A note for all those reading my blog, NO, I am not obsessed with deals and discounts but YES, I am onto my quest for really learning as to how are these companies making it so big. What are their business models and what’s really happening at the back-end?
My latest post on how I got through the Amity Synergy Card which offered these fantastic discounts was liked by many people and I also got some requests to probe in further. I hence made up my mind to go ahead and meet the team behind the idea and how they are executing it.
My Experience: Count by Count
While I met the super energized team behind the Amity Synergy Card, my first impression was a fantastic mix of Youth, Experience and a free minded and open to innovation investor. So as I went ahead understanding their strategic thought and how it all happened, I found it very interesting to know the story behind how it all started.
Good to know that this is not a card which initiated as an influence from many others in this domain
They started in-house and did a proof of concept at Amity University, which obviously is a behemoth. Its in one word huge. The proof of concept was to look at how Amity students use the card and to understand the audience. And wallah, the results were astounding. Students loved the concept.
What’s the proof? Well, the 82,200 fans on facebook page is enough proof, aint it?
Hmmm, so I asked the team about how did they think about taking it further?
In one tone, everyone answered, we were sure its going to work out and we rolled the Amity Synergy Discounts card as a B2B offering. Though we are also stepping to the B2C domain. Interesting to note this.
B2B, B2C and Now its B2E!!
There are many things which companies today do to ensure that their employees are motivated and that they perform their level best at all times. Various companies have different sets of incentivized structures which keep the employees engaged and motivated to perform. The Synergy Discount card makes a lot of sense here. If you reward an employee telling him, that almost whatever he purchases from now on, will be discounted, obviously he will be happy. You are a smart organisation if you are helping your employees save money when everything around seems to be only rising up in price.
Interestingly Synergy Discounts card has some very interesting examples of how its Co-branded with various medium sized companies and how it has worked out very well for them, the companies and the employees.
For Start-ups and SMEs its Makes Most Sense
The Card according to me makes much sense for start-ups and SMEs. Whether you are a services or a products business. Interesting discounts on everyday products that you buy obviously makes for a great return on human capital happiness investment.
How Can You Order This Card for Your Company?
You can actually send an Email directly to Abhishek Pandey at: apandey2@amity.edu and the rest gets taken care of.
Drop in your experiences and comments about the Synergy card and any other interesting ideas you might have of usage for the Synergy Cards team. I’d be happy to forward it to them!
Though I personally don’t freak out in shopping malls daily, but obviously things change after marriage you know (kidding). In the recent times I have been going through this strange phenomena which is written large on many faces, which is, do you have a deal? Almost every market that you visit in Delhi, you can find every other person negotiating with the shopkeeper and asking for a discount. Now that’s obvious human nature.
Hmmm, great so we are talking discounts here!
Yes we are. But I have a thought to share, while I am sure you all must be seeing these deal sites pop-up from every nook and corner of the globe citing great exciting deals from your city, there is not much value. Tell me how many people would really be looking at a great value from getting a tattoo on some part of their precious body at a discount. Interestingly I know the statistic, there are many. The super excited youth of India.
But can’t we put in some real value driven sense in discounts?
When I say value driven, let me put my case forward. I represent the emerging youth of India who have a newly found buying power with them. I am someone who works hard and harder to achieve an aspirational level for me and my family. Obviously the aspirations keep touching new levels with time. Now for me, I really am not wanting a deal for a tattoo OR a 5% discount on a coffee mug. Neither am I looking at a dine out extra happy hours or a beer free!
What I want is to make my life happy and easy!
I am married and hence have a family to take care of and I am a consumer who is a target audience for many brands out there. So why don’t these deal sites understand that I need to see value in their deals and that just by 2 SMS’s each day on my cell phone, I won’t make a buy decision?!
The Game Changer is here: What I’v experienced in the last week!
The Game Changer is here. Last week I went for a fun night of bowling at The Great India Place Mall at Noida with couple of pals. Interestingly what I saw was a register where people were writing something down with a Golden color card in their hands and they straight away got very interesting discount on their games.
The Magic of Discount: the Revelation!
What was revealed about the card was that it came from the stable of one of India’s largest business clans. Its the Amity Synergy Card. Dwelling further, I was amazed to see what was present online! The Synergy card (which I was not really much aware about initially) has more than 61 cities Pan India covered. Go to their website and you will see what I mean and why I just got eexcited enough to mention the brand on this blog!
Did I Order a Card for Myself?
Yes I did. And yes I did not take it just like that. I went ahead and used the card and wallah. In the past 7 purchases that I have done, I have already gotten my value of the card for which I bought it for back. Hence my ROI in terms of getting back the investment I made has been received.
Has the Team Been Good at After Sales?
Obviously before writing this blog, I did my diligence and tried contacting the Synergy Discounts and Coupons team through their site and wallah they did respond back in time.
What’s So Unique, Why Did I Not Write About GroupOn India’s Office?
Why I did not write about GroupOn or any other discount scheme is because the discounts which Synergy offers me is logical. I know the places I generally go to in India and they are all there. The biggest USP being, that Synergy is the only card which has discounts on rooms in almost every major hospital in India. Not happy about it, but lately I have had to roam around Delhi hospitals for a close relative, and I know how quickly cash gets burnt when you step into an Apollo Hospital. A 10- 15% discount on rooms spells a saving of close to about INR 2500 for 2 days!!
How do I Get this Card?
Since I like sharing on this blog, only what I really feel excited about what I experience in my life, I think the Synergy card makes much sense with the value driven deals. I got it online simply through this link: http://synergydiscounts.com/GetSynergyCard.aspx
Have fun getting deals and saving more and for all those married men, guys here’s your thing, to keep your woman happy!!
Aah sometimes a good evening with a few intelligent brains over some quality wheat beer from Belgium makes for a lot of “common sense”.
While with @1aditithakur recently at the famous Beer Cafe in Delhi, the conversation started with the shopping experience in the mall and it moved onto the limitless gyaan on branding. Finally we started discussing brand and brand names.
Your Name: how does that change the taste of the ketchup?
So we got served these potato chips with a ketchup which read Heinz. Lets say I don’t care a dime whether I am eating a Heinz OR a Kellog’s for my breakfast till the time I am liking what I am consuming. I mean just by naming my restaurant (if I open one) Mc Paritosh OR Mc Whatever will I become a super duper hit? I have this craving for a good coffee badly, Starbucks, does it tops the first thought on my mind, to be honest NO. Starbucks as a name is a no-name when it comes to coffee. Does it sound like one to you?
LG, Samsung, Honda, Maruti how do they sound like a car? Do you hear engines revving up in your ears the moment you hear these names?
I am certain about something, these names don’t drive me to buy them!
I believe spending those crucial multi million dollars on creating that ohh so amazing Brand Name is all a bogus concept. Well, yes! those ohh so cool, award winning at Cannes branding majors might disagree with me. But then they have to, isn’t it? The bread and butter comes from there!
What’s my take on this?
Its simple (not the way Ranbir Kapoor makes it dumb in his Docomo Ads). Its simple in the way that, people buy what gives them performance. So whether it is normal petrol OR some buster muster premium petrol, if my car gives me the best performance with normal, I am okay with calling normal as normal and buying it.
Brand Logo’s: I learnt this lesson from my 3 year old nephew. He bought this helicopter with a remote control but what appealed to him was not the branding which came with it and not the colors, but he got excited when he saw how fast and high the helicopter actually flew.
In my view what in reality leaves a strong recall with your consumer is your product/ service. If you are in the services industry you ought to understand the experience which your customers derive from your service. The experience is what drives him to ‘choose to buy you again’. If you are a product business then, making a Kareena bath in a bathtub with lots of soap on will not sell your soap. that’s DUMB. Your product must in all manner fulfill the promises you are making with your customers.
And the beer ended: the result
While we ended with the binging, we both (had to) agree with each other (he he) that brands must invest in places where it counts for the customer and in creating an experience. Yes, you can always be a Godrej basking in the glory of the brand re-organization drive which says that their brand is valued at a few billion dollars (I need to check the number again). But lets keep it at bay for now.
Though its been quite sometime that Iv seen a bollywood flick on the silver screen, but this weekend, I found the time just right and to take a flight into a world away from the usual life, Iv chosen to watch the third show of Tanu weds Manu tomorrow as it releases.
While I was getting the tickets booked online, there sure came an interesting thought. Its the Cricket World Cup time and this time around especially when the action in in the sub-continent, releasing a bollywood flick sure is a cracker, which may burst and make a ot of sound or it might just fizz out.
Thinking about the same I looked around to find out the logic behind the thought of releasing a movie during the CWC, when most producers and distributors fear that their movies may not get the kind of viewership, as expected.
Even before I did, I looked around online, as to what exactly is the response to the movie, pre-release on Social Networks and well, here are the statistics:
YouTube: one of the most popular videos (trailers) of the movie has: 233,276 views
Official facebook page: 64,273 fans
There is enough buzz online if you do a basic Google search!!
But does this buzz indicate a successful Box office hit? Well, not really! In the past there have been couple of not so successful attempts on releasing bollywood flicks during either crucial game time OR during national festivals and religious days, but the success rate has been pretty dicey.
A little birdie (source: aka: a friend, in the business of movie making) who is also close to analysts revealed that many initially believed that releasing TWM would be a step wrongly taken at this time of the year, but the producers were confident about the content, its quality and the fresh pairing which has worked wonders. The movie in its trailers shows every part of India which the viewer would see and say, Ohh Iv been there!
Nothing fancy about the movie, love and marriages have been subjects of bollywood movies before, but the way its been presented during the peak marriage season (taara chadha hua hai) as they say, I think is sure going to work positively for TWM.
Content wins the game
The key which I wanted to share with this blog post is the quality of content and the way its been positioned and propagated. The key here is content. The movie has a “real life” subject. Characters which you can almost relate with like your cousins in real life. Packaging the movie as a fun ride full of comedy, romance and laughter, for a couple of hours is sure going to give the much needed breath of a fresh ‘pair’ to the Indian cine goers.
And since there has not really been a movie which has touched cine goers with this fun lately and many disappointing releases have donned the Box Office, TWM has its stars bright.
I’ll post the review of the movie tomorrow after seeing it, as a comment to this post with my ratings out of 5, till then here’s the official un-censored trailer:
I remember while I used to work for a company in New Delhi, about 2 years back, I used to travel about 35 KMs one side each day and hence Radio in the car was one of the best companions.
One of the most intriguing channels undoubtedly in Radio was Meow FM, the one of its kinds Radio channel targeted only at women/ female audience. My reason of listening to this channel was obviously to understand how well is it being received and is there any engagement at all with the listeners.
Its been a long time though, but I still vaguely remember a late evening show by an RJ called Ginni, the show sure was one of the best in the scheme of things the channel had.
BUT – RE-BRANDING?
If the channel was doing well and the shows were picking up, what was the sense behind re-branding the same as OYE – Sabse Filmi?
Its an interesting thought. Recently while in conversation with a close friend in the industry, I learnt of the fact that the Indian consumer has very varied ways of consuming and engaging with content. My point was, now that the fairer sex is far stronger and has more freedom, Meow FM should have worked out very well. Infact it should have created a one of it’s only kinds establishments across India and possibly a new and very focused platform for advertisers with a target audience.
Perhaps I overlooked the numbers. OYE – Sabse filmi, is far from being a women only focused channel. Its a generic radio station like many others we already have, Radio Mirchi, Radio One, Big FM and the rest. There is nothing new as anyway even the other channels play bollywood stuff 24/7.
LETS LOOK AT CONTENT and the NICHE
Since the same time as I used to listen to Meow FM, I also became a big fan of HIT 95 FM, the only Radio Station which plays only International Music (English majorly) 24/7.
A fantastic business model of 3 RJ’s only chugging along throughout the day and well, people sure did engage on their games, contests etc. I myself have won twice on two separate occasions on their shows.
But recently while talking to a close friend again I got to know that somehow its not really working out too very well for them and may be there’s a possible sell-out on the cards. (Disclaimer: this is an unconfirmed piece of text and hence has no substance to it).
SO WHY ARE NICHE RADIO STATIONS NOT WORKING OUT TOO WELL?
Well, Sure, Niche radio stations have the right mix of content and are targeted towards a particular audience, but somehow there is a flaw in the business model, such that not many of them are able to sustain their niche status throughout their lifetimes.
Lets look at the various things involved and try breaking it down:
Content
Primarily you listen to radio as a along-side activity, while you are already engaged in doing something else (Eg: while driving, while cooking, while writing, while travelling) etc.
Content obviously is a major pull here. If you don’t play the right kind of music, well, sure you are going to put off your listeners faster than you think, coz to change a radio station is now as easy as to click/ press a button, which is far easy than to listen to a song you don’t like.
Niche radio stations have pretty much the same quality of content, they play the same kind of music as many other generic radio stations do. They have as good RJs, who can talk as well, as their counterparts.
Advertising opportunity
Obviously one of the major most revenue streams for any radio station is the advertising. Its actually a catch 22. A listener is most likely to change a radio station while an advertisement is on and generally the radio stations have these 2-3 minute advertising slots after a couple of songs, which sure is a dampener.
Though there are new model like 40 minutes non-stop music and the rest, but still advertising at a certain point in time works, the rest it leads to clicking of the button and changing of the frequency.
Niche radio stations are good advertising platforms as they command a higher and focused niche target audience.
Outreach
In the metros, we have a fairly well read and aware target audience, especially amongst the fairer sex, hence it becomes all the more attractive, with the decision making capability and buying capacity well in the hands of the target segments, these niche radio stations cater to.
When all is well, what are the reasons these niche radio stations are yet to pull of f a solid show?
In my view, what is lacking is a solid business model. The niche radio stations must look at engaging their audience through other media such as the Online media. Eg: creating an online community of Women in Delhi/ NCR. Such a database once segregated will give them another advertising platform and also will keep the audience engaged 24/7, by proliferating content where the audience are.
A solid and properly segregated database adds to the valuations of these niche radio stations and gives them a whole new platform to increase the outreach of their content, while maintaining their cost of delivery.
Yes Sir, I am asking this question. Being the CEO of a fast emerging Social Media for Enterprise company, I am asking you this question, are you kidding me, when you say, Social Media Marketing?
Social Media – When Did it Become All About Marketing?
Well, its been a little over 3 years and Iv been hearing a buzzzzzzz word (yes the buzz has been longer than I expected it to be) called: Social Media Marketing. I know of so many small and large companies who are making hay while the sun shines by doing something called: Social Media Marketing.
But Marketing – That’s it?
Is it all about just marketing? Is it? I have seen this media grow and its effects and the various ways which companies have leveraged this media in. From plain simple blogging to Viral campaigns, all’s been said and done.
There have been some pretty major campaigns which found their place under the sun and in the hearts of people. There were funny videos of Ghazal Singers Selling Microsoft Software to Online gangs of the fair sex selling beauty products.
Time to Learn!
Social Network: a social network is nothing other than a network group of people who may have multiple objectives to join the same.
When did it Become All about Marketing?
Well, when did Social Networks become all about marketing? Where did the whole aspect of a knowledge economy go? When did real knowledge collaboration take a back seat?
The Dynamics of Marketing and How Online Media has Affected Them?
There are major theories being written and shared all across the world. I agree no less, there’s definitely a fundamental shift which has taken place overtime, since people have started connecting globally with each other. Its really about empowerment. People today feel empowered with the sudden freedom of speech, sudden freedom of connecting globally, sudden expansion of vision and opportunities.
And since these people play various roles in their normal course of life: parents, students, employees, bosses, employers, buyers, sellers etc. hence each one of them see these social networks as a way to connect with like minded people globally, they feel empowered.
Are You Mar-Kidding?
I ask the marketers now, are you Mar-Kidding? Yes!
There is a whole new set of aware, jazzy, savvy customers online, so obviously they have to be tapped into. Lets become a Social Media Marketing company and help our customers connect with their prospects online. Great thought! And no doubts, businesses are investing into this media.
But let me share in my experience of why many businesses do:
Part of an experimental marketing budget
Businesses are yet to really see the powerful nature of this media. And why do I say that? Because let me go and ask how many of them can really quantify the results and how many of them really had clarity on their business objectives before even stepping into this mode and exploring the New Media as a marketing option!
My competition is there and they are somehow successful, I want to be as well
Let me put it straight and I actually put it the same way for my customers as well. If DELL made couple of million dollars in revenue by executing a solid strategic thought on the Social Media, leveraging channels like twitter and the concept of community building, well, yes it did. But that ends right there. There is no point creating a parallel.
I have to be online
If I am not online, I am lagging behind as a business. If nothing else, at least I would get more interesting insights about my business online.
I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ALL THIS
My problem is: many businesses, and when I say businesses, I come from experience across the board from Small and Medium enterprises to Large Enterprises, which operate globally. Many of these businesses are really not fully decided upon what their business objectives are for leveraging the Social Media.
And before I go ahead, my disclaimer is, just like in every domain there are good and bad both, hence I am not generalizing every company, but many run of the mill Social Media Marketing companies (who have normal Bcom pass graduates who may have never read what a brand really is, taking about branding) as their resources to save cost and increase margins, go to these businesses and tell them its about Marketing boss.
Your customers are here! They are already talking, you are missing the bus!
And even before the customer can actually sit and deliberate, he says, what the heck, let me just start with a small amount and rope this company as my vendor and test waters.
THIS IS RUINING THE MARKET
Today, I personally know of business owners (who are good friends), who invested quite some money into the Social Media and after 6 months said: okay I am here there everywhere, but I dont really get how my business got affected?
When you have inexperienced lots working with enterprises, you are actually delivering a cake which is half baked and which will eventually burn out. Its as simple as a Chinese Specialist trying an Italian Cuisine while writing on his LinkedIn profile, I am an Expert in Global Cuisines.
Why Are Majorly All Social Media Marketing Companies Saying: The Indian Customer is Not Able to Appreciate our Services
Well, this one is a common sentence and though many people may shy away from saying this in public, but Iv heard it from the horses’ mouth, owners of Social Media Agencies saying: Indian Customers are not paying us as much, they don’t appreciate these services as much.
I agree to Disagree.
Show the customer value and he will pay
– this has been my thought process since the very beginning and even today as I am running an emerging company, I know how far have we come and how fast have we actually evolved, all thanks to some fantastic mentors we have on board who come with a global perspective and insight.
A Practical Example
Since I like taking examples to effectively communicate with people, let me put across the story of Until ROI in few lines. We started as a run of the mill Social Media Marketing company but soon realized that being just another one would be NON-SENSICAL.
There is no point being a fish between sharks already there and more fishes mushrooming at every nook and corner.
That is when we decided to take help of mentors who come on board with over 100 + years of cumulative global experience. And well, we changed and changed for the good.
But what did we do?
Invested in people – we have a small but smart team of people who have relevant experience and sure we pay not just at par, in some cases, better than companies at least 20 times our size
INNOVATE – INNOVATE – INNOVATE – we came up with a whole new thought process for leveraging the New Media for businesses
Value Driven Solutions – our existing clients who needed more as they kept getting more insights into their businesses, we have been flexible enough to learn from their requirements and wallah, we have come up with some fantastic process based solutions
What’s been the result?
As a simple answer, we are a: Social Media for Enterprise company today with happy enterprise clients.
Final Word!
I would like all Social Media Marketers to actually help businesses help create strong processes, both Internal and External and help them bridge the gap with not only their customers externally (who pay) but also the customers internally (employees, management).
We must help businesses understand the dynamics of being Social and how and why must a business actually go towards going public and not let it become a small paying experiment.
Before I share my ordeal, I must say something, which as a small start-up we believe and as a leader, I truly, passionately believe in: employee first, Customer second is good, but only when your employees are trained enough with solid integrity to keep their commitments, otherwise, well, your customer will truly be a second and will probably stay with you as long!
HCL is one company, which I always used to cherish since my early days of entrepreneurship and the professional career, as a home made global brand!
But today as I stand, cheated, frustrated and upon being bombarded with FALSE PROMISES by HCL, I must put across that being a so called BIG 5 billion dollar global brand DOES NOT mean that you don’t care a zilch about your smaller retail customers, who are the reason of you being where you are!
The Ordeal!
A few days back HCL gave a full page print AD in the News Paper about the fact that they were giving away prizes and an assured Philips Home Theater with a HCL Desktop. There were certain numbers mentioned in the newspaper.
I called one of them and asked if its true (just to be double sure of every *conditions apply) and I dropped the call and went to the nearest market “Nehru Place”. The first shop I found there, with a genuine, HCL Brand Logo, a fairly big board which said ONLY HCL, upon enquiry, the shopkeeper said, YES Sir, this is the last day of this deal, go and register your product online and you will get your gift.
And that’s what I did. I brought the system home, and well its been over 1 month and after absolutely crappy and false promises of a truly “CUSTOMER SECOND” (Mr. Vineet Nayar, you stand tall to your claim here, your employees truly believe CUSTOMER SECOND) service, today I stand as cheated.
After I received a message from HCL about 15 days after the promotion was over and I had the system at my place, I called up a number mentioned in that SMS and a certain Mr. Kashish from HCL HQ referred me to Mr. Rahul (who happens to be their Online Marketing Head).
HCL’s Online Marketing Head Says – Its not my department, I am not at office today, please send me an Email and I will connect you to the right person – But its not our responsibility to keep a check on all what is happening in the market
Mr. Rahul, as a comment to you – I am an entrepreneur and run a much smaller company in Size as compared to HCL, but well, all my team members are empowered enough to SERVICE our customers in every way. Absolutely every way! Period. We know how to take responsibilities and owe up to them!
Anyway, I sent an Email to Mr. Rahul on May 20th, today its over a month and NO REPLIES. I presume Mr. Online Marketing head is a little too busy facebooking than looking at his customers, and if he is one, well, I must believe, he should reply back to this post immediately (if his team is tracking HCL’s reputation online).
A few weeks back
A few weeks back I got a follow-up sales call from a sweet talking lady to whom I repeated the entire case, and she said, Sir, I personally will take up this matter with the management and make sure your gift gets delivered. I was relieved.
But HCL – being what they are (CUSTOMER SECOND, your’s truly), we treat you as second always and forever, well, it was again an empty, totally blank promise with no substance to it. NO action, NO follow-ups, NO nothing!
What happens today?
Mr. HCL if you dont know what is happening in the market and if you are NOT interested in knowing what is happening to your market and who is duping your customers where, well, you truly are a company worth never doing business with.
Mr. online marketing head – Rahul, you still don’t really know what customer service is about, its passion, it runs in your veins and when you are truly passionate about your organisation and its brand, well, Sir, you care, without conditions!
Do I want this gift?
Mr. HCL, go play with the gift at your home and listen to songs. If you want some, I have a fantastic collection, I would be happy to share
Come find the soulmate for your daughter or the dream woman for your son on a website which says in its facebook ad:
Single available women and Get Sexy Babes on Your Desktop for Free and Looking for a girlfriend??! SHOCKING?? Well, yes, it is. I know of many a parents who are in the search for the suitable matches for their children and this is what the social networking site facebook says about this famous matrimonial site.
Let me put things in perspective now. While going through the facebook Ads, and randomly clicking on an Ad which said Single Available Women, was not my thing, but when it said, find your soulmate today at Shaadi free, I was hooked.
Is this a DATING site, I am going to? This is how my profile will be shown on an Ad tomorrow? Is this where I wish to find the best match for my son/daughter who are my future?
Is Shaadi.com not even clear about who they want to target the site to?
I today question the working of these so called matrimonial sites. I remember one of my research team members doing a research on matrimonial sites, sometime back, while I was consulting a new free matrimonial website in India, though I never knew this is what they will resort to, for generating traffic to their site.
Would you ever want your daughter’s picture on one of these Ads, saying Single Available Women!
I understand and agree that “Single available women” simply says that we have single women who are available for marriage on our site, but I protest by saying that there are better ways of putting across the message.
I have my own personal profile on Shaadi.com, though I dont use it and neither I would ever, but today I have a major doubt on their ethics. I dont know if my personal details are being shared across with some other site?
Just to earn clicks if this is what a site can resort to, to earn money they can resort to sharing personal data as well?!
The above captured URL’s (which have been sent to me, by a great friend, who is the founder of one of the best Design companies, and hence could capture the fast changing and re-directing URL’s) are PROOF how Shaadi.com guys are using indirect re-directs through third party hosts, to make you land up to their “Sexy Babes on Your Desktop” register page.
I call upon followers to show concern, as this is a matter of high priority where a single mis-representation of someone’s identity could harm an entire families reputation.
In my endeavor of establishing transparency and clarity in the, Ohh so amazing and new world of Social Media and Online Marketing, I am sure the series of posts I am doing now, will surely be an eye opener for clients.
Just sometime back, my strategy team did a search on the keywords, Social Media and India, and what we got were people who have sometime or the other in their professional lifetime, related to the Social Media industry. And since Social Media is not an age old concept, thus we started looking at the profiles of people who are currently into the profession.
To my UTTER AMAZE, the profiles, I was given were an absolute NO, if they were to handle my brand strategy not just on the internet but everywhere else. Interestingly, these people are recruited by not just the small Social Media ‘shops’ but the biggies in the business as well. Positioned highly, these guys are given fancy terms and well, the customer is sold!
Let me bring more clarity by looking at certain aspects of what my strategy team gave me, post the data analysis:
Education
Majority of these people have not done management (which I am not suggesting is necessary)
80% of them, do not have the words, Branding Consultant, Marketing, Positioning, Product life cycle, etc in their summary/ profiles
Current
The current profiles are all Social Media Strategist, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Executive
Past
There are people from BPO, from Technology, Adventure Tourism, Operations who are handling your So called Social Media Branding and Online Branding and Brand Creation and what not
Experience
Most of these people are fresh (1-3 years) of experience and are running the show
In my personal view, I completely agree that innovative thinking, creativity are needed, but is it that you will hand over your brand in the hands of someone who does NOT even understand what Brand stands for?!
This revelation by the team, surely opened my eyes towards how is the New Media industry being structured and shaping up. We are playing on chances and one of running successes.
I landed back from Mumbai just yesterday and surely it was great LIVE Blogging the biggest Leadership event ever in India. Out of my many experiences in the financial capital of India and the city of dreams. Bollywood stars and the rest, I found this very amazing example of simple yet striking innovation by an entrepreneur.
This is what I found:
What you see in the picture above, no its not a Google van! Its the freshest and the best Gola (ice candy) made of fresh mineral water and fruit juices called Gogola India.
I bumped across this van while I was going for a meeting on the Hill street near the Globus mall in Mumbai and just for the fun of it and to interact with the van guys, I did buy two Golas from the van. The van looked pretty okay (a second hand maruti van) with all the electrical machines inside to make a good gola in seconds.
Interestingly, the menu is like an IE page, which gives you all the options of the various flavors available simple, yet unique!
The Revenue figures of a single van which stands since 12pm till late in the night and keeps rotating in between two streets in Mumbai are:
Daily sale (golas): 300 (in good times) 150-200 (in normal business days)
Price per gola : INR 30
Positioning of van is changed on weekdays and weekends
There are more than 10 vans in the city, doing the rounds
My Feedback and Comments as an Incubation Consultant:
Good to see that the logo has been duly trade-marked (good asset)
Good revenue model (taking in consideration, all operational costs, costs of building the supply chain, maintenance of vehicle etc.)
Simple and effective!
The Gola I had, was pretty good and was surely packed in a healthy manner, with properly kept juice/ color bottles.
I very strongly feel, the kind of Innovation we have in India, is amazing! Its simplistically brilliant and a concept which can surely become into an auto-generating proposition, and once your brand is recognizable, and you have a size, you can diversify.
"We thought we understood social media marketing and seo optimization fairly ok but after our one on one session realized many of the fundamental mistakes we were making plus learnt many new tools. Overall an investment I would recommend every entreprenuer to make"
- Nidhi, Founder CEO, Pinnacle Works
