Archive for February, 2009

A good business strategy – tell your customers not to buy your products

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Feb
28

A good business strategy – tell your customer NOT to buy your products

I know many people would think that either I (the author of this post) do not understand business or Iv slipped my words here.

Well, let me clarify again, no I haven’t slipped on my words and well, I do understand business.

So how in this bad market conditions, can I ask my clients NOT to buy from me and still SURVIVE?

Innovation, my friend is the name of the game! Evolution is the way you play this game!

I got this idea when I visited a local market in New Delhi, for a small item I wanted to buy and there were two parallel rows of shops, which had the same stuff, each shopkeeper with some attractive discount or some other thing on offer. So competition in this market region was tough, I realized the moment I entered the small gully.

Now in this stiff competition how do the shopkeepers survive? Selling pretty much the same stuff, how do they really fetch business? Do they eat into each other’s I pondered! And then I went to one of the shops, who had the stuff I was looking for, but I thought I could get something better and I asked the shopkeeper, and he smilingly suggested me the parallel shop. I was pretty amazed at the gesture, because well, the basic business understanding says: market is competitive, conditions are tough, should’nt I look at covering the maximum?

I took this question home with me and started searching for examples on the internet, and I chanced upon Xerox. Yes, I know you know this name. The same company which is a second to none brand in the printer and copier industry. Every big installation, there are chances that you would see a Xerox printer in action! Now in this fiercely competitive market, what other than building the best printing tools for the print ecosystem should Xerox do to stay put and forge long term relationships, which probably may restrict the sales/revenue in the short term, but is a sure shot methodology of making it right in the longer run.

Ever heard of End to end solutions strategy to your existing printing infrastructure?

YES! That’s what Xerox has done! From selling printing products Xerox has diversified into selling printing solutions. There is such a lot of wastage that happens in your print infrastructure, which Xerox can help you save! I searched the Xerox India website (for their consulting services) and well, my understanding got confirmed. The client’s testimonials on the site, clearly state how just by consulting a client on an end to end basis on the existing infrastructure, Xerox helped the client not by asking him to replace all his existing printing infrastructure to its own, but Xerox consulted the client in increasing the basic efficiency of the overall system!

And the clients’ love Xerox for this! What’s Xerox earning from this game?

Well, though Xerox as a company, may not really be able to achieve its business targets in the short term, but the successful consulting assignments, which are increasing the overall efficiency of the client, reducing costs at the same time, are helping it forge new relationships. Bonds that would fetch Xerox, connected and trusting business.

So, sometimes its good to NOT tell your customers to buy your products!

Cafe Coffee Day interrupted me on valentine’s day

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Feb
28

cafecoffeeday

Cafe Coffee Day, one of the leading coffee retail chains in India, one of    my leading favorites! For anything, all that I know is starting from       catching up with friends to discussing my business plans and new          ideas, I go to a CCD.

And I’m not the only one! India goes there!

So, what happened this valentines Day?

Okay, so this 14th February, the Valentines Day, as I decided to  catch up for a coffee after a meeting, I parked at the Saket market and hoppped to the cafe coffee day there. Good ambience and as usual nice music with Love in the air, I was looking forward to my cuppa!

So what do we do, when we need to look at the menu  to order our coffee?

We, Look at the menu! And what do you do, when the menu is missing? Well, you look here and there and you don’t find it. Then you suddenly see the guy from the store approach you with a small vertical shaped menu (I clicked the pic, but formatted my phone, so lost it), which was like a make your choice Sir, or there is no coffee for you.

Visibly the menu was made especially for the day, with some special couple offer and all the glitter

But I was left asking for my usual cuppa! Finally after staring at the menu which INTERRUPTED me, it made me think:

Is my usual cup of coffee not available for today? Has cafe coffee day really gone overboard with the Valentines fervour? And in this thought process, I was almost left deciding that if this is the menu for the day, well, I dont like it and NO, I DON’T WANT YOUR COFFEE!

Luckily, to break my thought process one of my friends dropped in and before i could ask the coffee guy, he ordered for the plain old usual amazing cold coffee with cream that we order, and the coffee guy got it!

But I did not like the interruption! It was not a well designed interruption!

Let me now share, what was wrong with the interrptive message! Well, the design of the vertical card on which the message was printed. The whole card was designed wrong. the message never got communicated to me in the right way, instead it came negative!

When on the usual menu I have multiple chouce to choose from and keep experimenting with my taste buds, here I am with a card sitting pretty in my hands, with just a single option of a couple offer! Guys, I Didn’t want it!

The whole message was designed poorly and it curbed my zest to experiment each time I visit a cafe coffee day!

What do I say?

Though I do not know how much sales shot up due to this strategy (many of the customers would not have even spoken out, they would just have ordered from the vertical card) but I know of this – cafe coffee day is a brand which has the highest recall amongst all the rest due to their “Soft Purple color” which attracts me from far off, wherever I am.

It’s a purple cow – Seth Godin!

I think, cafe coffee day guys could do much better by understanding what the consumer really looks for and with the standing in the market, well it needs to communicate the message right maintaining the “purple cow” status and just NOT go ahead with the usual Interruptive marketing tactics which products go ahead with. Cafe coffee day for the ususal young Indian, is almost once a day feature, whether at office or driving back or catching up with friends, thus cafe coffee day guys don’t have to PUSH hard, for them the PULL is common with people!

How WordPress created the First From India, Online Platform for Taking Events and Conferences Global – OMShare (presented by Paritosh Sharma at India’s First WordCamp)

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Feb
23

WordCamp India was a great event, at least in terms of the fact that it was a start for us. The First from India, and at this platform, I thought I would present how WordPress as a platform, helped me and my company, when we launched the First from India – Online Platform for Taking Events and Conferences Global!

OMShare

And since I have been getting requests from people, to upload my presentation on the blog (I already have 60 views and 3 downloads) in a day! Thanks all :)

Here you go :-

How WordPress created the First From India, Online Platform for Taking Events and Conferences Global – OMShare (presented by Paritosh Sharma at India's First WordCamp)

Delhi6 – The movie review – Exclusive on this blog

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Feb
22

Delhi 6, the bollywood movie which got released this friday, well I just saw it tonight, and here I am posting a review :)

I would rate the movie 3.5 out of 5. The way the whole concept has been narrated is amazing!! I really liked how the entire muck that we make of religion and how we live and die on the beliefs, has been naratted and shown by the director.

The best part about delhi6?

Well, without any doubts, Sonam Kapoor. The lady is looking just amazingly beautiful. The simplicity and the strange elegant sexiness, that she carried, with this awesome subtleness in the fast moving Delhi 6 life, was something which attracted me:)

Also not to forget, one of the other actresses, who acts as some “Bua” in the movie, the lady looked amazingly simple and beautiful!!

And now for the acting!

Ab baby (Abhishek Bachchan), Sonam kapoor and the rest, all have done a pretty decent job, though there are better actor like Om Puri, who could have been exploited much more than their part.

I think its a must watch once!

WordCamp India – real feedback from real people and My perspective

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Feb
22

Wordcamp India. the First ever WordCamp in India.

The two day event concluded today with not much to rave about. I have lots of feedback from real people who attended the event and well, I have lots of inputs for the WCI team.

Two days, a host of speakers, and nothing to rave about! The biggest draw for the event were Matt Mullenweg (Creator WordPress) and Om Malik (Giga Om fame). Well, and both of them were amongst the fewest of the good things to talk about at this event. Matt I think is an amazing guy and am already a fan. He really knows his stuff, and well he can talk and talk good. The best part, the guy is really innovative. Looking at his presentation which contained pictures of the Taj mahal and the Autorickshaw he travelled in, I was glad to see his keen eye for details :)

Okay, lets come to the point now!

So what did I get from the First Indian WordCamp? Hmmm…lemme think, not much, I’d say (I really have to think on answering this one). There were some really lax speakers, who were speaking on whatever context they liked speaking on. There were product presentations (Radioverve, though I really like the work), and I was told by the event organizers outright (when I asked them for a speaking Op) that we dont really entertain product displays!! Thanks guys!

There were gyan sessions on codes, plugins and some really cool features of WordPress, but I dont really know how much value would they have provided to the people, who are common basic level users of WordPress, who probably dont even know, how to install a version on their own site!

There was mis-management

The event was mismanaged. Day two saw the event organizers coming to the event LATE! and the show started pretty LATE! There were shift in speaker schedules (Do you not call up the speaker a night before, and send an SMS reminder, in the morning)?? Basic things right?

And here we have a Supreme Court lawyer, talking on IP and other stuff and he starts with an example which referred to Priyanka (twilight fairy) one of the organizers of the event as an example. Sir, with due respects, there are better ways to connect both with the audience and the organizers :) Though Pavan was the only speaker after Matt and Om, who really made an impact.

We will allow you, but we don’t really think your topic is different from 2 others, who are speaking the same

Okay, so I was told by one of the organizers of WCI on day I, that I could take his speaking slot to present what I have with WordPress. And I woke up till 1 am in the morning and mailed him my presentation as I discussed with him. And on the second day, well one of the other organizers, has an objection to it!

What objection – She thinks that my presentation is on how to make money out of WordPress, and well I think she totally missed the point. What I had, well it was not presented by anyone. Anyway, my point of writing all of this is not that I have any hard feelings or anything, but the fact that I would have appreciated, if this would have been communicated to me earlier that I am not up for speaking, so I would really have invested my time on more productive things in life.

Networking – I met some really young and budding entrepreneurs today!

Well, the young crowd really was something that I liked about the event, though the same was a deterrent to the scope of relationships that you could really look forward to, forging.

I know people from the event, who supported my thoughts on it!

Coffee machine was the favorite place to network and talking to many a people around, I got the same feedback that It wasn;t working for them. That they are really not seeing much value from the sessions.

There was no appreciation for SPONSORS!!

So the day one of the event, would really have included a word of thanks to the sponsors for the sponsors and partners to the event, in the opening note of the organizers, which I personally felt was missing.

I think, the event was okay, and nothing special to really have missed and been repenting about. I wish these guys the best for the future events, and hope they do live to their brand!

Clarification

I highly appreciate the Co-organizer of the First WordCamp India, Mayank, calling up, to really give certain clarifications on the event, and I appreciate his honesty.

For the same, I would like to present to the readers of this blog, that this blog has no relations to the fact that I was not given an opportunity to speak (Have a look at my Bio, do you really think, I would write a blog post, for such a trivial matter)?

Hence, the post only reflects my views and of some people from the event, I interacted with, who shared their’s. This post is not meant to point out or hint at any particular individual and is not biased

How to convert your blog into a money making machine – by Ankesh Kothari at India’s First WordCamp

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Feb
22

Ankesh Kothari, speaks about talks about how to turn a blog into a Business, and he starts with a story, of a boy and his shoes.

A lot of people out here have been blogging but they still dont have the ideas of really hoe to convert a blog into a business

How many have a blog and it is not active anymore? – Well not many in the room.

Ankesh says there is no incentive in taking the blog further and that is why this happens. there could be different sorts of incentives. Monetary, Fame and the rest…

Why relying on Ads is a BAD IDEA?

You can compete with New York Times, I’ll show you how. Can you make your blogging Worth YOUR While?

You are probably working from yoru kitchen table so competing with such big companies is a scary thought…Ankesh shares the story of Car manufactures, GM and what made them do this, and Ankesh gives his thoughts, on how to really implement it into your blogging!

The Tripod strategy for blogging by Ankesh

The strongest, most geomtrical figure in nature is a triangle…if you have the three prong approach to your blog, well it would be stable, just like a three legged table is! It will take you at least 2-3 years for you to make money from your blog.

How do you get Ads, ehen your blog is NEW?

Find out who is advertising on your competitors website, and hit them on the charge structure. Out of 5 such advertisers, definitely 2-3 of them will test your platform for their Ads. Say if 100 people visit yoru blog 1 of them will end up buying your 10 dollar product and this money, should really go into your advertising budget, which would fetch you more business.

How do you go about creating a front end product on the very first day?

Create an audio product – Ex: an interview a personality for your blog. You can have a 45 minute to a 1 hour audio product which you can get rolling within a day. Play on pricing, its important to price and position your product right.

The third prong – keep creating products (these may not really be manufactured by you) you could just act as a successful integrator. Ankesh is a great chap, who is open in sharing the real time examples of products that he is working on in his presentation (which I’ll get for you guys, exclusively on this blog!!)

If you have this three pronged approach, you will have an upper hand over the other bloggers. My blogs become profitable and sustainable within the first 100 days. And hence competing with Gawker Media and NY Times, is really not a great deal.

How do you market your Blog?

  • Guest posting
  • Digg, SU, twitter
  • Networking: forums and events
  • PPC
  • Affiliate programs

Ankesh shares a story of “the most known bank robber in the US history, who is being interviewed by a journalist” and the journalist says, you’re the smartest guy I have ever met. You may have become a senator. And Billy answered in a simple way that is: “I target banks, because that is where all the money lies” :) Interestin Ankesh!!

  1. Go where your audience hangs out – marketing Prong ONE
  2. Chase your prey – marketing Prong TWO
  3. Content is the king – GOOD content, though
    • Crappy content can make money, there are examples, but you just need to be plain simple lucky for it

Ankesh ends the session with a 100 day plan strategy for your blog!! Do the most of the work in this time and keep on with your momentum. Give yourself time and keep going strong.

To connect:

http://ankeshkothari.com

twitter: ankeshk

http://www.NonToxin.com

Matt LIVE at India’s First WordCamp – Exclusive by Paritosh Sharma

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Feb
21

So Matt starts by clicking a group photograph, and hey Mattm I really love that camera ;)

State of the word

This is the first time Matt has been to India.

To contact Matt, find him here:

m2mullenweg.com
Twitter: photomatt

In the beginning Matt had a movable type, blog, which was hmmm…well….lemme see…gosh, were blogs like this?

And now Matt talks about how things slowing down, with all the HTML, taking up, Matt says, I am a typography geek. I submitted a patch on sourceforge and I was zapped and I felt great! And my entire involvement with open source, is the feeling, that so many people are using your code!

On Jan 24, Matt wrote a blog post, on the blogging software dillema! and Hence was founded WordPress. Mike who is the Co-founder WordPress, whom Matt never met for over a couple of years, and well, the rest they say is history!

And so was born WordPress!

The last year for us was really amazing, people from all over the world started getting involved. We had two major re-designs. The average WP blog has 4.96 plug-ins involved. Couple of weeks back we crossed 4000 plug-ins.

I think the concept of personalization is the most beautiful thing that software provides!

WordPress 2.7.1 has had almost half a million downloads since the past 11 days. This is about 2.5 times any previous update. Matt is amazing, he says the direction that we are taking WordPress to, is like Firefox, as a great Open Source project.

Nothing that we have done with WordPress is original, many people said there are many

Hindi Blogs, is what Matt is talking about now. I was surprised when WordPress had languages as wide as hindi, tamil, telugu, marathi and many more…Its really amazing, and I had no idea of this!

Once I added all these languages, there are 11,651 blogs which are written in multiple languages

There are 4.2 million unique visitors in the past 30 days!

WordPress Themes, Matt now emphasizes on User Generated versions. Well, and Matt now shows the first version of WordPress, which was pretty primitive, and then we had a major re-design with version 2.5!! Well, we added the color Blue!! :)

We then released the version 2.7 in december, the most successful release for WP so far!! Better navigation, and some of the nest features!!

We focused on the number of clicks and we worked on this amazing technology, using “laser eye mapping”. We are able to time every single action of the user on WP. Hence making every single action faster!! (I say amazing work Matt, I really didn’t know of this)

WordPress 2.8

Deadly – Ugly – icons!! WordPress users are Smarter and Sexier than the general audience ….am already feeling good :)

WodPress 2.8 is still open to suggestions and we are inviting suggestions. We are working on more widgets, making WordPress more and more Faster!!

One of our greatest DIFFERENTIATORS!!

Our dashboard, well, Prologue, would pretty much take it away!! – Food for thought, !! Matt is amazing !

Have you heard abotu BuddyPress

Well, its your own Social Network on a blog!! Its neat and its cool, that’s my first reaction to it. Its perfectly scalable. And to know more about BuddyPress, you can go to this test site: http://www.testbp.org/

What’s coming in 2009?

Well, taking a step back occasionally, sometimes we should do that. Where are we going, what would WP be in 5 years!

Software should be:

  • Humble
    • User Driven – WP ideas forum, what’s important to you
  • Agile
    • Plugins and themes
  • Global
    • Every country
    • Every language
    • Every culture
    • Accessibility

And that is what we are trying to fit into the WordPress platform!

Matt is an amazing guy, and I am amazed with all the innovations which are up for grabs. Gosh and there are fake WordPress logos…well, Matt jokes about the various versions of logos present and well, tells the difference, which came out when he was in Indonesia.

Freedom

Freedom, is what Matt is talking about now! there were 100 people working on the WP 2.7 version, and well, why do they do it? Matt pushes the envelope for innovation further and really creates with the entire audience the biggest answer that they were looking for!!

And the answer was to the question, which is asked to Matt most often, and that is: “How do we contribute to WordPress”??

Matt, was pretty open in saying that people should share their knowledge on their blogs, spread more and more openly and really take things to the next level!!

Thanks Matt, I thouroughly enjoyed your session:)

How to build your own Radio Site using WordPress – Shreyas from RadioVerve

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Feb
21

Okay, after an interesting Key Note by OM Malik, from GigaOM, we have Shreyas from RadioVerve talking about how to convert your own Radio Site using WordPress as a platform.

Building a Radio site on wordpress

I absolutely LOVE WordPress, Shreyas :)

(Pretty interesting concept Shreyas, using open source codes, and other innovative stuff)!! Radioverve is a platform where anyone could come and listen to some of the best Indian Music – alternate, rock, and the other genres!!

We wanted to improve upon the concept and continue to add something new to the already existing web site that we had in 2004, which was a text pattern site. And we decided upon open source. Shreyas is an itneresting presenter.

We wanted something which most people are aware of

So I loved the support of the community on my questions, and putting in each saturday and sunday leaving our social lives behind, and 6 months of work made us this: And Shreyas shows the all new evolved RadioVerve, on WordPress platform.

We have nine RJ’d stations and we are working with a whole wide section of people. Okay Shreyas, I think Im in love with the site. And the WordPress theme you have implemented is amazing :)

Shreyas now discusses the Lessons he has learnt !!

  • Dealing with multiple databases

Okay, so now Shreyas is talking about some php codes and some technical lingo, which I really am dumbfounded with ;) So…but Im amazed at the simplicity with which Shreyas and the RadioVerve team has created amazing customization through WordPress.

I think i’ll start making music again, and put em up on the site :)

Now the best thing about WordPress is it can be customized to any extent, which I agree on with Shreyas!! Amazing cuztomization Shreyas. I am a fan!! Kudos.

Shreyas opens the session for discussion, and I must say, Shreyas, you have touched some real cords!! I think Shreyas is an amazing guy, he is open to sharing all his open source knowledge, with the room here. For all the Social Geeks go to Github.com, and you would get amazing source codes, with which you can work magic on WordPress!!

LIVE by Paritosh Sharma!!

WordCamp India: a first from WordPress.com with Matt Mullenweg and Om Malik LIVE!

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Feb
19

WordCamp is in town!!

Yes! New Delhi, is proud to be hosting WordCamp India, at Adobe’s Noida, the venue for which is displayed below:

If you are a WordPress fan (which in all probabilities, you would be) this event is a must attend! Matt Mullenweg the creator of WordPress, is touching base in India for the event. Also, One of the respected Industry bloggers Om Malik (GigaOm) is touching base from Frankfurt as well.

The event sure is creating enough waves around to go un-noticed. This is one of those parties which are worth a dekko, as I am personally excited about meeting Matt and catching up with some of the best Bloggers around.

I personally extend my invitation to bloggers who are really interested into UI (User Interface) and Messaging, and how it changes users perception, to mail me at: paritosh@paritoshsharma.com and I’ll feature you at my blog: http://www.paritoshsharma.com/category/blog/

The event is being supported by The Delhi Bloggers Bloc !!

I would probably be LIVE blogging WordCamp India at certian occasions! You can follow me here:

http://www.paritoshsharma.com/live-2/

See you there on Saturday :)

Good Times with Nita Ambani – An NDTV Good Times Exclusive by Paritosh Sharma

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Feb
18

Okay so before I start, let me introduce to you the people in the picture to the left.

The lady on the left is Mrs. Nita Ambani and the Gentleman is Mr. Mukesh Ambani.

Are the names enough, or do I need say something…? Well, I have to…otherwise this post would contain only the names!!

Almost every one knows both the Ambani’s, so what makes me do a blog post about them? have I gone nuts or I have nothing else to think about?

Well, for all the right reasons I am doing this post!!

Mukesh Ambani, (right after this, I am a bit zapped on what else to write), is one of the most powerful business personalities around the globe. just like cricket, every child in India knows how to spell Ambani! Its a dream to be a Reliance.

My confession

I still remember my time almost two years back when I was working with a software firm and was looking ahead at a well settled career, parent were happy looking at the bright career prospect for their son. And then suddenly this happened ‘Guru’ the bollywood movie. Incidentally I’ll share something, I had never felt something more moving in my life than seeing the lead actor “Abhishek bachchan” on stage with a Mic roaring in front of his shareholders and saying “bana dein Duniya ki sabse badi company” (Shall we create the world’s largest company?) and his shareholders roar back in unison.

And today I am an entrepreneur

Today after starting on my own I am working along with a great team as a Social Media Marketing evangelist (our company OMLogic is India’s leading Online Marketing company)

The first Ladies at the NDTV GOOD TIMES

What prompts me to write this post is not Guru, but its Nita Ambani. Though I seldom watch teleshows, but today I did, the entire show. It was ace designers Abu and Sandeep Jani in conversation with the gorgeous Nita Ambani.

Nita is a definition of calmness

Looking at Nita’s face, and whenever I have seen her (never personally, though would love to) the first thing that comes to my mind is “She’s got that calmness in her”. Look at the way she is. Her face would in the very first instance spell calmness. Look at the way she speaks, so definitive, yet so in her self.

Abu and Sandeep did a great job of hosting the show. With candid questions to subtle moments, it was an hour worth my time, I’d say.

One thing that you would like Mukesh to take from you

Asked Sandeep, and Nita replied, I am child like at times and I wish Mukesh could have been that ways at times.

He comes back home at 12 every night and he likes to watch a movie. So we have a movie time from 12-3 am every night.

All through the conversation I was thinking to myself, this is the lady who has no dearth of probably anything in her life. And look at her so calm, so serene and if after all of this she could be child like, Im not amazed, but I have high respects for the lady! How money affects sanity, Iv seen in many people around!!

And I could Love him more

Said Nita to every question on Mukesh. Its perfect (I say).

What do I think of all this?

Well, I have always believed that having the right partner to hold you at times good and bad, that’s what is life. Its about growing old with a glowing heart and a life full of memories sweet and smiling. All our lives we keep living, in the hope of living the next moment fully, and the next moment becomes present when it falls upon us, while we were just planning for it.

I think the 13 episodes of the show would definitely be a huge draw and I’d probably blog all of them. So keep hooked if you want to know who comes next!

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