cricket team player expect as his popularity? 10000 people knowing him in his state or 1 Million people knowing him in the country…but where does he stop his popularity and says yes, know I am popular?

How much is enough when you want to be popular? And how do you manage your popularity? Good, Bad and the Ugly?

Online Media is part of me now

A strange thing happened this morning. The bell rang at 7 AM and I went and opened the door to see a man standing in front, holding a pile of newspapers and saying something in Kannada. I could barely understand what he said, but I got the gist, he was trying to sell me “The Hindu” newspaper. He was telling me, to try out “The Hindu” newspaper, it’s good and today we are giving you this free of charge. I refused to do that because I told him I read Times of India and anyways I read online. Did I say online?

Wow, this is very interesting. I never thought I would give reading online as a reason to the newspaper boy. But yes, I said that automatically.

Almost 3 months back, I was conducting an interview for the position of marketing and this journalist who used to write for CEO and CIO articles for a premium media group was not enthused enough hearing about our plans. As I was telling her that we do only online marketing in our company. She couldn’t believe that and said what about offline? At that moment I made some bold statements like soon you would see the offline media taking a hit because of popularity of online media and people will start migrating to online media, even to read newspapers.

That girl went away and later called me to say that she couldn’t join us as she wants to stay in offline media only. She couldn’t see the future and couldn’t analyze how the world has rapidly moved over a short period of time.

Am I jumping the gun? Probably not, after looking at how Times group, India Today Group and others have moved to online channels by launching their online portals and how people have started reading and spending time online much more than offline. Looking at how finding a word meaning in a dictionary format has moved to searching in a PC dictionary or even better for searching anything now we just Google it, its rampant and its obvious the traditional media has taken a definitive hit.

Will the offline media die? I do not know, may be not, however, the future is online and mobile and if the companies do not see this yet, they are doomed. I would have spent this money to promote my online channel than sending a messenger boy to my door step asking me to buy the Hindu newspaper.

Online media has become part of me now and I haven't even conciously realised it till these small incident make me realise this. Why suddenly this change has come, probably bacause of Web 2.0 proliferation. This is going to be my next topic.

What's the Future Series - Web 2.0 Strategies for organizations

Even though I am late in writing this, still I wanted to write about this topic and wanted to share my point of view on how companies can leverage Web 2.0 to their advantage.

Part 1 - History and Definitions

Web 2.0 is an industry term that has received a great deal of attention. There has been a lot of debate around how to define it because it encapsulates a host of new (and some not so new) technologies.

The term was coined by O’Reilly Media to describe second-generation internet-based services. Wikipedia goes on to say that Web 2.0 is about using the web as a “platform” to provide an enhanced user experience via Rich Internet Applications (RIA), and extending the reach of your web content through syndication technologies such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS).

As appealing as these technologies may sound, simply adopting them doesn’t guarantee an improved visitor experience or more effective channels for reaching your customers.

In this entry I will try to capture the methodology on how you could use these technology advancements for revenue generation in your company. In my understanding:-

Definition Web 2.0:
“Web 2.0 is the advancement in Internet technology. It's like a group of financially viable, socially active, and technologically collaborative changes in behavior, attitudes, tools and applications that are allowing the Web to become the next platform for communication, collaboration, community, and cumulative learning. And off-course drive sales and generating revenues”

The following themes appear commonly in the various definitions of Web 2.0:

- Collaboration: the first theme is about people working together, collaborating, to create software, content, communities, art, music, literature, and a multitude of other things. Web 2.0 tools and applications support this type of interaction at their core.

- Conversation: There is a conversation happening and it’s not just happening in your corporate website forum. It is happening on blogs. It is a public conversation about politics, business, social issues, and anything else you can imagine, including your company.

- Community: We have had online communities now for at least fifteen years or more. But the tools for building online communities are now becoming more widespread and communities are forming around every imaginable (and unimaginable) subject, product, and industry. If you are looking for your “tribe”, they are probably out there somewhere.

- Connection: we are building messaging systems that now connect people to people, people to machines, and machines to machines. The names of these systems are not important but their function is.

- Content Creation: It turns out that if you give people the tools to create “stuff”, they do just that. In fact, they create so much stuff that it quite frankly upsets our assumptions about who in our society are the creators and who are the consumers.

- Cumulative Learning: think of cumulative learning as peer reviewed journals for every person on the planet with internet access. People can now build on the knowledge of others (through the miracles of search and wikis) faster than at any time in history.

- Collective Intelligence: In certain conditions, it turns out that groups of people are smarter than individuals. This is counter-intuitive and odd but apparently true.

- Change of scale: Web 2.0 companies can scale up fast. Because of the spread of broadband internet and the sheer number of people on the internet, we are seeing key measures (number of users, time to market, time to exit) that are quite extraordinary.

- Core values: Openness, transparency, and a respect for users are three core values that seem to permeate Web 2.0 definitions and discussions.

- Cheap and Fast: A key quality of Web 2.0 is that developers and entrepreneurs can build, deploy and profit from applications for less money and in less time than ever before.

Is it REA L or is it all just HYPE?

Let’s take a quick tour of the landscape to see what has been happening in the past few years and then you can decide for yourself if this set ofchanges warrants the attention that it’s getting.
We now have more than a BILLION people on the Internet, a few hundred million of whom are online at any given moment.

-->Bloggers are now doing fact-checks on the media…and winning. Some bloggers now have MORE TRAFFIC and HIGHER SEARCH ENGINE RATINGS than media companies that have been around for years.

-->People said they would never buy a car over the Internet. In 2005, eBay sold $11 billion worth of automobiles.

-->Wikipedia, a web-based encyclopedia, became the world’s largest reference work in four years, surpassing the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica.

-->A startup in Europe built a little application called Skype, which lets people call each other across the Internet for free. 27 months later, eBay snapped up this company for $4.1 billion. The application is now disrupting the 100 year old telecom industry.

-->A Vancouver-based gaming company invented a neat little photo-sharing program and sold the company to Yahoo less than two years later for approximately $35 million. They had about 10 people on that team. Flickr currently hosts over 70 million photos and has over 2.5 million users.

-->In October 2005, Microsoft issued a company-wide email telling the troops to embrace “the services wave” [Web 2.0]. Then, in May 2006, CEO Steve Ballmer stated that Microsoft is focusing over $6 billion of R&D towards ‘software as a service’ in 2006. Software as a service is one of the patterns of Web 2.0.

-->A small team of programmers started a website in 2003 that would help them build their social network. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought MySpace in August 2005 for $580 million, less than 2½ years after it was formed. He bought it because social websites like this are massive revenue generation engines.

-->Half a million people MAKE A LIVING on eBay.

-->Nineteen people run a small site called Craigslist which is now the seventh largest website in the world. This little operation is DECIMATING the North American classified advertising industry which can’t compete against FREE listings.

-->Content is exploding. Technorati, a service that tracks the number of blogs on the internet, listed effectively zero in March 2003 and reached 20 million blogs in October 2005. This means that the number of blogs doubled every five months for 36 months in a row.k Between October 2005 and the time this Manifesto was July 2006 when this Manifesto went to ‘print’, that number went from 20 million blogs to 49.8 million blogs.

I will be covering the details on how to leverage this for your organization in the next entry...

Now Just Swipe Your Mobile - atom "the" new way to pay

Future is mobile and Atom has just made it easier.

Mumbai, India, based technology company Atom technologies has come up with a new Mobile Payment option which is just similar to paying by your credit card, however, it doesn't involve a plastic card. So next time instead of swiping a credit card you might just hear "swipe your mobile". With atom "the" new way of payment, you are set to see the rise in M-Commerce and electronic transactions getting boosted and its bound to bring more secured, convinient transactions to its customers.

So how does this work?

There are two ways how this thing works.

Method 1 - Optical reading -You get something called Atom Card, which with the help of software will store the Credit Card information in a 2D barcode format and can be read by a simple webcam. This is a convinient method and something very similar to swiping your credit card. This would work more in cases of retail outlets, where there is an optical reader and you can show your mobile to the reader and authorize a payment. However, there is another method where you dont even need to show your mobile.

Method 2 - Wireless Transfer - In this you would need a JAVA MIDP 2.0 based mobile phone. You need a GPRS connection and a small software which will run on your mobile. So the next time you are in a shopping mall buying a favourite suit or dining in your favourite restaurant with your family you would have to just provide your mobile number and you would recieve a sales payment request on your mobile which you can authorize from any of your bank account which is confiured on your mobile and enter your PIN and authorize the payment.

How Secure is it?

Usage of PIN number makes the entire process secure, in case of loss of mobile phone, no body can use your mobile to make any purchases as its PIN protected.
Though, one question which any average user would ask is how secure is this transaction going to be. In case, someone infects the fone via some trojan/virus which captures the PIN number and sends it to someone else, you are exposed to the world. So the step of introducing mobile payments etc. should also be coupled with Mobile Phone security options. Also, I would reccommend ATOM to tie up with Mobile Antivirus providers or may be come up with some protection suite themselves to secure the mobile phones.

In 3 simple steps the process is going to be like this:

1. Merchant sends payment request
   o So lets say I am enjoying my dinner at Punjabi By Nature, restaurant, after finishing my lavish dinner, I ask for the bill and the attendant brings a paper to me and I write my mobile number on it. Then the person managing this enters his customer ID and amount and enters ATOM PIN and sends this payment request to me.
2. Customer confirms the payment
   o While I am sitting and talking to my friends and I get a message on my mobile to authorize a payment request. I choose which bank or credit / debit account I want to pay from and then I enter my PIN number and make the payment. Yes, that’s it, it’s Done.
3. Payment receipts
   o Now both the merchant and the customer get a confirmation message saying that payment is authorized and transaction is complete.

Interesting applications of this technology in various industry sectors...I will be discussing these in details in my next post.

Everyday, when I see Google Alerts on what's new in Mobile Technology, I see my belief in Mobile technology and advancement getting much stronger, day after day. And with this tiny little thing that people hold in there hands everyday and take along with them almost everywhere they go (oh I heard people take their mobiles even to rest rooms) you can pretty much think of marketing them even in those moments.

Even though the Telecom Operators like Bharti, RCom, Vodafone would be interested in providing such mobile commerce solutions, however, RBI hasn't yet approved the same. So you might see certain delay in this to become reality for you.

I Just iMobiled it! - ICICI Mobile Banking

Wife: “Sachinnnnnnnn, did you transfer the money to your parents’ account that I asked you to do? And the bill payment?”
Sachin: “Yes I did”
Wife: “Don’t lie to me, you didn’t even move an inch from your place for past one hour. And stop watching this stupid TV.”
Sachin: “I am not lying I just iMobiled”
Wife: “iMobiled? What’s that? Some new trick of yours?”
Sachin: “Oh common, you don’t know about the new iMobile service from ICICI Bank? ICICI bank has launched its amazing Mobile Banking Services, iMobile. Through this you can do transactions through your mobile. I can do a Balance Enquiry, I can do Cheque Book Request, View my Credit Card, Demat, Loan Account Transaction details, I can even pay bills, recharge my mobile phone and all this just sitting in my place without moving an inch, while watching India Business hour on CNBC TV18.”

Thanks to ICICI iMobile, I just iMobiled and it has made my life easy!

You might see some similar TV commercial running on air soon promoting ICICI bank’s mobile banking service iMobile. Here is the link to FAQs. With launch of this mobile banking service ICICI has become India’s first bank to launch Mobile Banking. However, this is not the 1st time in world when someone has launched mobile banking. Previously, in 1996 and 2000, Bank of America, Citibank, HSBC and some others have already burnt their fingers. The previous launches of similar services were unsuccessful because of the bad mobile phone handsets and the poor networks available.

However, now the networks are much better as well as the handsets have better capabilities, which makes the outlook more positive. I am a strong supporter of Online and Mobile methods of reaching out to customers. And I strongly support the move of Mobile Banking. I would say 2008 -2010 is the right time to get into the Mobile Marketing and service arena and take the early mover’s advantage. Establish your brand name and brand recall and star building your company’s association with the mobile services. Oh by the way did I say Mobile Marketing will work in India?

With mobile payment options now available, I guess it’s just got a little more easier to promote M-Commerce as well as promoting ads on mobiles as the purchase media vehicle is ready to carry the money. I see by 2010 onwards the company revenues will shoot up with revenues from Mobile purchases coming through higher ad conversions. However, it would be necessary that the brands start attaching themselves with the most modern “Mobile” identity.

Looking for more action in 2008 in the Mobile Front!

Will Telephony Calls be free in India? - Atleast for someone!

Will telephony become Free in India? Will telephony just become Internet telephony? Will 4G networks and IPV6 track the entire world with 300 Billion IP adresses? Will VOIP calls be much better than analogue calls? Will your thumb recognition become your worldwide biometric identity? Read to know more...

If we were to go by the growing clout of telecom operators in India and the fierce fight among them for Bandwidth, it's a rare chance that the telephony would become free. However, based on my previous post on how the TSPs might just turn into ISPs, this might just become true. Even the government of India through their BSNL and MTNL services is planning to launch 2MBPs free broadband internet connection by 2009.

At-least for Youth it might be...
There have been not so old instances of free service providers like Tiger etc which failed to attempt such a concept. Though, I guess it was too early for Indian markets. However, looking at how wireless telephony has expanded in India and why mobile marketing should work in India. I do see a large Youth market out there (Youth Ages 10-24, by 2025 is estimated at 349,200,000 by Population reference bureau) who would not mind listening to a 5 sec ad after every 15 minutes that they spent on phone; if there phone calls were free of charge. (Or probably the premium telephony for business users where they don’t get ads, but they pay higher rental charges.) Also they are given an option of a unique single online mobile wallet for multiple purchases in which they need to buy a monthly recharge wallet card varying anywhere between Rs 99 - Rs 1000.

So, what I am essentially saying is, having an online mobile wallet which gets recharged by a payment of Rs. X/month, like from a recharge coupon which can be bought from a local shop. (Even this will get eliminated when we will have 4G network and IPV6 so that every device will have an IP address and just a Biometric thumb recognition would be your worldwide identity.) Now, they get to talk free and have to listen to some Voice / Video Ads and probably text messages. What they just need to do is probably use the mobile wallet to buy the services being offered to them through promotions on their mobile.

Why should I buy from my Mobile Wallet?
Well anyways, wouldn’t you be buying your monthly required items like a deo or a Movie DVD (after watching the trailers on mobile) or may be a grocery or something similar? And if you get to buy the same through a Mobile phone through a special promotion being run and it gets delivered to your doorstep…obviously an hassle free shopping experience (oh did I say that Oil prices are always rising and travelling has become a challenge, specially if you have stayed in places like bangalore, mumbai, dubai etc). You can browse through the online store on your mobile and choose and pay directly through your mobile wallet safely by your biometric signature check on your mobile phone.

What’s in it for the Supplier?
Cheapest media to connect and advertise directly in the hands of the consumer. No large real estate investment, no large set-up required, no middle men’s commission, just pure B2C delivery of products.

How can you implement this?
Initially promotion of the Mobile Commerce or M-Commerce can be supported through certain specific low cost campaign launches from advertisers like contests, freebies etc. and over a period of 2 years when we see M-Commerce becoming popular, the TSPs (or WiISPs), would start charging the advertisers for the AD time which will again be contextual content ads targeted according to the buying or other behavior of the audience.

Is this model sustainable?
This is the question which we have to answer and will get answered only by looking at the response to the mobile advertising’s success in India. Would Indians accept the technology and would prefer to buy on Mobile or would still want to visit the store to buy? Would the telephone calls be completely free or the companies like Skype or Google charge the consumers to call? Would internet broadband become a reality on mobile phones or would it still be marred by the technology?

I see the light of positive hope and this approach of Mobile driven sales and marketing catching up in next 2 years time.

Will Telecom Network Operators finally become Internet Service Providers only?

Will Telecom Network Operators finally become Internet Service Providers only? Future of Telecom service providers? Would ISP and TSPs become one? A walk back from Future...

2015. AT&T today announced their Internet Services expansion to India. “We see India is the largest Mobile Communication devices’ consumer population worldwide followed by China and our high speed, reliable mobile Internet Services would help the regular Indian consumer to enjoy most advanced telephony and Value Added Services on their ARM Mobile 1.28 GHz processor driven, Google Android / Microsoft / Symbian based, mobile communicators.” said their SVP Worldwide Marketing and Product strategy at the launch function in New Delhi.

2010. Discussing the future of Telecom business at the Worldwide Telecom Forum, the heads of Top 10 worldwide telecom network operators conclusively shared a vision, with open mobile platforms like Google Android or Yahoo Open Mobile, telecom operations have virtually came to a halt with ever decreasing revenues from Mobile Phone networks consecutively for past 2 years while VAS and mobile ads revenues are increasing. There was a consensus that the TSPs would now concentrate on their newly launched Open Mobile VAS services along with the high speed 1GBPs wireless networks. Profitability will be driven by the Ads and VAS services and the telephony will be free of charge for the consumers. This will be on a revenue sharing model with the VAS operators.

If the above claims look strange, you may want to think about what’s conspiring in the world, on the mobile scenario, again!

With Apple’s iPhone, the mobile industry has seen a completely different face of information and communication. And with Google Android’s open mobile platform, you can imagine running a mobile software, which will be capable of Voice and Data communication processing in an ARM processor, and then transmission and reception over XG (3G, 4G, 5G…) internet services. Which means, the thing in your hand, is a PC which can run something like Google Talk or Skype and you can communicate (call someone, share a song, a video or probably send a vibe(vibrator ring)), with someone who has Google Talk or Skype running on a similar mobile communication device. And with IPV6 standards this mobile phone or communication wireless device will be having an IP address too. (You can track it for contextual or behavioral marketing – Did I say Push marketing was dead?)

So what is left for the TSPs? Probably a carrier…for Internet and not for telephony. And off course 2 important things Contextual Content, Contextual Ads (in various formats like Video, Text, Audio, probably Vibration or Touch Colors etc.).

Why companies like NTT DoCoMo, Digiweb, Reliance, Vodafone, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, Tata, BT, Etisalat, Du and similar ones should now focus on a long term growth strategy of acquisition of VAS providers, content management systems and mobile application development on open devices seems obvious. Companies which can help provide Mobile Advertising solutions, Mobile Content delivery or High speed mobile internet are the real companies to look for in future. Companies which can challenge Google in creating a mobile Google checkout to purchase online and start building an online purchase history and complete behavior of browsing and purchase will become very lucrative and growth businesses.

I might be knaive and may not understand the internal dynamics, though, I do see such trends which will bring Telecom network providers to become ISPs and VAS providers and contextual content delivery in various media on a mobile communication device over Internet 4G networks would rule.

*This entry is based on my imagination and analysis and is more of an observant speculation.

Why Mobile Marketing will work in India? – Top Reasons (Statistics and Figures)

Why Mobile Marketing will work in India? – Top Reasons (Statistics and Figures) to notice. India is quick to join the Mobile bandwagon. Some statistics and figures that talk for themselves. A very clear indication on how India is adopting the wireless communication channel. And they say in marketing, FISH where the FISH is (FISH is in the Hands, show the worms on Mobiles). In the recent report from TRAI released on Jan 1 2008, the following are key points to notice:

• Wireless market in India grows by 13% with addition of 24.15 million subscribers in quarter ending September 2007. Meaning – More mobile phone users across India.
• Internet subscribers increased to 9.63 million at the end of September 2007. Meaning -higher proliferation of Internet across India.
• Broadband subscriber base touched 2.67 million at the end of September 2007. People are looking for higher speeds. (More online content and ads)
• The subscriber base for wireless services has increased from 184.92 million in June 2007 to 209.07 million in September 2007, whereas subscriber base of Wireline service has decreased from 40.09 million in June 2007 to 39.58 million in September 2007. -- Clear indication of decreasing wire line usage and proliferation of mobile value added services. (Alarm bells for Mobile Ads Companies and VAS Service Providers and carriers)
  
  Wireless Growth in Rural India
  Rural Wireline subscriber base has decreased from 12.27 million in June 2007 to 11.99 million in September 2007, thus showing a negative growth of 2.28%. The rural wireless subscriber base has increased from 37.40 million for the quarter ending June 2007 to 43.98, registering a growth of 17.59%.
  
  Making sense out of - ARPU
  
• Though the average ARPU declined ~7% at Rs. 275 for the Q3 ending Sep 07, though the overall average ARPU revenue increased as there was an addition of more subscribers.
  
• As well as I see, that Q3 is always the low spending quarter because most of the Big Indian festivals happen in Q4 including the Diwali, Christmas, BhaiDooj and New Year’s spending.

It’s a great opportunity out there to be tapped by the content and service providers and I am very positive that the Mobile Marketing should work in India.

WOW Mobility on Drive - A comprehensive Mobile Car Audio for iPods, FM, MP3 and more...

Now this is what I would call complete Mobility on the Drive!

Parrot Car Audio - A WOW Mobility Device

Parrot, a leader in wireless peripherals around the mobile phone, introduced two new innovative and ground-breaking hands-free cell phone systems — one for drivers of cars and trucks, and the other for motorcyclists.
The Parrot SK4000 is a Bluetooth Stereo (A2DP)-enabled helmet headset for motor-cyclists that features an FM RDS radio and a wireless mobile remote control for the handlebar, while the Parrot RK8200 is a full-featured Made for iPod(R) FM/AM RDS car stereo that has all the connections necessary to play digital and analog music.
Both units offer Parrot’s premium hands-free cell phone capability while providing a long list of benefits for the car driver or motorcyclist - all standard.

Parrot RK8200 new full-Featured Bluetooth Car Stereo
The Parrot RK8200 is a full-featured Made for iPod FM/AM RDS car stereo that has all the connections necessary to play digital and analog music and that also incorporates a Bluetooth(R) hands-free mobile phone kit. Boasting sophisticated cell phone functions, the Parrot RK8200 stands out with powerful performance, a user-friendly design and the broadest set of features available on the market.


“Consumers today enjoy music from many different sources — from iPodsand MP3s, to mobile phones and FM stereo — so our new Parrot RK8200 stereo receiver accommodates every popular source,” says Ed Valdez, president and COO of Parrot, Inc. “It elevates the car stereo to become a multifunctional audio hub for the car while bringing the best combination of music and mobility. Its full range of audio effects will delight the music lover,while the advanced Bluetooth features provide a smart choice for hands-free cell phone usage while driving.”
Powered by a 4 x 45-watt amplifier, the Parrot RK8200 offers an iPod-specific connector, a USB port for flash drives and MP3 players, a line-insocket for analog sources, an SD card reader and streaming audio viaBluetooth A2DP wireless technology. The Parrot RK8200 also sports aninternal memory that can store over 300 MP3 tracks. Hidden behind theremovable faceplate is a handy storage compartment in which to keep aniPod, mobile phone, MP3 player or USB flash drive.
As a car kit, the Parrot RK8200’s capabilities are unsurpassed, bringing the most advanced hands-free functions together in a simple and easy to use interface. It features automatic phonebook synchronization, complete call records, a total storage capacity of 8,000 contacts, and hands-free call functionality through voice recognition and special Parrot voice synthesis (Text-to-Speech) that reads contact names directly to the user.
To ensure crystal-clear conversations, the Parrot RK8200’s dual microphone makes use of echo cancellation and Parrot’s innovative new Dynamic Choice of Best Microphone (DCBM) noise reduction technology. DCBM detects the position of the person speaking and dynamically chooses the best microphone to use.
Like all Parrot car-kits, the Parrot RK8200 is compatible with virtually all Bluetooth mobile phones on the market. The Parrot RK8200 will be available in Europe and the U.S. in the second quarter of 2008. MSRP to be announced.

Web 2.0 Jargon for 2008, New terminology for 2008

2007 2008

Open Api’s --> More open widgets
Widgetization of the Web --> Virtual Worlds
Personalization of the Web --> Enterprise 2.0
The Web is the New Desktop --> Mobile 2.0 and Google Android
Social Networking --> Niche Social Networking
Blogging --> Corporate Blogging
MultiMedia Sharing --> Employee Community -Various media sharing
Behavioural Marketing --> Customer centric targetting

UTV acquires ITNation - Techtree.com, CXOToday.com, Channeltimes.com & Enterpriser.in

UTV, LSE and ISE listed, media major has apparently acquired ITNation which owns Technology major online portals Techtree.com , CXOToday.com, Channeltimes.com & Enterpriser.in .

I see this as one of the 2008's major Media acquisitions further bolstering the 2008 predictions worldwide, of focus moving away from traditional media. And this move clearly shows, how traditional media Big-Wigs are convinced of new media, social media, online portals taking over or atleast fuelling the growth of businesses.

With this acquisition, sooner or later this year, we are bound to see some more similar acquisitions and it's a clear indication that worldwide businesses will have to get geared up to match the competition in 2008.

I do see, how, UTV gets an access to a huge database of highly qualified audience, a large online fan following, a clean carrier to reach athem all and keep their brand leadership and provide more and more relevant content and entertainment through new channels.

A positive move for digital marketeers.

India's First Mobile Phone Ads provider - Future Predictions ALIVE

Indians are hurrying to lead the race in 2008. Grabing that extra share in mobile Marketing Pie, is showing some early signs of rapid footsteps.

An early breakthrough attempt, which needs to sustain itself for atleast couple of years before their balance sheets would post break-evens or profits. With ZestADZ (www.zestadz.com) a pioneer in mobile advertising space in India, announcing that hey will now sell ads on facebook mobile platform allowing facebook developers to integrate mobile ads with their facebook mobile apps.
ZestADZ will be the first mobile ad platform from India to offer such service for Indian mobile developers.

Using this service, facebook mobile developers can monetize their mobile applications by embedding ads from leading advertisers from India. Through this development mobile developers can now tap into the Indian mobile market which currently has more than 200 million users, many of them moving upward using mobile Internet. The facebook India network has hundreds of thousands of users from India and it is expected that just like Orkut, facebook’s popularity will soar in India especially on their mobile sites.

It is evident, both sections of people are extremely optimistic, “Mobile Social Marketing is extremely important space for us to be in and we’re getting started with facebook which is very popular in India”, said Asif Ali, CTO mobile-worx adding that “We hope that this launch enable both advertisers and publishers to capitalize of the phenomenal growth of mobile Internet in India”.

Terry Uppal, President, Mobile-worx said “Advertisers in India will now have the perfect media platform to reach a large target audience on facebook with relevant and contextual ads to generate increase their brand awareness and revenues”.

About ZestADZ
ZestADZ - India's leading mobile advertising marketplace. ZestADZ is a multi-format (WAP, SMS and mobile-video) advertising platform. ZestADZ inserts highly targeted and relevant ads and delivers compelling value to users, publishers and advertisers. ZestADZ embodies the core tenets of Seth Godin’s permission based marketing.
For more information on ZestADZ visit http://www.zestadz.com

About mobile-worx
mobile-worx is a leading provider of mobility solutions with offices in US, India and Malaysia. Mobile-worx has offices in Chennai, Mumbai (Bombay), Los Angeles and Kuala Lumpur.
For more information on mobile-worx, please visit http://www.mobile-worx.com Contact Details: Shereen Begum, mobile-worx, +91 (044) 4257 6183 Or Email

Is there a need for Mobile Information Company, like Alexa.com?

In my previous post on Mobile Devices, I mentioned about Static IP addresses for all mobile, hand held or electronic devices, talking to each other over wireless networks.

So a question crossed my mind, is there a need for Mobile Information companies like Alexa.com (web information company).

Not just that, in today's world, when there are so many email service providers like ExactTarget, VerticalResponse, SubscriberMail, vTrenz, Bronto, Silverpop, Strongmail and many more...we are headed for mobile mail delivery providers as well as mobile content delivery providers.

In Email delivery, one of the key challenge is ensuring the mail doesn't go to the SPAM box, which depends on a lot of things, most importantly the reputation of the service provider. Websites like http://www.senderscore.org/ provide email vendor's reputation with various ISPs and give a score which says how well recepted a specific IP address of a specific vendor is.

With Mobile Marketing Association getting more and more active in recent times, they have now laid down the guidelines for Mobile marketing in various regions. I see a need for a mobile information companies which will be monitoring the Mobile Carriers and Mobile VAS operators for delivering the content on the mobile phones and will give a credibility rating suggesting if the incoming messages are being blocked by a user.

Well, till now call barring is what I am aware of. However, as we go forward, with more and more marketers tending to leverage mobile media for marketing, there need to be some controlling guidelines put into place. Does this gives rise to Mobile Information Company?

Do share your comments about the same...

Will Google Android dictate 2008 mobile strategy? 2008 Mobiles from Nokia, Apple, LG, Samsung, Moto, Sony

2008 would be an interesting year for mobile phones as New Generation Phones with ARTistic and Designer instincts seamessly integrated, with WiMAX, 3G and Software driven phones will be taking over the old rut.

1. Google Android

Surprised? The much rumored G-Phone never materialized, but in its place we were given Google Android, not a physical phone, but an operating system to rival heavyweights like Symbian and Windows Mobile. While many were disappointed not to see a shiny new piece of hardware to go face to face with the iPhone, for true mobile lovers Android represents something just as exciting. Seamless integration with Google’s maps, email, search and countless other applications, and an open source platform for developers to create their own mobile software. There’s even a million dollars worth of prize money for the best creations, as Google look to raise the bar once again. It's clear, Software is driving the hardware now.

2. 3G iPhone

Despite its enormous hype, the iPhone has been underwhelming in its assault on the UK mobile scene. Perhaps people have been put off by the exorbitant price, maybe its the lack of true USPs, either way, it’s fully expected that a second generation iPhone will be with us sooner rather than later, and this one will be equipped with 3G connectivity. It was a big disappointment not to see 3G on the original model, severely undermining the product’s excellent safari browser and touchscreen interface, but a Mk II iPhone should be enough to appease some doubters. The rumoured price drop might swing a few floating voters as well.

3. Nokia 8800 Arte series

The Nokia 8800 series has been one of Nokia’s most successful ranges, comfortably outselling far better equipped phones. Until you get your hands on one its difficult to understand the attraction, but up close it’s a cut above, a fabulously designed and beautifully engineered mobile phone that feels as good to use as it does to look at. The next generation of the series brings us the Nokia 8800 Arte models, and this time there’s a bit of substance behind the style, with a 3 megapixel camera, 3G and 1G of internal memory among other improvements. The Sapphire Arte even boasts a whole sapphire within the d-pad!

4. Samsung Armani phone
Following the arrival of Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Levis and Tag Heuer onto the mobile scene it was surely only a matter of time before Armani followed suit. The Armani phone, designed in partnership with Samsung and also known as the Samsung P520 bears an unmistakable resemblance to the LG Prada phone with its black exterior, square frame and touch-screen interface, but its clearly a classy little number and we can’t wait to get our hands on it

5. Nokia 3110 Evolve

Nokia have been keen to display their green credentials of late, and at the forefront of this comes the Nokia 3110 Evolve, a phone for the environmentally aware. It’s a smart looking phone in silver and black, lightweight and slender, with a 1.4 megapixel camera and EDGE connectivity, but its the materials that have gone into the production of the Evolve that stand it apart from other phones. The casing, dubbed the ‘Bio-cover’ is made from 50% renewable materials, the packaging from 60% recyclable material and Nokia’s most efficient ever charger will make its users glow green with pride!

6. Sony Ericsson W890i
What! Another walkman phone! Surely not. Ok, it might not sound like the most interesting development in the world, but read on, the W890i is sure to turn a few heads. It’s the replacement for the ultra-cool, ultra-thin W880i, and it builds on the success of that handset by adding some mouthwatering features. The W890i is an HSDPA phone and also has a 3 megapixel camera, and is still only 9.9mm thick. Not bad when the iPhone stripped of 3G to shave off a few millimeters!

7. Tag Heuer phone
The Tag phone has been on the cards for a long time now, but an announcement in November suggests a release is imminent. French design house Modelabs are working on the design and the word is that we’ll see a product in the second half of 2008. But is it a watch or it is a phone?!!

8. Samsung F250

The Samsung F250 should be with us in early 2008 and looks like being an impressive addition to Samsung’s already extensive list of stylish slider phones. The F250 has a mirror-finish fascia and a brushed-metal keypad that recalls the Ultra range. The features aren’t outstanding, but it looks like being competitively priced.

9. Sony Ericsson P5i
The Sony Ericsson P5i is at this stage just a rumour, but its a good rumour so deserving of its place in this list! If reports are true then we’re looking at a 5 megapixel camera phone with WiFi, GPS and HSUPA connectivity. Mid 2008 release? Watch this space…

10. Motorola and Nokia WiMax phones
It has long been reported that Motorola and Nokia have targeted 2008 as the year to market their first Wimax phones, handsets that would be able to connect to citywide WiFi networks, and potentially to massively bring down the cost of mobile internet surfing for the average user.

* content help from ... http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/blog/?p=942

What's the Future Series Part 3 - Mobile Devices

Last week, I was sitting with my ex-colleagues from National Instruments when we started discussing where the world is headed to in terms of new business opportunities in IT and Web technologies and more...

Interestingly hand-held, wireless devices and online portals became the key discussion topics. Though, we discussed more about how computing is moving online and how just a TCP/IP enabled platform will become a single standard for information, computing and sales (this was under the light that IPV6 standards will provide over 300 Billion static IP addresses to any mobile, wireless, wired and electronic instruments). This should be enough to take care of the 6 billion population of the world for coming 50 years, I guess.

During this discussion, I was thinking about how our behaviour changes towards technology and I recollected some memories from my college days. There was a time when I presented 2 techhnical papers on M-Commerce and Holographic storage devices. M-Commerce basically mean purchasing things on mobiles and holographic storage means storing Terra Bytes of data on 3D holograms. 7-years back the audience was more amused and intrigued on my papers. Though they might be buying their next movie ticket on mobiles today. Anyways, I am happy that my thinking 7-years back is tied well with reality today.

Now, the Future of marketing, which I see is definitely going to be Marketing through the Mobile Channel or the “Mobile Marketing”. With Blackberry's becoming more and more common and Nokia standardizing its business phone, E-series, with Mobile content management and Mobile Value Added Services companies growing over 200% annually, with email marketing providers thrusting on the mobile friendly content, it's not going to be long when revenue source for companies start showing "through Mobile" as a constant field in their reporting.

Mobile marketing (MM) consists of a unique, complex, mix of technologies, business skills, and marketing expertise. It is a child born of the Internet revolution, and it is critical that today’s marketers grasp its significance. It is one of the first new channels to arise in over 50 years, and will quickly become a primary means of reaching out to our customers.

The reliance on mobile phones is increasing rapidly, and considering the Indian markets which has shown enormous growth, for consumption of these services, it's obvious that some of the world's largest players are investing heavily in India. In fact, there are now more mobile phone subscribers in the world (2.4 billion)*, than there are landline phones subscribers. The mobile phone is becoming a primary means of communication, not only for voice but also for digital services, email, digital photos, navigation, etc. Worldwide over 350 billion text messages, also known as “SMS Messages,” are exchanged across the world’s mobile networks every month, with over 15% of these messages, according to the Yankee Group, being classified as commercial, or marketing, messages.
*GSM Association, http://www.gsmworld.com/

An interesting mobile marketing ecosystem has emerged according to MMA, aptly depicted by the image below:-

The Mobile Marketing Ecosystem is comprised of 4 interconnecting strategic spheres–Product & Services (brands, content owners and marketing agencies), Applications (discrete application providers and mobile ASPs), Connection (aggregators and wireless operators), and Media and Retail (media properties, “brick ‘n’ mortar” and virtual retail stores). Various enablers provide the foundation for each particular sphere. Players within these spheres work in concert to deliver a rich experience to consumers. The Mobile Channel Value Chain is the path by which the actual mobile communication and interactivity takes place between the Product & Services Sphere and mobile subscribers (consumers), however, consumer demand must first be established. To create this demand, products, services, events, and content programs are promoted through the Media and Retail Sphere’s various traditional channels.

An interesting report in 2005, Unfolding of the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem: A Growing Strategic Network, by Micheal Becker, CTO, iLoop Mobile explains this ecosystem very well.

Another interesting thing which you might be thinking of is how these SMS campaigns are managed? How companies like Yellow Pages is able to send instant SMSes to you with the information you requested or how while Voting for your popular candidates on a Indian Idol show gets collected by the marketeers? Or may be how your SMSes for Contests on your favourite FM channel makes you win that hamper? Well this is because of the rise of mobile Value Added Service providers eg. On Mobile, IMIMobile, One97 to name a few in India.

With competition starting to take-off in this category, more and more marketeers will be moving to these channels. Also, these VAS providers would need to gear-up for the futue of customer centric services. They will have to look much ahead of a demand to be created and will have to be Agile enough to get such demands fulfilled even before the customers ask for it. So essentially, the strategy would be to create a Think Tank or Pool of Ideas on proactive basis, to keep differentiating the offerings before the competition does.

A WIDE-OPEN eye along with a keen tap on the market movement, will help them to remain ahead in competition. With companies like Reliance, who would want to have the entire ecosystem under their nose, it would only become more and more challenging for these VAS operators to sustain. With sustenance based on VCs, its always a continuous sword on the head, to overperform and post more and more profits. Though innovation and proactive behaviour might ask for diverging away from profits in certain business quarters. Also, this can even spur another consolidation wave where we can see some more mergers and acquisitions.

Yercaud - A perfect weekend getaway!

In search of weekend getaway? - A certain getaway...

Recently I visited Yercaud. It's a hill station approx 30 kms up-hill from Salem city (known for its steel), in Tamil Nadu, India, in the Servarayan range (anglicized as Shevaroys) of hills in the Eastern Ghats. It is at an altitude of 1,500 metres (4,920 feet) MSL. The town gets its name from the lake located at its center - in Tamil "Yeri" means "lake" and "Kaadu" means "forest". Just a 5 hour (220km) drive from busy Bangalore, Yercaud is a definitive Relaxing retreat!. If you are looking for holidays away from Bangalore, resorts outside Bangalore or resorts away from Bangalore, your next weekend getaway from Bangalore, places to visit near Bangalore, places to visit near Chennai, resorts near Chennai etc, this is a must visit place or the right tourist destination near to Bangalore and Chennai.


It's a perfect tourist destination, just 200 km near Bangalore, for people (like me) who are looking for a calm and relaxing holiday or even if someone is looking for some adventure like trekking (in a forest), rock climbing (near kiliyur falls) etc.

How to reach yercaud from Bangalore?

The journey or route to yercaud is something like this…I left Bangalore at 7.30 Am driving towards Hosur road and reached Yercaud around 1 PM. From Bangalore you take the Hosur road, drive on to Hosur (approx 38 kms). The next destination, Krishnagiri Bypass is approx 86 kms from Bangalore. The highway to Krishnagiri is perfect and you can safely speed up to 120-140 kmph. From Krishnagiri you head straight to Dharmapuri (135 Kms) and then to Omalur (186 kms). At the 4 Lane point you have to take the extreme left and you should reach Salem city. You have to take the extreme left again at the 5 lane junction and that road reaches another circle (on right hand side is a petrol pump) from where you again have to take the left turn. You would then be heading towards the ghat section (hilly area of almost 30 kms). You won’t feel alone with groups of monkeys greeting you on your way. A cautious uphill drive will take you 25-40 mins to reach Yercaud.

The interesting Hair Pin Bends, all 20 of them will check your driving skills and keep you busy going uphill. The villagers are helpful, they will guide you in case you feel lost. The town closes at 6 PM. There is not much activity after 7 PM and it gets dark by then too. So you better plan on reaching before 6 PM and try to check into your hotel.

Where to stay?

Hotel Grand Palace (Orange Resort) in Yercaud is the best hill-top resort in Yercaud. I stayed there for 2 nights and also visited 3 other major resorts in Yercaud to check if the hype surrounding them was justified. Sterling Resort, the most hyped, definitely didnot live upto expectation. It serves the standard south-Indian meal fare for lunch and has far too many stairs to be suitable for anyone not in the best of physical shape. Garange Resort was pretty, close to nature, and relaxing but the food was the same as Sterling., Shevroy's resort had good facilities but was a little commercialized. On comparision Grand Palace hotel/resort was the best.


Grand Palace gave me almost everything I needed. Very well situated on the top of a hill, over looking the city, this place is a scenic grandeur. It hosts a nice restaurant, Yercaud's best Pub (Cloud 9), nice comfortable rooms, party hall and above all a superb location with a view of the valley on one side and the lake and city on the other. A very prompt staff always ready to help and give the best service to the guests, this place offers a variety of good food. A large, sumptuous breakfast in bed is something which will drive you to revisit and enjoy your stay.


Well, WHY would you want to go to a hill station? Prime reason is to get away from the city's busy life...some peaceful place where you can relax, be close to nature and enjoy your time. (at least mine was this)

A short video of the entrance...



Being relatively new, it has a plush, modern feel about it. Overall you will enjoy its eye-soothing beauty, evening bonfire, comfortable rooms and prompt service, apt location (near lake and falls), good food, exciting pub (Cloud 9), plush lawns, grand front entry, relaxing seats at the back peeping into valley, large windows peeping over the lake and city,and much more. I emphasized so much on the hotel because there is not much else to do in Yercaud, than enjoying your stay at the hotel and visiting the few sight seeing spots around town.

Places to go around:

This small town with a population of less than 5000 people (approx) is like a tourist haven. Some places to visit in Yercaud are The Yercaud Lake, Lady's Seat, Gent's Seat, Children's Seat (scenic view points), A rose and horticulture garden, Pagoda Point, perfume factory, Kiliyur Falls, Rajarajeshwari temple, and of course the general beauty of the place is unmistakable. You can visit some of the other resorts and enjoy the soothing massages or a sauna bath they have to offer.

The approach to Kiliyur falls is a little mystery. You have a clear view of the waterfall from the top. However, when you start trekking and go down the steep and rocky path, you will have to do some rock climbing to actually get near to the falls. A little unsafe if you are not a regular trekker. But its as close to nature as your trip to Yercaud can get.

Lucky Husbands and unmarried Men would want to Visit this place.

It’s a husband’s paradise as there are no shopping avenues available. However women always beat men when it comes to shopping, and the lucky ones will not miss the Shevaroy's Supermarket taking care of all your needs.. Shevaroy's also has a children's game parlor which though a little old now, will keep your children occupied and ensure they have an enjoyable time.

Even women too...

Well, women can look forward to staying in bed and getting served breakast, and the soiled plates getting done automatically. You must visit the quaint little shop in Grange resorts with its host of interesting knick-knacks and the few outlets selling perfumes & oils & spices. And your husband would be too busy sleeping, so you can enjoy time-off without him asking to do anything for him.

Ending note...

During my visit I noticed the life of people there was very relaxed, they were happy and healthy. Also the stark absence of traffic and absence of rush, to get to places, to get things done unlike Bangalore or any other large city, left me wondering why are we running so much and for what?

What’s The Future - Series | Part - 2 - PUSH/PULL Marketing is DEAD ? And 4Rs of Marketing

PUSH Marketing is DEAD(?) PULL marketing is Dead too(?)-4Rs of Marketing

According to a recent survey on advertising messages through various media, on an average working day where you travel in the morning to your office, spend a full day in office to the time you go back and sleep after watching your favorite TV channel in the evening, you are most probably going to be targeted by approx. 3000 marketing messages.

Knowingly or not, you get subjected to these messages in forms of Billboards, Radio Jingles, TV ads, Online banners, Emails, etc. These can be friendly, unfriendly, solicited, unsolicited, relevant, irrelevant messages which you would have to go through. Almost all the marketing messages come through well crafted marketing campaigns where a huge amount of time and money is spent.

However, how many of them have the “Engagement Value” perceived for the targeted audience?

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's survey report, of sales and marketing executives worldwide, more than 80% of the executives believe that they lost the sales because they couldn’t engage their prospect enough to get them interested to buy. While it is challenging to engage prospects in the communication process, marketers are using newer techniques on their websites like, videos and rich media to engage their audience. However, the report says 47% of respondents suggested that it’s really difficult to measure how the engagement mechanism affected the purchase behavior, among the gamut of activities in the engagement process.

If it was 1950, it would have been easier to get someone to endorse the product and broadcast the message to everyone. This PUSHing the message technique worked, when people had no clue about their personal choice of “media” and their choice of “time” to access that media. However, this pushing the message across has created the biggest challenge for the marketers of this age where we have to become over cautious to choose:
- 4 Ws of marketing

• what to market?
• whom to market?
• when to market?
• which media to market through?
not only these Ws, but also how often to market.

In today’s world, consumers are essentially the sellers too. People turn to existing customers to influence their own buying behavior. So pushing the message out is completely DEAD. Is that a conclusion? PUSH marketing is really Dead? YES and NO.
YES – You can’t expect the sales through pushing the message out.
NO – You can still expect the sales through pushing the right message out.
NO contd.: - Right message defined – So, now we know, that people are buying based on other consumer’s opinions, so let’s push the other people’s opinion crafted in the manner we want, to the consumer and help them make that buying decision. The right message is the message which has the engagement value, an existing customer’s voice and a perceived need, buying urgency and a definitive benefit in it.

Is pull marketing Dead? - Yes and NO
Yes - When everyone tries to pull the customers/prospects, then you don't know if your pull worked or not.
No - Definitely the pull marketing is the future however, customer centric behviour with the following 4 Rs approach definitely can be a great marketing strategy of Future!

A complete Paradigm Shift
4Ps --> 4 Rs
Dictating --> Listening
Researching --> Understanding through analytics
Push --> Community opinion building
Broadcasting --> Interest based Targeting

Recently I saw a presentation from Matt Langie on 4 Rs of marketing. The basic idea is as follows:

4Ps of marketing – Product, Price, Place, Promotion used to take prospects from the buying cycle moving from Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. However, in today’s world of marketing, consumers are interested in listening to the crowds or their closed group while making a buying decision.

This has lead to the New approach of consumer centric marketing or 4 Rs of marketing - Reveal, Reward, Respect and Retain

1. Reveal – Understand your prospects and customers recent traits and past history to come up with a planned, targeted, focused, need based marketing effort.

Various tactics: -
• Monitoring unique visitors
• Online engagements
o Voting
o Surveys
o Referrals
• Referrals from other websites

2. Reward – While you gather valuable information from customers it’s essential to reward them and keep them engaged to buy more, profess more and keep them delighted.
Various Tactics: -
• Reward the customers to engage them more into your brand.
• Ask for their opinions
• Appreciate them on your online forums
• Give out some special coupons
• Give out something which they are definitely looking out for. etc.

3. Respect – A very well crafted, targeted, engaging campaign over time will build respect for your Brand. This gained respect with customers is something which will help you engage with other prospects.

While you are listening to the consumers, you are hearing what they would like just apart from your products and what values do they stand for. This is something which you can leverage to further engage with audience (customers and prospects) to further enhance the adoption.

4. Retain – Stimulate interactions with products through fun and imaginative extensions of the concept.

The basic idea is keep’em engaged.

HALT.
This brings me to a basic communication concept of networking, keeping the conversation on-going and reaping the benefits over and over again. Will talk more about it later.
CONTINUE…

A 360˚ view of the visitors or interactions:
-Listen – Survey, Onsite search, Website
-Learn – Offline Data + CRM
-Act – Email, Direct mail, Behavioral targeting

Question: How customer profiling with this 360 degree approach helps?
Answer: You can build a profile of a customer with demographics; likings etc and leverage that data for targeted marketing.

Tying it back to the Idea - Give the right information to the right audience at the right time, the way the want it and how often they want it.

To be concluded...