Another post related to Nasscom Product Conclave 2010 . And this one is highly influenced by the talk by Ajay Sharma from Shrishti Soft. I attended a session on “Products going global” , on how Indian products are slowly breaking the myth surrounding the “lack of proven Indian strength in the product space”. The panel spoke about their personal experiences and their perspective on why the Western world still sees us primary as a “services” leader ( that is slowly changing now ). One aspect brought out by Ajay from Shristi was the “Jugaad” culture imbibed in the Indian DNA.

Funny because today I found myself doing the same. My son suddenly woke up at 3:45am and told me “amma – I have to dress up like a tree for fancy dress today”. He promptly dozed off, leaving me in a frenzy. So, there I was, at 4am fumbling with scissors, fevicol, glitter, and green chart paper trying to create something with the semblance of a tree. I managed to get him dressed up in green and brown , ready to board the bus by 7:30 am – jugaad at its parental best !

Needless to say, this happens in every office in India – and it works. What Ajay said was that when we go global, we need to bear in mind that the cultural ethos in the Western world doesn’t care much for this. I would go one step further and say that no customer anywhere in the world, would buy a product from you, if he/she is made to believe that “we don’t have it ready right now, but we’ll scramble and manage to get it up and running tomorrow”. The bottom line is that you need to convey to your customer that you have everything under control – careful planning and strategizing is needed.

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With that jarring title, I hope to have caught your eye !! Coming fresh from a “Catching a billion eyeballs on a shoestring budget” session by the outspoken Sridhar Vembu of Zoho , I decided to at least ensure Prayag BlogPost gets its share of “eyeballs”…

There were a number of takeaways from the conclave – but the one which stood out for me was the massive number of aspiring entrepreneurs who turned up with innovative products to sell ! There are around 40 million SMEs in India – so , as an upcoming product guy, the one thing you need to bear in mind is the value-add you are bringing to your customer. To quote Sashi Kapoor from Deewar – the question he asks Amitabh Bachchan is “Mere paas sab kuch hai, Tere paas kya hai??” ( I have everything, what do you have ?) If you don’t have the answer to this, you had better trace back your steps !

Of the 40 million, they say that the potential addressable market for cloud or Saas based business solutions is  around 8 million. 3 lessons for you to target this market :

1. Understand your market ( do your market research and surveys – and stay focussed on marketing at every stage )
2. Understand your customer ( you cannot assume that you know what they want – take care not to fall into the chasm of building opinionated products – your opinion could be wrong )
3. Know your value add – don’t “cloud-enable” your application just because it sounds tech-savvy – understand how the cloud solution will help your customer

Another important point is to get people talking/reading about you – but remember “not all eyeballs are the same” . One would rather have 10000 people reading your blogpost, out of which 5000 are going to buy, as compared to 1million hits on your blog site, with no conversion happening.

So, remember – there are millions out there trying to outsmart you – so, differentiate or die !!!!

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Responsible advertising is a common enough point of discussion in the world of marketing. However, marketing responsibility has rarely ever been discussed. Take, for example, the Mahindra Stallio advertisement that is currently making the rounds.

It makes quite a production of responsibility and social responsibility in particular. Amir Khan is shown sitting on a Mahindra Stallio and being taunted by ‘peers’ to ‘race with the wind’, perform circus tricks with his bike like riding only on the rear wheel and the like. He refuses to take part in these childish and silly gymnastics and even shows them for what they are, silly and stupid. As he rides into the horizon, a voice over says something to the effect of “In order to get ahead in life, there is no need to leave life behind. After all, the fun of life is in the living.” And at the end Amir Khan assures his audience that whatever he did in the advertisement can be replicated at home, in stark contrast to other two-wheeler ads that usually have the disclaimer ” These stunts should not be tried at home”.

Did that catch you unawares? It did me!

This is not only responsible marketing; it is actually marketing the idea of being responsible. In an environment where speeding and doing unthinkable, life-threatening gimmicks have been predominant messages in the marketing of bikes, this comes as not only a pleasant but also a mature surprise.

But the question that begs to be asked -is it not meant for young people? By marketing responsibility, is Mahindra Stallio targeting the ‘more responsible’ middle aged market?  I don’t think so. For one, using Amir Khan itself makes the product sound ‘cool’ enough for the young. Secondly, the assumption that the young are foolishly risk-taking is, perhaps, just that, an assumption. Perhaps it is time to bomb that idea to the middle ages, and this advertisement is doing just that.

Hopefully, this marks the beginning of trends, both responsible advertising as well as marketing responsibility.

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Webwatch 2010 is out! Check out – http://www.prayag.com/webwatch2010.html.  And the big news this year is the significant increase in the use of social marketing tools compared to 2009. Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Facebook and Twitter have truly arrived!

This year, the study examined the corporate websites of 70 companies.  Both Indian companies and MNCs based out of India were under review. Since both kinds compete with each other in the same market, it was determined appropriate to judge them on an equal footing. The companies that were reviewed were divided into four broad categories vis-à-vis IT Services, IT Products, BPOs and Niche companies. IT Services companies are those that derive revenues from a variety of horizontal and vertical sources. IT Product companies are those that derive most of their revenue from software products. Niche companies are those that target one specific vertical or horizontal. BPO companies are those that derive most of their revenues from BPO services. The websites were judged on the following parameters, navigation, content, design aesthetics, SEO and Web 2.0.

The study revealed that there was a significant increase in the use of breadcrumb trails and dynamic menus, both of which contribute towards greater flexibility. The IBM site is a clear example of flexible navigation. Moreover, BPO companies recorded a rise in the use of contextual navigation links that facilitate going deeper into the website. There has been an overall increase in the use of the Search option across the industry.  However, only 30% of the companies surveyed are using the Advance Search function. While there has been increase in personalization of sites in the IT services sector, differences were marginal across the other categories with the BPO sector recording no change from last year and the IT products sector actually seeing a decline in personalization. About 70% of the companies surveyed encouraged visitors to interact with them through the website, something that requires urgent attention for the rest.

In terms of content, the overall data shows a slight dip from last year in the use of white papers and case studies to support content. While a dip in the use of diagrams across board has been observed, BPOs and Niche companies continue to use charts and diagrams to substantiate their content. Most of the companies projected a global outlook and style, thus catering to a global audience. However, there was a real dearth of information for prospective employees and wherever there was a career section it could have been enhanced with features like employee testimonials.

In terms of design, noteworthy websites included, CISCO for its vibrant media, GlobalLogic for its value proposition on the very first page of the website, IBM for a balanced combination of flash and text placement, Logica for the appropriate use of images to project an organized appearance, Wipro for conveying simplicity without compromising on information, and Accenture for its eye-catching visuals and apt taglines. Infosys shows how to make every section interesting even those that are usually sidelined on most homepages.

Although Blogs are fast catching on, Communities continue to be a novelty. Of course, the use of social media for marketing receives a thumbs-up this year.

Stay tuned to the release of the WebWatch 2010 report early next week.

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We all know this. Hence choice of the right visuals is an important aspect in creating high impact marketing communication. This is however easier said than done.

We come across numerous websites where the pictures are so staid and predictable- chess pieces for strategy, hand shake for relationship or a picture of a group of men and women in business suits as a catch all! I think if we applied our minds, we can do a lot better.

On a related note, I recently drove past a More super market in a small town in Kerala. I was surprised to find that More had penetrated into such parts, but a little dismayed at their branding approach. The facade of the building had this huge poster of rich red strawberries ( which the local population would have no clue about!). It is not surprising that the supermarket hardly attracts a crowd. People may think that what is in the shop is not for them!

It will be great to get views from others on this.

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I had recently started a discussion in one of the marketing forums I’m part of and the topic was - How can we ensure that our message reaches the right audience and creates the right connect?  This post got some good responses and two key takeaways that emerged were -

a. be genuine and honest about what you are communcating

b. Try and understand your audience before generating content – listen more to your customers/prospects

On understanding the audience part, there was an interesting view on using online surveys to judge what your audience responded better to. FOr example, they were treated to a random mix of statements combining features, benefits etc. Based on an analysis of  how people responded to these statements, it is possible to get a better idea of what to convey through your communication. Using this method, marketers can segment their audience and target relevant messages to them. I thought this was a different approach and will definitely work well in a B2C context. In B2B contexts, at Prayag, we do something similar by talking to a cross-section of stakeholders – customers, field force, management, analysts, competition etc to get insights into what the market is looking for and hence what may work.  At the end of it, we need to communicate in a way that resonates with your target audience. WHat is your view?

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