Author

Kanupriya Sindhu

Mobile App Only! Why?

March 24, 2015

Mobile App Only! Why?

Exactly how many apps do you think a consumer can have on her mobile? And how many apps do you think a consumer really needs on a regular basis? Yes, I do understand that amount of data a brand can access if the user has installed its app is phenomenal and that a brand gets to provide more focused experience to users through apps. But are these reasons enough for you to force install your app to consumers? Are those installs sustainable?

So, mobile market is big in India and consumers are downloading apps but if we have to go by US, UK trend, more than 80% of the time spent by consumers on mobile apps is actually only on 5 apps, skewed heavily towards social or messaging apps. Agreed, it’s not Indian data but still I’m sure this figure of 5 apps can’t be 25 in India and the consumer affinity towards apps like Whatsapp or Facebook can’t be ignored even in Indian market.

A recent incident to share — I have 3 taxi apps installed on my phone. At a peak time, none of the taxis were available with either of these 3 service providers. Tried to browse the website of another cab service and instead of allowing to browse on mobile site, it insisted me to download the app to proceed further. To add to that, my prior experience with the service provider hadn’t been that good — neither product experience with their web interface, nor service experience through their drivers. And then this force install of the app irked me a lot. Basics not in place but this urge to be technologically cooler? Finally didn’t install their app and got a taxi within few minutes from one of those already installed apps. Not only this service provider lost one potential lead (I might have actually booked the taxi in urgency on their mobile site, if that app install wouldn’t have been forced on me), it also ensured that even in case of emergency, I perhaps will avoid their site as much as possible.

Similar incident with one of my favorite e-commerce fashion brand that I used to love a lot. It was my default go-to option for any apparel purchase and it truly offered a very good experience on browsers like safari or chrome on my tab. But a recent move has changed it to again app only product on mobile. This site has an amazing presence in search engine but now for all my clicks through mobile search browsing, it’s forcing me to download the app. For this brand, I had installed the app earlier but later on uninstalled it, as I realized that while I could use the app to browse stuffs but I wasn’t able to make a final purchase decision till I saw those products on a bigger screen. Maybe it’s just me but then for purchase like clothing, pictures matter and bigger screen helps. I still prefer their web interface over app.

This post is more of a rant as a consumer but even if I put my product or marketing hat on, I still do not believe in this new trend of forcing users to install the app for anything and everything. It’s a fact — a consumer can’t have all the apps on his device and not all brands need to build an app and make it mandatory to install it.

In case of services like taxi, I can still understand the logic of app usage based on my current location but then how many apps do you think I will keep on my phone for just booking a taxi? Do I really need to have 10 apps for same service on my mobile device? And if I allow multiple apps for multiple services that I use, then how do you think my experience with my mobile device would be?

I can still understand the logic of mobile only but why this drive to be app only?

I can still understand the logic of app only for some services but why an app for everything?

What as a consumer am I going to get by installing your app? And let’s discuss beyond one time discounts. We all know it’s not sustainable, neither for you as a company, nor for me as a consumer. If that’s your only differentiator, then you’re slowly building a habit in me to always expect discounts if I am buying through your app.

So, what instigates my app download behavior? More on that in my next post soon!

But for now, I’m wondering is it just me confused with this new app-only fetish? Am I missing out on something big? Will wait and watch and will surely download your app if you’re offering me something unique and something better on that app. But won’t download it just because you thought that an app is the coolest thing to add to your product portfolio and you’ve invested heavily in building that app.

Political Advertising in India 2014 – Worth it?

May 5, 2014

Did I just hear that this year the estimated spend on political campaigns in India is $5 billion? $5 billion? That’s like 30,000 crores in INR! $5 billion? That’s just $2 billion short of what they spent in last presidential election in US! $5 billion? That’s way beyond the permissible spend-limit on election campaigns in India. And from where did all this money come from? Curious, like really! But let’s leave it at that. There has to be something because of which everybody is discussing the campaign, the new age strategies, the messaging, the spend but not the real source of spend :). Partly we know the reasons of it, don’t we?

Now coming down to the campaign this year – I think it’s been phenomenal, be it the massive scale at which it has been managed or the diversity in messaging and medium that has been tried out. At least there has been an attempt of targeting different types of audience with different communication strategies this year. Hats off to the agencies and associates involved with these campaigns. As a marketer, I think this year’s campaign was noticeable and impactful and BIG!

But as a consumer? Well, I’m sure we have read this hundred times before – “No amount of good advertising can actually save a bad product”! And how relevant this seems for political advertising in India this year? Every time I see the ads like this or this on TV, I cringe. Neither the creative route is wrong, nor it has got to do with my being pro or anti any party. It’s simply the messaging, the commitment or the positioning that these ads are trying to make – those are false, just so blatantly false. And the leaders who are the faces of these ads just do not have any connect with the messages being communicated. The more I see these ads, the more irritated I get. Not to forget the bombardment that happens on radio, hoardings & digital media. Again reminds me of yet another famous saying in marketing world – “Nothing kills a bad product or service faster than good advertising”. These ads at least to me are just reminders of false promises by these political brands.

And then there are videos like these on women safety that has been doing rounds on social media. I’m sure it can’t be the work of formal advertising agency associated with that party but whosoever has done it, it’s such a trash. This is not just one video, I have also seen official videos speaking of women empowerment or safety in India. After all the incidents that has happened in last few years as gang rapes, molestation, rapes of minors, this is such a sensitive subject that perhaps should not have been used in any campaign. It’s not one or other party but we know that this is one issue that many parties have failed to fulfill their promises multiple times and at multiple levels. The consequences of such false commitments are so huge, then why even dare to bring these in your campaigns?

When the core itself is not in place, when there is a lack of trust in the prime product promoted, when the product has failed many times on its own commitments in past, then do you think any advertising can actually save such product? Yes, I know campaigns are required but did it change your perception?

Would love to know your views on Political Advertising in India for Elections this year. Liked it? Believed in it? Worth it?

As for me, how I wish that after every such political commercial on Television, we the viewers would have got to view this “No Ullu Banaoing” campaign by IDEA! Good sequencing, what say readers :)? And on that note, must say that love these IDEA ads and I think these IDEA ads are surely the highlights of Junior Bachchan’s career more than any of his movies.

*And a post on this blog after more than one and half years. Must thank political campaigns that finally compelled me to write here after this long gap 🙂

Buying Facebook Likes? Paying for positive reviews? Purchasing Twitter Followers?

September 26, 2012

Just few days back I had tweeted about my declining interest in some of my favorite blogs. Reason? Posts on those blogs now are obvious enough to make out that they are paid and not the real ones. And yesterday I got to read this report, which states that paid reviews are gaining momentum as social media marketing trend.

As per this recent report by Gartner, by 2014 between 10% and 15% of all ratings and reviews on social networking sites will be fake or paid ones as against the current percentage of 1% to 2%. Due to increased consumer reliance on social media sites, companies are now spending more in order to get attention and build positive content on these channels.

“With over half of the Internet’s population on social networks, organizations are scrambling for new ways to build bigger follower bases, generate more hits on videos, garner more positive reviews than their competitors and solicit ‘likes’ on their Facebook pages,” said Jenny Sussin, senior research analyst at Gartner. “Many marketers have turned to paying for positive reviews with cash, coupons and promotions including additional hits on YouTube videos in order to pique site visitors’ interests in the hope of increasing sales, customer loyalty and customer advocacy through social media ‘word of mouth’ campaigns.”

The report also predicts that with the percentage of false social networking reviews increasing, chances of backlash will be more both in terms of media attention and Federal Trade Commission lawsuits. You can read the summary of the report here.

Fake reviews and paid likes? Considering the consumer presence and engagement with social sites it had to happen but my question is why? If you ask me, I still have not come across even a single such sensibly executed paid campaign that I can accept or appreciate either as a consumer or as a marketer. “Like us on Facebook and win prizes”, “Follow us on Twitter and get discount” – digital medium is flooded with such offers and promotions these days.

Offers and promotions to attract relevant audience are still understandable as once they are associated with your brand you can try to engage them in interesting ways but buying out random followers and likes just to project a huge fan following? OK, you bought likes, have a huge fan following on Facebook and large follower base on Twitter, then what? Are they reading your communication? Are they engaged with your brand? Are they interacting with you on these channels? In most of these cases, answer is no. Then what business objective is getting served with these randomly bought followers? Even for paid content, positive posts written with a balanced approach may help to boost your image to some extent but then if it is not backed up with product / service fulfillment then what? Your same post gets backfired with numerous negative comments and ratings. And this I’m speaking of “smart” paid content, let’s not even discuss the ones written in a way that self advertise those posts being fakes and not real ones loud and clear.

These gimmicks (or shall I call them modern day internet scam) may help you achieve your short-term goals but in the long run? Well, I have no idea! Not only these can lead to loss of brand credibility but can backfire as well in an uncontrolled negative way. To add to that, it would also impact the core essence of social media being i.e., engagement and interaction! So, what do you think of these campaigns? Do you think social media will also meet the same fate as email or sms marketing? Can you make out the difference between real and paid content? Have you liked any page for any incentive and if yes, did you unlike the page once you were incentivized? Would love to hear your views on these.

Social Media ‘Experts’! Really?

July 9, 2012

I had thought to write a post on this earlier too but for some or other reason never wrote one. But my last few interactions at different occasions made me think about this term Social Media “Experts” yet again. “Experts” and that too with 6-7 years of experience in Social Media! Like really? Every time I hear this term, I feel exactly same as when I hear about being Startup “Gurus” from the mouths of those who have never run or worked in a startup even once.

Was interacting with this one such so-called expert who is supposedly consulting many startups on marketing and social media strategies. Well, in the name of expertise all that he had to offer was ideas to increase “likes” on Facebook pages. To add to that, one of his ‘killer’ strategies for low cost marketing was make ‘viral’ films for clients. If I have to quote verbatim – “we make viral films for clients which will increase their fans on their Facebook pages”. Felt like telling – dude, being an expert the least you could have done is avoided using jargons like “make viral films”. I have no idea what does that really mean? I think you can only make films and expect it to go viral, how exactly can you “make a viral film” directly? Needless to mention that at least I have not come across any of the viral films made by them naturally on my FB or Twitter timeline.

Attended a small meet on flexi-working culture in India last weekend, intro round of marketing professionals and here it was – 7 out of 10 participants were “Social Media Experts”! Did a quick check, one of them was somewhat active on twitter, two had less than 200 followers and remaining four were not even present on twitter. While interacting with them, realized that either they never felt the need to join Twitter or they joined but didn’t find it to be interesting enough to pursue. Yes, they all knew Facebook and Twitter but that was all about it! Few likes on whatever and few tweets on whatever gave them sufficient confidence to call themselves as “Social Media Experts”.

In yet another incident, a close acquaintance who has joined a luxury travel company in India in a senior position needed some inputs on his products and marketing. I got to analyze the product and past campaigns of the company and to my utmost surprise the company whose founders are based of India had actually spent lakhs and lakhs of rupees in online campaigns every month. The campaign was run by some digital marketing expert and in the name of online campaign, all that he did was Google SEM. In that too, client has been charged on cost per lead basis with an explanation that Google charges it like that and with rates as high as… well no idea for reference point as in my experience I have never heard of such high lead rates ever! Don’t even want to go into details of campaign management rather mismanagement, as I think it has the potential to become an independent case study on what not to do in SEM campaigns. To just give you a sneak peak – neither the campaign was configured anywhere in analytics nor the campaign code was enabled on landing or any other page for tracking! And this was of course done by yet another “expert”, yes his Linkedin profile does contain the word expert prominently :-).

Not that the misuse of this term is anything new to us but I think with each passing day, there is a noticeable growth in the number of these so called experts around us. Having managed social media accounts for companies where I have worked and few other brands, I think I can share at least my views on evaluating any candidate for social media management in general. Well this post is long enough for now, I will be back with my thoughts in a subsequent post soon.

Calling all Women Entrepreneurs

June 7, 2012

This post is especially for women readers of my blog. Women’s Web team is conducting a survey on ‘Women and Entrepreneurship’ in India. The result of this survey would be shared freely on their website. The team feels that with more women in India starting businesses than ever before, it’s a good time to understand what are the factors challenging women as entrepreneurs, and what they need to succeed. This study will be useful to existing / aspiring women entrepreneurs, advisors and or anybody who works with entrepreneurs.

So, can I request all my women readers who are running their own businesses to take out few minutes of their busy schedules and respond to their survey here? The more the participation, the better the analysis. So, please support by responding to the survey as well as spreading the word. Thanks!

Quick Bytes: I’m back and with a ‘bharat bandh special offer’ :-)

June 1, 2012

I’m back and this time after a really looooong break from this blog. Phew five months into Mommydom already and it seems just like yesterday. Oh yes, in case you don’t know, then let me announce it here as well that I’m actually Mommy Kanupriya now :-). It’s my new phase of life that has been keeping me busy and away from many things including my love for blogging. But I ain’t complaining. Like most new moms say, this phase of life is indeed the most special one, something which I can’t put in words ever and all the changes or adjustments are actually worth it. With things settling down a bit, I’m now looking forward to revive this blog again. Though have been somewhat active on my personal blog but was not able to manage sufficient time at a stretch to concentrate and write any post suitable for Marketing Chit-Chat.

Thanks to those who dropped me an email asking about my whereabouts and reasons for this blog being inactive. I have lot to share and lot to learn from all of you, so look forward to posts and comments exchange once again in this space. For today just a “Quick Byte” – how many of you received this email from Indiaplaza today?

Image

I did and for a moment I couldn’t believe it. “Bharat Bandh Special Offer” – are you serious? In the name of this Bandh, while some were busy burning buses and some ranting about it on social media, here came a gem of a communication from a brand like Indiaplaza from whom I didn’t expect something like this. I mean what was that – a #WTH, a #Facepalm or a #Fail? Well, looks like the email communication guys seriously misunderstood the holiday on account of bandh to be a festival special holiday :-P, otherwise why on earth would you announce an offer especially for Bharat Bandh? You know as I always say a prompt “chance pe dance” marketing is smart but then you better know when and how to capitalize on the chance rightly. After seeing this I think even offers in name of potato/tomato days would have been ok but a bandh special promotion? What do you think?

RA.One Marketing: Was definitely needed but how much?

November 18, 2011

Just watched another program bashing up Ra.One marketing campaign and how the film has been a dud till now despite a very well planned campaign. Well, first of all I have not watched the movie till now, so I wont be the right person to comment on the actual content of the movie. I’m aware of the basic theme, the marketing campaigns, supposedly the superior effects, technological edge, the characters and songs of the movie. But beyond that no comments on whether it’s good or bad.

Possibly one of the longest marketing campaigns in the history of Indian movie marketing spanning over a period of approx 10 months & with a lavish budget of Rs. 40 crores, Ra.One had indeed one of the most discussed maniac marketing campaigns ever. From global tours, to graphic novels, to digital marketing, to brand alliances, to presence on reality shows, to innovative merchandises, to physical toys, to digital games for ipods / ipads, to youtube channel, to google plus pages… phew and yes, before I forget, to even have Akon for Chammak Challo and Lady Gaga for the premier… I mean you name it and the movie had got it. Yes, I agree the marketing campaign for Ra.One was nothing less than an attack on your senses! Words like overdrive or aggressive promotion would be understatement for a campaign of that magnitude.

But I still do not understand why link up a promotion campaign with the average or failed performance of the movie. Since when a good marketing has actually made a bad product successful in the market? Can’t recall even one case study where a crap product has been a hit because of strong marketing. Despite, all the criticism on the marketing strategies and the need for it, I for one at least think that a movie like Ra.One needed the promotion push in the market. Here’s why:

  • Content: The movie tries to venture into a different zone, the sci-fi genre that is still primarily untouched by many in Indian film industry. A third of the film’s budget has gone into special effects and Ra.One boasts of some 3,500 VFX shots in the entire movie. Considering the digital bang and effort which has gone into creating this kind of content, it does make sense to me to back it up with relevant marketing and engagement tools like digital games, innovative merchandises and graphic novels etc. Two of my movie buff friends actually commented – “when it comes to special effects, the movie has been made marvelously well. Whatever said and done, the movie has set up a benchmark and standard for others to match up to in Indian Film Industry.”

  • Character: It’s not a general Bollywood flick with a pre-decided story line. This movie is all about an Indian super hero and that too a new brand. More than the movie, a character G.One had to be introduced, defined and established in the minds of the TG. A brand different from legendaries like Spiderman or Superman of this world. Now whenever there has been a need of such introduction, promotion has to be done. Take the case of any famous Hollywood flick and you’ll see a trend.

  • Target Audience: Apart from regular SRK fan base, the movie was also targeted towards kids and anything around kids these days has to be marketed with that special imagery or the zing factor to grab their attention. In fact if we speak of the TG, it was sort of a shift from that typical SRK imagery where instead of wooing the women audience or presenting a family melodrama, it was the first time when he has tried to entertain kids primarily. And trust me I have met three kids in last one week who actually liked the movie, loved the character of G.One and merchandises of Ra.One.

Considering the attempt at a different kind of content, need to establish a brand in form of a character and an attempt to target a completely different set of audience, I think this movie needed the marketing buzz for sure. Now, whether a budget as huge as this was needed or promotion as aggressive as this was required is something really debatable. In my views, its yet another classical case of “how much is too much” and “create the hype only if you have the potential to sustain it” with which the campaign needs to be reviewed or evaluated and not with a direct correlation or one-to-one relationship solely between marketing efforts and product performance.

P.S: Despite all the criticism, I think I do want to catch up on this movie sometime for sure 🙂 and if at all my views change after watching this movie, I will update the post again.

100 million & counting: Internet users in India

November 10, 2011

It has happened. India crosses the 100 Mn Internet users mark this September. As per the latest report from IAMAI, there are 112 Mn claimed Internet users as on September 2011, out of which 88 million users belong to urban cities and 24 Mn to rural areas. Compared to last year, there has been a growth of around 13% and by December 2011 it is expected that there will be 121 Mn claimed Internet users.

Few other key insights from the report:

  • Usage from home has increased whereas common access points like cyber café usage seem to be on decline as compared to previous years. Around 37 percent of users access the Internet from home, 23 percent from cyber cafes, 22 percent from office, 9 percent from mobile devices and rest from schools and other such places.

  • Internet usage in smaller towns continues to spike its dominance over top 8 metros with a combined usage of more than 60 percent.

  • Youngsters in India continue to drive Internet Usage in India and usage of school going kids has seen a substantial rise. This opens up the market for children aged below 18 year of age.

  • While the usage by both college going kids and young men have taken a slight dip compared to 2009, school going kids have started using internet more than they’ve ever had in the past decade owing to the now existent e-learning services and educational information available on the Internet.

  • Emails, Education, Social Networking, Music and Text chatting are the most popular activities amongst Urban Internet users whereas in Rural areas accessing music, videos, photos and general information search are the activities of prime usage.

So, users and usages have increased. What next for India Online? More e-commerce companies? Better e-learning services? Increased market for smart-phones and tablets? Growth in Mobile Internet Industry? Well, maybe all of these. Indeed a landmark figure has been reached, now interesting to see how it impacts the overall state of Indian Internet Industry and its position in Global competitive landscape.

Source: Report on Internet in India (I-Cube) 2011.

E-commerce in India: From convenience to choice

April 29, 2011

And this time I was not surprised when this friend of mine from a far remote corner of the country informed me that her recent purchase was actually an original off the runway dress straight from a leading fashion event. By now I know that like many, even she is hooked on to a popular luxury e-commerce Indian site which not only gives her the chance to access the latest in fashion but has also made it absolutely simple for her to buy anything of her taste in just few clicks. This friend who had to relocate to a small town due to personal reasons always used to crib about lack of branded or in-vogue things at her place but since the day I had introduced her to few established e-commerce sites in India there has been absolutely no looking back. From books to apparel to accessories, she has tried it all and is thrilled at the way e-shopping has transformed her shopping experience. Not only is she herself convinced about it, she has also got few friends and colleagues of hers to log on to these sites and order stuffs which are not available in their vicinity.

As a consumer, her online buying behavior has moved on an up curve with time, she started with items like books where the chances of product damage during transit were less plus the purchase value was small. With positive experiences by one e-retailer and one courier company, she slowly started to order high value items from different sites and now is completely convinced about the benefits of e-commerce and reliability of online transaction in India. Yes, consumers like hers are not the majority and there are many who are still wary of transacting online but then the fact that she is ordering so many high value items from such remote corner is definitely some indicator.  In yet another similar incidence, there is this acquaintance of mine who is in a habit of changing his mobile phone every few months. During his last purchase, he managed to get a model of HTC delivered at his door far before than I could have bought it. He had pre booked it online from yet another popular Indian e-commerce site!

Isn’t it interesting to see such trends happening in India now? While for people like us e-commerce is not something new and by now we are quite habituated of transacting online but then the majority of Indian consumers still live in tier 2 and tier 3 cities who have enough reasons to not shop online, be it internet connectivity or lack of awareness in terms of using their cards online. While for us, convenience or price differentiation triggers our online behavior, for them it is the choice and availability of products.

Though not hugely upbeat, but there are enough statistics now which is directing towards the change in online buying behavior of Indians beyond metros. As per last e-commerce census by Ebay, 3,296 Indian cities shopped online in 2010 and of this, 2234 were Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities. Founder of naaptol.com, a best deal marketplace site says that 90% of his business comes from rural India. The company advertises its deals across product categories in newspapers and customers in the rural market are placing orders—not at the click of a mouse but by punching in the contact number given in the ads. As per the March 2011 data for online banking in India, 48% of users are from metros and 52% come in from non-metros, while last year the data was different with 57% from metro & 43% from non-metros. Yet another e-commerce site Letsbuy.com has sold LED TVs of as high value as Rs. 1 lakh and above in tier 2 and 3 towns where the product is not available through normal retailers.

From necessities like ticketing and banking to luxuries like fashion apparel and high end gadgets, consumers from different parts of the country are logging in and trying to buy these online. Not only the list of products being bought has expanded, even the ticket size of online transactions has increased now. There is need for convenience, an aspiration for luxury products and money to spend; lacking was the avenue to access such stuffs in remote towns which gets fulfilled by many big and reliable web shops now. The behavior is definitely changing but is it significant enough for all these e-commerce players to have a sustainable business model? Yet to see how many become revenue wise successful in long run, though few online players have already created a difference and made that impact!

*In case you would like to read the ebay e-commerce census of last year, you can download the same from here.