Marketing is done only by Marketing team. True or False ??

You guys sell moon & stars to the customer & we have to suffer” shouted Rachael who was heading Customer Service Department in XYZ corporation. I am sure we all have heard these words in our professional life as we all have arguments with other departments. Arguments take place because there is conflict of interest within organization. Marketing department’s interest is to get revenue, Customer Service Delivery interest is to minimize customer issues, Sales is in different world of number fancy, and technology team doesn’t want to touch its core systems. So issue here is everyone want to do best in their roles and no one thinks about end consumer/profitability. Only people in marketing and finance will discuss profitability because profitability is key component of their role. So discussions in the organization are role driven rather than holistic view of organization profits.

Let’s discuss marketing in detail. Do you think Marketing in organization is done only by marketing department? Answer is no its not. Marketing affects every aspect of the customer experience, meaning marketers must properly manage all possible touch points – customer relationship centre, package designs, product functions, employee training, shipping and logistics methods. Marketing must also be involved in key general management activities, such as product innovation and new business development. To create a strong marketing organization, marketers must think like executives in other department and executives in other department must think more like marketers. CMO and later CEO of Walmart.com, carter cast noted that what surprised him most when he became CMO was that “ I would interact so much with function outside of marketing. I didn’t realize it is holistic assignment. Then I realized I really had to understand things like product supply, cost break even and accounting”.

Marketing department is established in any organization to create and deliver customer value but according to late David Packard of Hewlett-Packard observed “ Marketing is far too important to leave to the marketing department”. Every employee of an organization has an impact on customer and must see customer as source of the company’s prosperity. Every company should emphasize on interdepartmental teamwork to manage key processes. Companies are placing more emphasis on the smooth management of core business processes such as new product realization, customer acquisition and retention and order fulfillment.

In practice marketing follows a logical process. The marketing planning process consists of analyzing marketing opportunities, selecting target markets, designing marketing strategies, developing marketing programs and managing marketing efforts. In highly competitive marketplaces, however marketing planning is more fluid and is continually refreshed. Companies must always be moving forward with marketing programs, innovative products and services, staying in touch with customer needs and seeking new advantages rather than relying on past strengths.

The changing new marketing environment is putting considerable pressure on marketing executives. Marketers must have diverse qualitative and quantitative skills, an entrepreneurial attitude, and keen understanding of how marketing can create value within their organization. They must work in harmony with the sales function.

There are five key functions of CMO in leading marketing within organization.

1. Strengthening the brands

2. Measuring marketing effectiveness

3. Driving new product development based on customer needs

4. Gathering meaningful customer insights

5. Utilizing new marketing technology

Harvard’s John Quelch and Gail McGovern note that there is tremendous variability in the responsibilities and job descriptions of CMO’s. They offer eight ways to improve CMO success.

• Make the mission and responsibility clear : Be certain that the case for having CMO is strong and mission is well understood by leaders in the organization, particularly the CEO, the board, the line management. Without a clear need(real or perceived) the role will be rejected by the organization.

• Fit the role to the marketing culture and structure : Avoid having CMO in marketing – led company that has many individual brands rather than single corporate umbrella – unless the person appointed to the position is well connected insider.

• Choose a CMO who is compatible with the CEO : Beware of the CEO who wants to hire CMO but doesn’t want to relinquish any marketing control. Find a CEO who recognizes his/her responsibility to be the cheerleader for marketing and the brand but realizes need to be guided and coached by a marketing specialist.

• Remember that show people don’t succeed : The CMO should work hard to ensure that CEO is successful at being the principal cheerleader for the brand.

• Match the personality with CMO type : Be certain that chief marketer has right skills and personality for whichever of the three CMO model he or she might fill( VP of marketing servies, classical CMO, Super CMO). There is little tolerance for on the job training.

• Make Line Managers marketing heroes : By stretching their marketing budgets, CMO’s can improve a divisions marketing productivity and help business unit leaders increase their top line revenues.

• Infiltrate the line organization : Have the CMO support the placement of marketing professionals from corporate marketing department into divisional marketing roles. Provide input from CMO into annual reviews of line marketers.

• Require right brain and left brain skills : The most successful CMO will have strong creative and technical marketing expertise, be politically savvy, and have the interpersonal skills to be a great leader and manager.

I was reading Kotler and I found above points very informative so thought of sharing with you all.

"A gossip is one who talks to you about others; a bore is one who talks to you about himself; and a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about yourself”…. 

Reference: CMO qualities  - Kotler marketing Management Pg 14

Consumer behavior of Rural India

• IAS = Rs.10 million
• IFS, IPS = Rs.8 million
• Other Gazetted officer = Rs. 4 million
• Non Gazetted officer = Rs.1million
• Pvt. Job Manager and above ( college brand doesn't matter) = Rs.0.5 million

You all must be wondering what I am trying to prove here. Well my friends I am trying to quote the price of groom in rural Indian market. I got to know the above figures as one of my distant cousin (born in small village but studied in girls Pilani hostel Rajasthan) is suppose to get married and when her parents started looking for suitable groom, above figure was quoted by the respective parents of groom. Well as relative of girl I felt terrible but as marketer I saw an opportunity. By looking at the price label I was confident that rural consumers in India definitely trust government products. I mean the products endorsed by government agencies have more value as compared to product endorsed by private agencies.

Since I had interest in the life of rural India therefore I decided to spend some time with villagers and to do so, I went to my native place to learn the changes in the rural environment. I found out that rural consumers tend to lead a relaxed life and are more brand loyal as compared to urban counterpart. Once they become habitual of service/product, it is difficult to change their habit and they tend to feel pride in showing off luxury items (if they get good deal).

Cultural values and norms have stronger influence. (Jeans t shirt is strictly no no in villages). Superstitions and beliefs in omens are high. Woman role is limited to run a household and take care of family. She has little or no say in buying decision except for products like saree, bangles, Alta, Bindi..etc ( I mean the products which are for her own consumption).

Reference group has huge impact on buying decision. Relatives and people from same caste and community are important reference group. 80% of rural India has joint family structure and I won’t be surprised if after 10 years only 50% of rural India stays in joint family because like any other change rural India is also changing. As a result rural India tends to exhibit collective consumer behavior as most products are purchased for the consumption of everyone in the family.

Before we proceed further I would like to share one of my experiences with rural people. When I was 7 year old I had gone to spend summer vacation at my maternal grand parents house. In the same year my maternal aunt was getting married. As part of the custom, brother of the bride goes to pick the bride for something called “ Pag phera”. I got the opportunity to go with maternal uncle to pick the bride. When I entered their huge aangan I was shocked to see the house. It had automatic doors, swimming pool, All bathrooms had bathtubs and shower, Beautiful landscape, gardens……. That house was definitely piece of beauty. Well the point I am trying to make here is rural India has two categories of people ( I have included upper middle class in rich segment and lower middle class in poor segment)
• Rural Rich
• Rural Poor
And trust me you cannot find out the difference between rural rich and rural poor by looking at them because even rural rich will wear same clothes as poor(only difference would be cloth material). Saving is highest in rural India. People tend to save more as compared to their urban counterpart. They only invest in basic needs or for renovation of house( in case of any occasion like marriage or festivals). Their demands are very basic but mind it they can afford luxury items, but their saving habit as well as fear of abduction does not allow them to buy luxury item.
Rural poor comprises of landless laborers, daily wage earners, family servants, pundit who perform pooja in house & temples, lower caste…etc where as rural rich consist of landlords, government officers, SME’s..etc. This categorization of rich and poor forces us to assume that consumption is driven to large extent by occupation and income of the customers. Another important factor that influences demand is instability of income of farmer which is directly linked to seasonability of agricultural production as well as unpredictable monsoon.

The landless laborers & daily wage earners get their remuneration on day to day basis. Some get cash & some get Anaaz (cereals) we can say that barter system still exist in villages. Therefore they purchase small quantities of product at a time, mostly on daily basis or for one or two days consumption. Rural consumers show preference for bold and primary colours. All dark colours except black colour are auspicious for any occasion ( Keep this point in mind while deciding packaging of product). Rural consumers also exhibit a certain specific patterns in five stage buying decision process ;-
• Problem Recognition
• Information search
• Evaluation of alternatives
• Purchase decision
• Post purchase behavior

( Please note that above buying decision process is sourced from buygrid framework)


Community plays an important role during information search and problem recognition stage. Even if needs are internally triggered these are shaped by interacting with the reference group mainly community. Low penetration of mass media and dominant presence of community influence the problem recognition stage through word of mouth. Publicity efforts by different government agencies and non government organization working in rural India play crucial roles in creating awareness during problem recognition stage. Fairs, haats, exhibition, roadshows .. etc are some of the methods of information search. Opinion leaders & people who are perceived to be knowledgeable like sarpanch, Mukhiya, school teachers play important role as information providers & advisors. As the perceived risk of buying tends to be higher in rural consumers, they exhibit greater involvement in purchase process leading to more detailed information search behaviors. Since the reach of electronic media and other mass advertising is low in rural areas dependence on information advice and suggestion from other people are higher however as the exposure to electronic media and information technology is increasing rural consumers are more informed about the service and their dependence on traditional reference group is waning. E.g cellular phone. Today the penetration of cellular phone has increased tremendously in rural India so if you are planning to tap the rural market, mobile advertising in Hindi or regional language is best bet.( Now all the product managers of mobile advertising will ask me same question : Handset doesn’t support, how can we send the communication in Hindi or regional language… My answer to that question is think think…Everything is possible in terms of technology. Technology should work in accordance with business requirement not vice versa).

Hence as a marketer if you are planning to target rural consumer than ask below questions to yourself:-

1. How is need being satisfied or addressed today ?
2. How will your product / service meet identified needs?
3. Why it is better than alternatives from the customer’s perspective?
4. What will compel consumer to buy your product?
5. Which aspects of the business are most critical?
6. Which aspects need to be done well and which ones exceptionally well?
7. Which aspects, if done marginally, could sink the business?
8. What talent/expertise is needed to meet critical needs of business?
9. How will you attract that talent?
10. Begin with needs and align talent with it
a. Don’t start with people available
11. Who pays what and why?
a. Specific customer groups
b. Sell price - why reasonable?
c. Volume
i. Initial, Ramp up rate, Reasonable potential
12. Cost Structure
a. COGS
b. Gross Profit (Rs. & %)
c. Distribution Costs
d. Marketing Costs
e. Support Costs
f. Net Potential

Assuming need is basic like soap/shampoo then the my plan would be as follows :-
1. Understand the need of the customer (Begin with the need not the product or service). Suppose need is Soap/Shampoo.

2. Once we have figured out need, now let’s try to segment the base ( since the need is basic we assume that entire rural base is target base) and develop the product accordingly. Based on consumers need I have developed Soap A with 3 product extensions
a. Soap A1 (for Men)
b. Soap A2( for Women)
c. Soap A3( for Children)

(Note: If you study rural Indians you will find that entire family uses the same soap so why should we place different soaps for different segment. Answer is 1) to change habit of one soap/family 2) Rich can afford different soap for different family members 3) Poor usually buy 1 or 2 day consumption so product will be within their reach.)

3. Then segmenting rural base into below categories
• Region/Villages
 Rich
• Men
• Women
• Children
 Poor
• Men
• Women
• Children

4. Secondly build up sales force (from rural India only) who can personally visit Sarpanch/Mukhiya of village.

5. Take Sarpanch/Mukhiya into confidence and try to make them your distributor. Since most of them are rich and would not like to sell your product for lower margin therefore you need to really negotiate with them and if they themselves do not want to associate with your product then ask them to nominate someone. Treat them like your super boss and keep saying “ yes boss”…

6. Position your product separately for Rich and poor. For Rich you can sell 30 days consumption at one go and for poor you can sell pouches/sachets. Instead of taking cash from poor, you can accept anaaz (based on your market behavior. If in local market shopkeepers accept anaaz from customers then you should as well accept anaaz but if it increases your cost then you need to think of selling anaaz on daily basis to local market only and convert them to cash.) If you can print Mukhiya name on the packaging it will be customer delight because they treat Mukhiya equal to GOD.

7. After doing the above activities, analyze the No’s & you will find that 30% of consumers are contributing to your 70% sale. You have two choices
a. Either you concentrate on those 30 % high users
b. Or Increase volume by concentrating on 70% low users

If I would have been at your place I would have gone for mixed strategy, concentrating on both volume and 30:70 rule, because you cannot ignore tomorrow’s future for today’s present.

Hmmm …. Let’s come to an end of this discussion. Please note that I have no experience in selling FMCG products in rural market so my assumptions could be incorrect. I have tried to put across my thought process based on my observation and discussion with villagers. I end this write up with a quote “ haseka Rural India to badhega rural market” means “ Smiling Rural India will lead to growing Rural market”.

Special thanks to
• Shri Bhola Pandey ( Mukhiya Vill Satpipra)
• Mrs. Seema Singh, Mrs. Nirmala Choudhary and Mrs. Sita Pandey ( My family Members)

Glossary
pag phera = a custom followed in Hindu marriage
Aangan = courtyard
Mukhiya/Sarpanch = Leader
Alta/bindi = makeup items used by Indian women
Pooja = offering prayers to GOD
COGS = Cost of goods sold.
IAS = Indian administrative services
IFS=Indian foreign services
IPS=Indian Police service
Super boss = bosses’ boss ( please note that there is no word as super boss in dictionary)

Mobile Value Added Service ( MVAS)

Few of my colleagues who have read my blogs have asked me why I have not written anything about VAS?? So I told them that VAS is like family and you don’t share your experiences about your family… But then I gave it thought and decided “ Lets share my experience about VAS” with my friends.

VAS my dear friends stand for “ Value added services : A list of services which adds value to your daily life” Let’s segment people into 4 broad categories
1. Children
2. Youth
3. Middle Age
4. Old Age

Does VAS provide value to all segments ?? The Answer is yes ( to some extent). Extent of adding value depends on how you place your product in consumers mind.
E.g lok katha, devotional tracks, devotional services…. Etc will be more lucrative to Old age customers. Where as Stock gyan, job on call, Astrology, chatting.. etc will entice middle age customers.
Youth – Youth is one segment to whom you can sell anything. You just need to communicate it in their language. E.g If you want to sell Devotional tracks .. tell them that “ To impress your grand parents, gift them devotional pack “ I am sure they will love to surprise their grandparents. In the similar way you can sell anything and everything to them ( but in their language).

If you target children you automatically get their parents as your customers. You just need to make children content little funny and to target them you have to become children or need to spend some time with them. I have a plethora of idea’s on children content because I am a mother so I know how VAS can satisfy child needs…
In VAS “technology” is a commodity whereas “content” is brand therefore we can say that content is “King” or “Super King”. Good content can make or break your product. I mean behind every successful product there is an intelligent product manager and behind every successful product manager there is an intelligent support system ( In terms of technology, Content team, customer support… etc etc).
Let’s evaluate the pro’s and con’s of product manager. There are so many content partners in today’s world that its likea sea of CP’s. You need to figure out good CP ( which is tough in today’s environment). All CP’s think alike and have the same objective ( Revenue). Issue is not with the objective but the means to achieve those objective’s. Last week I got joke through SMS and the joke was as follows : PATI : mere marne ke baad tumhe mere jaisa aadmi nahin milega. PATNI : Tumhe Kis bevakoof ne kaha ki main doosra aadmi tumhare jaisa chahti hoon.
Do you think the above joke will make you laugh ?? No it will not. Infact its going to create strong dissociation with your product and once you lose trust of customers it will take years to build one. So you need to be very careful while designing the product and what content goes to the customer.

Let’s take our discussion to new product development. Product Managers should think that product is like their baby. And every product like baby has cycle attached to it :-
• Introduction Stage ( Baby)
• Growth stage ( Youth)
• Maturity stage ( Middle age)
• Saturation and decline stage ( Old stage)
It depends on product manager when he wants his baby to achieve saturation and decline stage. It could be 1 month, 1 year or 1K year depending on the strategy and innovation attached to each stage. So what’s the screening model for new products.

Key dimensions of new product are listed below :-
1. Product superiority, quality and uniqueness
a. Is superior to competing products
b. Has unique feature for the user
c. Is higher quality than competitiors
d. Does unique task for users
e. Reduces customer costs
f. Is Innovative – first of its kind.

2. Overall project/resource compatibility
a. A good “fit” between needs of project and company resource base in terms of :
i. Managerial skills
ii. Marketing research skills
iii. Salesforce/distribution resources
iv. Financial resources
v. Engineering skills
vi. Production sources

3. Market Need, growth and size
a. High need level customers for product class
b. Large market (S volume)
c. Rapidly growing market.

4. Economic advantage of product to end user
a. Product reduces customer’s costs
b. Product is priced lower than competing products

5. Newness to the company ( negative)
a. Project takes the company into new areas such as
i. New Product class to the company
ii. New sales force/distribution
iii. New types of users need served
iv. New customers to company
v. New competitors to company
vi. New product technology to company
vii. New Production process to company

6. Technology resource compatibility
a. A good “fit” between needs of project and company resource base in terms of :
i. Research and development resources and skills
ii. Engineering skills and resources

7. Market competitiveness ( negative)
a. Intense price competition in market
b. Highly competitive market
c. Many competitors
d. Many new product introductions into market
e. Changing user needs

8. Product scope
a. Market driven new product idea
b. Not a custom product i.e. more mass appeal
c. A mass market for product ( as opposed to one or few customers)

(Please note that key dimensions listed above are sourced from journal of product innovation management vol 2 no.1 March p.g. 39)

Many companies organize their new product development process into the orderly sequence of starting-with idea generation and ending with commercialization. Under this sequential product development approach one company department works individually to complete its stage of the process before passing the new product along to the development to next department and stage. This orderly step-by step process can help bring control to complex and risky projects. But it also can be dangerously slow. In fast changing highly competitive markets such slow but sure product development can result in product failures,lost sales,arid profits and crumbling market positions. Speed to market and reducing new product development cycle time have become pressing concerns of companies in all industries.
In order to get their new products to market more quickly, many companies are adopting a faster team-oriented approach called simultaneous product development (or team NPD or collaborative product-development) Under this approach company department work closely together through cross functional teams overlapping the steps in the product development process to save time and increase effectiveness. Instead of passing the new product from department to department,the company assembles a team -of people from various departments that stays with the new product from start to finish. Such teams usually include people from the marketing ,finance ,design, manufacturing and legal departments and even supplier and customer. Top management gives the product development team general strategic direction but no clear cut product idea or work plan. It challenges the team with stiff and seemingly contradictory goals— turn out carefully planned and superior new products but do it quickly —and then gives the team whatever freedom and resources it needs to meet the challenge. In the sequential process a bottleneck at one phase can seriously slow the entire project. In the simultaneous approach, if one functional area hits snags it works to resolve them while the team moves on.

It is very important for new product in VAS to have combination of a good brain and resources. If you have good brain in hand, technology and content will fall in place automatically so with this note I come to an end to my write up on VAS. I hope VAS community agrees with me on all the points which I have highlighted here. I see a bright future of VAS in India. (All’s well that end’s well) and I am sure VAS has no end……….. It is endless opportunity both for entrepreneurs and professionals so all the best :)

Gyan on Brand...

“ Can eggs be branded” ? was the question put to us in strategic brand management paper. I wrote “Anything can be branded”? Let’s try branding you. So in marketing “Kotler “is brand. Other writers are commodity (oops !!. my mistake…All writers are brand except myself because I am not writer). I am a commodity but I am brand for my daughter, husband, and my parents because I bring value in their life. For them Maid is commodity. So it depends to whom and how you position yourself. A discussion on the difference between a brand and a commodity is going on at one of my groups on LinkedIn. This discussion was initiated by Kate Wright. More than 150 comments have been made so far, highlighting marketing and sales professionals love for this topic. It is interesting that respondents presented their own definition and description of a brand and commodity, no author was quoted and the comments varied greatly. I noticed two significant trends as follows: a) Though there are more than 150 highly different comments, these could be grouped into eight major categories. That is, most of the respondents differentiated between a brand and a commodity either from value-addition perspective, loyalty and relationship, functional & emotional attributes, brand personality & experience, perceived value & expectations, needs & wants, unique identity or price. b) The respondents come from a diverse professional background including Business & Financial Consultancy, Sales & Business Development, Account Management, Marketing, Business & Franchising, and Real Estate. Most of the respondents are from other than marketing profession. Having worked in the marketing , I considered branding a purview of marketing because marketers are responsible for creating consumer pull for brands. This differentiation is getting blurred and branding is a cross-functional discipline now, especially in B2B set up. I took the liberty of picking the brand descriptions that I liked most and present these to you here along with the name of the group member. A brand is a product that is elevated above commodity level because of its added value in the mind of a shopper or consumer. By Lynn Wentzel Commodity resonates with consumer at the functional level; brand goes beyond, resonating at the emotional level. By Keith Kelley A Brand is that Commodity with a personality! By Thomas Bullock A commodity is a product, a THING, tangible. A brand is a[n] idea, a thought, a feeling and is intangible……. As Herb Lubalin said, “Products are made in the factory. Brands are made in the mind.” By Bob Bischoff …… THAT THE BRAND PROMISES AND DELIVERS By Valerie Skala Walker A brand provides an ‘experience’, a commodity does not. By Chad Symens A brand improves the life of its loyal consumer because it constantly brings a new and better feature or experience – it innovates. By Dana Mosora Brand is what people identify with. A commodity is traded, bought or sold. By Craig Castle And my take is as follows: Brands create and satisfy consumers’ wants, commodities meet consumers’ needs. Taking a leaf out of Kotler’s book, Brands live in the penthouse of Maslow Hierarchy of Needs; commodities live in its basement. How Do You Go From Commodity To Brand? Here are few suggestions:- 1. Know and Express Your Value. I love a “value statement” using this structure: “[Your business] helps [this target audience] with [this problem] to [achieve these benefits.] For example, Fit In Fitness helps busy moms with small children Fit In time for Fitness, so they can Fit In the clothes they love. I made that one up, but you can use the formula to make your own. 2. Differentiate Yourself from Alternatives. Have a polite and specific response to “Why should I work with you instead of that other coach?” Yes, you’ll need to study your competitors to do this, which can be enlightening! I was laughing my heart out when I saw competition benchmarking report in one of my ex companies. In that report they had positioned themselves as the best whereas they were one of the worst. So it’s very important to understand where you stand instead of projecting yourself erroneously. 3. Deliver an Experience. A brand is the unique identity for your business, and it’s all the thoughts, feelings and expectations that are associated with that identity as well. This total perception, living in the heart and mind of your client, is your brand. What can you do to make working with you memorable? Multi-sensory? How can you stand out in ways that no one else is doing? If soda pop can take someone back to childhood, imagine what you do when helping your clients change their business or lives!........Need help ?? Contact me :)

Performance through Innovation

Innovation to me is finding something of value to society/people through research/or understanding that ultimately solves a present or unknown problem or in other words innovation brings value to people’s life. With the above stated definition, innovation is definitely the reason why we can be thankful for the many new conveniences of the 21st century. Throughout the last decade innovation has been the life line to new product development and a better standard of living. These products have ranged from the development of the internet to more simple pricing strategy such as the launching of 1p/sec by GSM operator “TATA DOCOMO” Unfortunately “I” in India stood for Imitation for long but now I think it stands for “Innovation” So which are the companies who bring value to people’s life with their innovative products & solutions ? To find the answer, a joint survey was conducted by business magazine and Research organisation. They surveyed more than 75 senior executives across sectors (nearly half of them through in-depth interviews) on their innovation related attitudes, beliefs and practices. Based on which the survey tried to find the top innovative companies in India. TOP INNOVATIVE COMPANIES IN INDIA ( Not necessary in order) • Tata Consultancy services : TCS’ flagship research center, TCS Innovation Labs - TRDDC was established in 1981, when IT had barely emerged as an industry. Today, TCS has a global network of laboratories that provide an environment for sophisticated IT research in leading-edge technologies as well as in various domains. A no. of innovative solutions emerging from TCS labs has won many national and international awards. • TATA DOCOMO : TATA DOCOMO have been forefront in coming up with various attractive pricing schemes especially in the pay-per-use paradigm. They were first to introduce pay per second billing on calls, which now is followed by every mobile service provider. The brand stands for doing the new and its spirit of innovation. In the last 18 months TATA DOCOMO has changed the face of telecom in India with its revolutionary tariffs and services as well as its innovative marketing. Many independent observers refer to Tata DOCOMO as a “child of Social Media”. In effect that is quite close to being the strategy for Tata DOCOMO even before the time the brand was officially unveiled. When Tata DOCOMO was planning to enter the Indian market as the 9th GSM operator, it faced entrenched incumbents and strong brand communication barriers from other telecom operators. However Tata DOCOMO's team was determined to change the game and cut through the clutter through pure innovation and doing the New. At the very core of the Social Media strategy was the idea of humanizing a telecom brand that makes it warm, friendly and conversational. The strategy was simple yet engaging. Reach out to every corner of the web and to every possible TG not as a corporate brand but as a friend willing to engage the consumer in a one-on-one dialogue on anything and everything pertaining to the brand, its offers, its deficiencies as well as anything to do with telecom per say. The desired outcome was clear in everyone’s mind – to build the most loyal set of beta customers who will champion the brand in their micro-communities at every moment. Social Media became the first opportunity which had not been picked up by most Indian brands in June 2009 leave alone the telecom operators. It was unchartered waters but they knew that Social Media connects people with the exact TG that the brand wanted to associate with. It further had the wow element and was clearly doing the New by involving people, the perfect reason for Tata DOCOMO to draw up an extensive strategy to harness the power of Social Media and build the brand with its consumers. • Bharti Airtel: Innovation was not a choice for Bharti Airtel but a necessity. For achieving the lowest costs for the production of minutes in India, they need to have the lowest cost possible. They therefore launched in 2002 a unique business model featuring outsourcing the five big portions of operations. Bharti Airtel, has also established the Future Factory— a “center of innovation” that aims to develop innovative applications specifically targeted at individual customer segments. • Mahindra & Mahindra: The Group is among the top industrial houses in India and its managing director Anand Mahindra has put innovation at the core of its growth strategy. Emphasis is placed on managing the balance between structured processes and the creation of an environment in which radical innovations can succeed. Be it a soft-top, 10-seater rural transport vehicle (Commander), an urban utility vehicle (Armada), or a stylish and contemporary sports utility vehicle (Scorpio), Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has been innovating its way up in the auto industry & Telecom solutions • Tata Motors: Because a promise is a promise”. With those words Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata gave India its newest ‘people’s car “ TATA NANO” and brought paradigm shift in automotive industry. • Air Deccan: A man, credited for revolutionizing air travel and making it affordable in India, is Captain Gopinath, CEO, Air Deccan. It was first airline in India to set up a dedicated SMS service for flight updates. Apart from keeping passengers informed about flight timings, they use SMSes internally: SMSes are sent to engineers regarding aircraft maintenance, top executives can be SMSed to collate or disperse information regarding collections, revenues, load factors etc on an hourly basis or even as a pull mechanism. Best part of Air Deccan is the way they achieved operation excellence.. • Jet Airways: For two years, as the airline worked on its award-winning first-class cabin on its long-haul routes, there was one man paying close attention to the details: Jet Airways’ Chairman Naresh Goyal. “I am rarely satisfied, but I think with this new first-class suite, we will have many satisfied customers,” a beaming Goyal told reporters at the launch. • Maruti-Suzuki India: Maruti Udyog has been credited with bringing the automobile revolution to India. It has recently been honored with 'Golden Peacock Eco-Innovation Award' for adopting environment friendly technology in its products and processes. • Citibank India: One of my favorite bank and being the customer of this bank I can vouch for its excellent service. They have best internet banking solution & that’s the reason they have won the "Excellence in Internet Banking" for the year 2009 in The Asian Banker Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards Programme. Citibank India's Internet offering was chosen as the best amongst 120 banks and financial institutions from 23 countries across the Asia Pacific, Gulf and Central Asian regions. • HDFC Bank: It is India’s best bank (for the fifth consecutive year, according to a BT- KPMG ranking of banks) for a simple reason: it hasn’t let its rapid growth affect the quality of its service or its profitability. • ICICI Bank: In span of 6 years they have become people’s bank. They are most recognized brand and have made the place in consumer’s heart. Recently they have launched a mobile application (like the Gmail mobile client) for doing mobile banking. It’s called iMobile, any one [currently supported by only symbian phones] can download and install it for free (requires some validation etc.) and use it to pay bills, check balances, check your demat stock holdings [WOW], schedule transfers, locate an atm/branch, order a checkbook or get other services. • Philips Electronics: Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is a diversified Health and Well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through timely innovations. As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”.. • Samsung Electronics India: The Company’s thrust on Product Innovation and R&D has given the company a competitive edge in the marketplace. Samsung has two Software development centres - Samsung India Software Centre (SISC) and Samsung India Software operations unit (SISO) at Noida and Bangalore respectively. With about a decade of existence, the organization has executed close to 300 projects and has been accredited with the highest software quality certification of CMM Level 5 and ISO 9002. SISO also practices Six Sigma as a management methodology to facilitate innovation and increased productivity.. • ITC: ITC e-Choupal (From Mandi to Market) : When tobacco giant ITC flagged off its agri-business in 1988, it was operating in a protected economy, procuring agri-products from mandis and exporting them. However, the '90s saw the opening up of the Indian economy, bringing opportunity for many—along with more than a few challenges. According to S. Sivakumar, Chief Executive, ITC Agri Business, it was a tense situation and the challenge was to innovate or perish. "We did not have the resources to compete with the global majors with multi origin sourcing capabilities and neither did we want to follow the business model prevalent in the unorganized sector, which gets its margin through contract defaults and tax evasions."ITC realized that by owning the agri-product procurement value chain, they could serve the needs of the end customer better and reduce their "true cost of contract." Because ITC maintained oversight of the goods for a broader part of the chain, buyers were able to realise substantial savings in their true cost of contract, which included, apart from the product cost, other elements like quality variability, cost of delays, warehousing, packing and shipping costs. • Dabur India: Dabur has also made continuous efforts towards technology absorption and innovation, which has contributed towards preserving natural resources The Company has achieved a host of significant benefits in terms of product improvement, cost reduction, product development, import substitution, cleaner environment and waste disposal, amongst others. • LG ELECTRONCS INDIA: 10 years ago, LG India reported revenues of Rs 125 crore. In 2010, that figure stood at Rs 9,500 crore, making LG the #1 consumer durables player in the country. • Marico: Marico is one of India’s leading Consumer Products & Services Group, in the global beauty and wellness space. During 2009-10, Marico recorded a turnover of Rs. 26.6 billion (about USD 600 Million) through its products and services sold in India and 25 other countries in Asia and Africa. Marico touches the lives of 1 out of every 4 Indians, through its portfolio of brands such as Parachute, Parachute Advanced, Saffola, Hair & Care, Nihar, Mediker, Revive and Manjal • Apollo Hospitals: 27 years back they started tryst with excellence. Today the journey has led them to become beacon of hope to millions and India’s most trusted health care provider. • Aravind Eye Care: Medical science has achieved some amazing breakthroughs in terms of innovation, pushing the frontiers of surgery, drug therapy, transplant technology and a host of other research fields to enable more of us to live healthy and dignified lives In the healthcare area one of the powerful examples of such systematic attention to the small stuff which has led to a significant impact are the Aravind eye clinics in India. • Narayana Hrudayalaya: A unique rural healthcare facility ''Hrudaya post'' was launched in Karnataka to enable heart patients in villages, scan and send their medical reports to superspeciality hospital Narayana Hrudayalaya for consultation from a neighborhood post office. The Postal Department and Superspeciality Hospital Narayana Hrudayalaya have joined hands to offer ''Hrudaya Post'. Under the scheme, first of its kind in the history of health care, heart patients in small towns and villages can go to any of the Post office and send their entire medical reports by scanning and uploading to Narayana Hrudayalaya.The Hospital in turn, within 24 hours, after studying the report, would send a detailed report back to the sender thus saving time to visit Heart Specialist for advice. Narayana Hrudayalaya Chairman Dr Devi Shetty said that "Our aim is to link the post offices to our hospital, so that heart patients living in small town and villages can get medical advice at their door step. Bottom line: Innovation for companies is not so different from Darwin’s evolution for creatures. Those that are not able to adapt to changing environmental conditions eventually disappear. Does your company have the vision, diversity, flexibility and DNA to survive and flourish? If not then make it happen before it is too late. References: Business Today Magazine. The above mentioned Organization’s respective official website.

Untapped Goldmine – Indian Rural Market

Few years back I was given the opportunity to visit Seattle ( northernmost major city in United states). That was my first international trip & 14 hr journey was very tiring. However when I reached there, I was surprised to see people being so cordial to me. I had different image of American’s but I found them totally different. They are intelligent, to the point and understand their responsibility and there is huge cultural difference between Americans and Indians.

As a marketer I was thinking that if I have to launch any product in America, it is easy because most of the people in America behave in similar way. I mean there is similarity between person staying in Seattle and New York City. In all the states Americans are fundamentally liberals at heart & possess similar characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore.They believe in progress, they're products of the Enlightenment; they are people who believe that through hard thinking and skillful policies, it's possible to solve any problem. So basically what I am trying to prove here is American market/consumer is easy to understand where as Indian market/consumer is not so easy.

Optimists say that India represents huge untapped middle class market; a market critical for global firm. Global marketers feel that India is still poor by global standards – for most of people earning is less than $3 per day per person. So they assume that Indian market is not critical for them & won’t be beneficial for long term. I think broadly both are right but any broad generalization about India is bound to be wrong. Indian market is complex and is evolving rapidly.

From consumer market perspective there is no single India. Every state is different India and their culture, dialect, musical taste is so very different. Inspite of possessing different culture, segmentation within every state is common. There are IT/Pharma/Telecom employees who aspire to global standards and have high expectations. Then there is aspiring middle class. The self employed middle class. The agriculture dependent farmers. The urban poor. The rural poor. All of them have different approaches to consumption. So it depends on marketers which Segment they want to target within a state. Secondly GDP per capita is not good measure to assume capacity of consumption, much worse it can be misleading. Each state is different India and you cannot have mass produced products for them. Segments within each state can be similar but their tastes/upbringing/culture will be different. Do the market research on each state. Understand psychographic and social determinants of state which will further help you in determining their expenditure habit, sizing of Indian market.

Also there is misconception among the marketers that rural India is poor India & it is totally dependent on agriculture. Rural India is neither poor nor totally dependent on agriculture. Rural India represents 50% of India’s GDP (but 70% of its people) and out of this 50% of rural GDP is non agricultural. They are self employed people. Although they are rural, their aspirations are similar to urban consumer. They like 2 wheelers, Jeans, Refrigerator, Cell Phones. Understanding them will help marketers understand their logic of consumption. India is like Kaleidoscope. Every time you research on it you get different perspective – Enticing, different and real. The basic concept of understanding consumer India is to understand a simple fact that there is no single algorithm to segment Indian consumer.

India is definitely a complex market but there are simple facts that managers have to accept. Indian Consumers are very value conscious. They may be poor ( as compared to global standards) but they are not backward. Media has emerged as an important and critical tool in educating people about western culture and consumers are well informed about products and services. They are not overwhelmed by western brands but they can make difference in the global positions of the Individual firm. Take the example of Nokia. The Indian market is growing at the rate of 6 million new subscribers/month. The market cap of top five carriers in India is more than $75 billion. There is message for international marketers here. If you understand Indian consumer right and create appropriate business models, Indian market will surprise you. You cannot expect to flog old and tried products in India and expect to create mass base. India is not easy market to invest in but if done with correct approach, correct segmentation the prize can be very substantial. India is an untapped market ( specially rural India) and is great investment opportunity therefore think like venture capitalist. And instead of asking “ What is the size of market that India offers for my Global strategy” Ask “ What should be my local customized strategy for Indian market” ? Invest in Innovation. Invest in future and say Namaste India !!

“ Future is bright Future is rural India”

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How important is product regionalization??

“ I expect 10% growth in revenue” “ Your target is revised. Please check mail for final target sheet” Sounds familiar……. Isn’t it ?? I am sure if you are in marketing you must have heard these words from your managers. This follows the marketing plan to achieve the target. But how do we achieve these steady targets ??? What different approach should we take to make customers buy our products?? One of my suggestions would be product “regionalization with customization”.

Regionalization is an important aspect of today’s business environment. Globalization and regionalization are two aspects of the same coin. How successful will be our product depends on many factors, one of them is regionalization. Although product managers develops different marketing strategy for different geographic regions of a country for years, regional marketing received boost in Indian Telecom sector after evolution of Value added service ( still I will say VAS in Indian Telecom is in premature stage).

People are different in different parts of the country For eg. Customers of Tamil Nadu would like customer service executives, marketers, sales guys ..etc should communicate with them in regional language i.e. Tamil. Interest in regional marketing derives from number of factors: the realization that mass market are splintering, the availability of sales data from new BI tools, that reveal pockets of sales strengths & weaknesses in different parts of the country and opportunity to employ marketing communications that permit more focused targeting of consumer groups defined along virtually any lines. The shift from national advertising to sales promotion, to direct mailers, in particular has necessitated more market-by-market planning. Any market segment – however we define it – may require specialized marketing and branding program. For example demographic dimensions such as age, income, gender, race – as well as psychographic considerations-often are related to fundamental differences in shopping behaviors or attitudes about brands. These differences force marketers to create separate marketing and branding program. The decision ultimately rests on the costs and benefits of customized marketing efforts versus those of less targeted focus. It is very critical and important for marketers to customize the product before launching it in the market.

Coming back to globalization - The first and most fundamental guideline is to recognize that international marketers can vary in terms of brand development, consumer behavior, marketing infrastructure, competitive activity, legal restrictions and so on. Virtually every top global brand and company adjusts its marketing program in some way across some markets but holds the parameters fixed in other markets. Also success in one country does not necessary mean that you will be successful in other country as well. Understanding consumer behavior, political, social environment is must before entering into any new market. Indeed one key to global success is to understand and take advantage of local consumer behavior. E.g When MTV made major push for its cable channel overseas beginning in the 1990’s, it initially kept much of the same programming it played to U.S. audiences. In most markets the music, film and cultural tastes were very different and MTV quickly realized that it needed much greater proportion of locally relevant programming in its mix. Now MTV international channels such as MTV India program as much as 80% of their content in local languages which had further enhanced their viewership. Therefore it is very important to understand consumer behavior before launching a product in new market. The experience of mobile operator Vodafone illustrates an interesting incident that reflects how important consumer behavior can be to the success or failure of any brand, even dominant brands when entering new markets. “ When Vodafone acquired J-Phone, the 3rd biggest cell phone operator in Japan, known for its cutting edge phones, in 2002 it hoped that the renamed Vodafone Japan would be a key component of its global brand strategy. Instead Vodafone lost customers and revenue fell. The problem “ by focusing too much on building a global oriented brand, Vodafone failed to give Japanese consumers what they want, chiefly a wide line up of phones with fancy features. Vodafone sought to leverage its image as global company by offering phones that consumers can use anywhere, home or abroad. Yet the heaviest cell phone users many of whom were young and not likely to go abroad were most interested in phones with advances Value added service such as video games, ringtones, digital camera’s and e mails. Japanese users also favor a broad selection of phones that is constantly updated but Vodafone offered only 15 models compared with market leader DoCoMo’s 38 models and was often late to market with new technology. Vodafone was unable to recover from its early missteps and sold Vodafone Japan to Softbank in 2006.

 Building a brand in new markets must be done from bottom up. Strategically that means concentrating on building awareness first, before the brand image. Operationally it means how to create best resources of brand equity in new markets. The way a brand is built in one market with distribution, communication and pricing strategies may not be appropriate in another market even if the same overall brand image is desired in both. If the brand is at an earlier stage of development, rather that alter it or advertising to conform to local tastes, marketers should try to influence local behavior so that it fits with the established uses of the brand, Consumer education then accompanies brand development efforts.


*Image credits creative commons