New Media, Marketing and Entrepreneurship

This is one of the best wins of my social media/ Internet career and I am feeling amazingly excited today. So here’s the story. The last blog I wrote on MakeMyTrip.com’s customers posting negative comments on their official fb page, got some interesting feedback.

And Here’s the Experiment

So, what I did was simple. I reached out to 3 people who had left negative comments on the MMT facebook fan page. When I say I reached out, I simply went to there fb profiles and sent them a message. A message which clearly said that I am not a MMT employee/ representative but someone who is amazingly passionate about customer service and obviously about creating a great organisational structure, which is driven by the customer WOWness.

After sending the message, I waited for them to reply and so the reply came, of 2 gentlemen, who had faced genuine problems in their respective cases while transacting with MMT.

And so came the reply

When I received the reply it was all about sharing by these gentlemen about how they faced problems and what solution would suffice them and what suggestions they have for MMT.

The reply was forwarded to relevant people at MMT and they Swung into ACTION

I forwarded the reply to the relevant people at MMT and wallah, they swung into action. Interestingly I was not even aware what was happening, till I got this ping on fb by this gentleman who said, Paritosh thanks, my issue has been sorted out and I have my refund from MMT. The issue was taken care of within hours of you reaching out to me.

I had and still have no Interest whatsoever in this story

Why did I do all this? Well, I have no personal interests. Neither am I being paid by anyone here, just that MMT is one company I have always respected, especially for the leadership it has in the form of Deep Kalra, someone I deeply respect. I personally could not see it going down like this and hence took the step of trying to get it right.

Social Media and Brand Reputation

People talk about social media and brand reputation (ORM), well, here’s a simple example of how a customer who was utterly negative about MMT, finally wrote a wonderful, thanking comment on the official MMT fb page

There’s no magic here, just pure passion for customer service and to see MMT from great to Greatness! I am happy that it all worked out well and that this experiment created an actual POC and a roadmap of what one needs to do. You don’t need to invest shit loads of money into your social media, you have to be passionate about your customer and the service.

Lets see if I do get a recommendation by MMT now he he..

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Yes Sir, Make My Trip.

This is for sure one of the most interesting posts I have ever done and why? Well, because it has everything which takes you from being Good to Great! From sweat to passion, challenges to emotions and much more. Lets start with the present and rewind…

What I did Yesterday on facebook, post a few phone calls:

A couple of days back, while conversing with couple of folks, about Indian entrepreneurs who have made it large and have created powerful Inspiration for many others, I cited Deep Kalra of Make My Trip. Personally I have said it multiple times and once again on record, Deep is one of the best folks Iv met and admire. Out of the many, Iv learnt the lesson of humility and humbleness from him.

Coming to the discussions we had, some folks pointed out, how they knew of relatives and friends, who have had bad experiences with Make My Trip. (For those who don’t know MMT) it created a history of sorts post its listing at NASDAQ on August 12th 2010. That day MMT created another milestone in the history of Indian entrepreneurship and gave wings and fire to zillions of dreams!

Now while the discussions were happening, I was very much only in the listening mode, as it was interesting for me to note reactions of these people who have been MMT customers at some point of time themselves.

My assessment: most of them were really referring to experiences they know other’s had and did not have personal stories to tell!

Moving On…

I searched the official https://www.facebook.com/mmtdeals. The page actually had some pretty sad experiences listed by customers of MMT. Most of them really referring to the ‘customer service’. To actually gather real feedback, I posted the following on my fb wall:

Right after I did this post, people started commenting and sharing. Though there were no real harsh comments (no more harsher than mine).

What happened in a few minutes?

In under 10 minutes of sharing this update, I got a tweet from @makemytripcare: I loved it. When I say I loved it, I mean it. Coz there was someone who followed my fb post through twitter and responded within minutes in a very neutral manner!

But what about the bad experiences on fb?

As always, I try my level best to really get the facts right and from the horses’ mouth. I reached out to the relevant representative(s) from MMT and apprised them of what’s happening on fb.

Interestingly, what came out was, that each of the issue as posted by the customers’ was actually being looked into and many of them actually being responded back. Just that the same was not followed up strongly on the social web.

Example: have a look at this:

Obviously there is more negative than the positive on the page, but there is actual action being taken, which is not being presented the right way, which is obviously creating a very negative context in the customer’s minds towards the brand MMT.

But There is an an issue for Sure!

Yes! There sure are issues and they happen with every organisation which is ever growing. Though obviously every growing organisation strives to achieve greatness, there always are challenges which convert into learning’s and those who learn, they grow to the next level.

My personal interaction with the top management of MMT ensured that there is actual response and action being taken to set things right.

An Email from MMT

I got this official communication from MMT, which said: “Thanks for sharing your candid and valid feedback. We’re passionate about Customer Service AND social media so disappointed to see where this is getting dropped. Will investigate and fix it”

And this is not from a customer care exec over the phone, that I can vouch for with my personal reputation. I don’t mean to demean any position here. Each one, from the lowest in the hierarchy to the top boss, makes for a strong organisation.

Its You and Me who Make the Story!

I want to raise a major question now and I ask of each one of you to introspect and you will know what’s wrong here. Its not the company which is bad. Who is the company? Nothing but you and me.

I personally know of so many people I would not like to work with in my lifetime, when I start-up again, because they are working only with one motivation, to make money to run their lives and have no passion for what feeds them and their children!

That’s the issue. There is only as much an organisation can do to motivate and inspire people, but if you have a problem with your attitude, well, then its a problem and you need to get out OR be made to part ways. Period. I strongly feel, that I am as much part of the issue here.

As a customer, if I am facing an issue with a service provider, let me own it up and make myself heard. And rightly so, people post on social media. But its also upon me to ensure that my message reaches to the right people, such that the issue I faced is NOT faced by others. The story won’t end only with my issue being resolved. A system which I am a part of (directly OR in-directly) will affect me, one day or the other, if I won’t help, make it better!

Someone has to own it up and why can’t we, the customers? The company will.

These are Challenging Times and You Can’t Leave a System, Coz its Not Working for You!

For all those who are a little in tune with the global dynamics int he online travel industry, there is much consolidation in the space and there is a lot happening in the domestic space with airlines directly reaching out to the customers. These are challenges which every online travel company is facing and is braving them!

Now, lets take it this way: if a system has started slowing down for me, OR somehow losing its efficiency, will I leave it and find another green ground somewhere OR can I still stand up and put up a stand and make a difference?

Well, personally I choose the second option. I won’t leave, till the system is absolutely worthless and is like dead for me.

Say it out Loud and I will help You Get Heard by the Right People

As a first step, let me open this out as a forum to anyone and everyone, who has had a bad experience with MMT over the past 1 month. Please be specific in your comments and I will take them to just the right folks and get the answers.

Let’s help the dream of one of the few Indian Internet Billion Dollar Companies, raise its game and create many more dreams!

Expectation Setting

Let me clarify straight ahead, that comments to this post will be moderated and anything which is a comment on a personal basis will NOT be entertained.

Creating Smiles!

Lets get the SMILES back and get the dream run, running faster!!

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This is one post which I have been forced to write. Not by someone, but my own personal experience(S). I have this habit of spending my ‘driving time’ (when I am driving back from work) quietly, to think about what I did the whole day and how have things evolved in life. I try and re-inforce the learning’s from mistakes committed and look at new directions.

Though I don’t really have decades of experience, but in whatever I do, I have seen a particular trait in the Indian worker. We fail at implementing processes. There is a lot of technology as well out there, but somehow we fail at adapting it as well. Interestingly I have always worked in smaller set-ups in my life, which has always helped me to be critically involved in either setting up something and scaling it up OR evolving an existing set-up by challenging the usual ways of doing things.

Processes and Execution

When you work in smaller set-ups what you are able to critically learn are processes. I have mostly seen the Indian worker being a little off the mark when it comes to setting result oriented processes. Especially when it comes to setting a process from the scratch and building a system of result oriented numbers around the same, which enables the process handler to understand the success of the process and better the same if required.

The approach I follow

Almost everytime, I have faced the challenge of doing something new, I have always stepped back and looked at the situation/ task in hand from the ‘customer’s point of view, as to what does the customer really want and then assess, if the delivered value is the same.

Once set, I generally break down the objective into smaller steps and do a match the steps with the customer needs/ requirements. At each step, I create a forcible intervention with statistics around. This essentially is to ensure that if the process has a leakage/ break-down somewhere, the numbers will suggest the same and it can be improved.

The Planner and the Doer

But its not simply about setting the process. Its also about how simple can you make it for other team members (who will be working with you to action the whole thing). I am certainly not trying to make things robotic here, which restricts innovation and free thinking by the people involved. What I am suggesting is, to set easily executable strong processes, backed by numbers at every critical stage. At times these numbers have to in the form of forcible interventions, which give you critical data to suggest what works and what does not.

Why this post now?

Well, in my current role, I am working on something which obviously excites me. The way I am approaching it is simple, to understand the customer first, to understand their requirements and expectations. Then I am excavating deep knowledge from the right people within my organisation. This is essentially a forcible intervention which has been created with some initial statistics around. The next step is to create smaller executable steps for the members of the team who should not find it difficult to work it all out. While all this is happening, there obviously is a bigger vision around the entire activity.

A part of this post has also been inspired by the need of the young entrepreneur. There are several young folks who approach our organisation to look for mentoring. What I critically see missing in them is a process oriented approach which can provide critical data overtime enabling stronger and more focused, decision making.

If you are a start-up and need strategic help in processes and execution, drop me a mail:

paritosh@tienewdelhi.org

The TiE Delhi – NCR team and powerful team of mentors (top industry pros) will surely be guiding help!!

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Ol Rite, ladies and gentlemen, I have an interesting challenge for all you marketing guru’s out there. There is a new TV soap coming on BIG Magic called, Chulbulay Bulbule.

Okay, so what’s the big deal in a TV soap?

There aint a big deal here, but how do you market this ‘another in line’ comedy soap so well, that the audience get engaged and never again forget the name. How do you create a solid brand recall to the name, while keeping the marketing budget low? How do you innovate?

Lets get the marketing folks running their brains now!

So this is where it all begins. Marketing folks on the design table, understanding the TG from the client. Rattling their creative brains, they get together to design a powerful campaign. They advise the client on how to optimally choose marketing spends across print, digital, TV etc. Numbers will be shared and the campaigns will keep coming.

But there’s something still missing: Listen Hard!

Listening skills are great if you have them as a strong point. If you can strongly listen to someone and filter the information and structure it your way, it becomes far more easier and effective to create powerfully engaging propositions.

In the name of the soap above, it’s ChulBulay Bulbulay, the 2 words ‘heard’ mutually exclusively have an interesting product being spoken about which is also an engaging experience to make and anyone can make it actually: bulbulay! Yes, you ‘heard’ me right. Its bulbulay! BulBulay for the English folks are small water bubbles.

The most common of these can be seen each night at the India Gate Lawns.

User Behavior and Engagement

To make a bulbula, you have to pick up that soap filled water and blow a stream of air from your mouth on the plastic holder, which makes water bubbles light enough to float in the air, which you then love to burst!!

Open the IMPACT magazine and you will find something interesting this time!

The IMPACT magazine, printed by the exchange4media group in India, comes with one such plastic tube with soap water inside which upon opening simply gives you the instructions to make water bubbles. The plastic tube is obviously branded with the name of the program to be aired soon.

Interestingly wen you open the magazine, you notice this insert and you open the tube to make bubbles. This is simply such an amazingly engaging activity, which gives you instant results which you love seeing. In this too very complex world of advertising and marketing, a simple proposition which the customer engages with himself/ herself is fantastic.

High recall and stickiness with fantastic engagement in a highly usable manner!

The usability of the water bubble tube is so high that anyone can do it and hence the proposition reaches out from the magazine reader (professional) to his family (wife, kids). They as much engage or even more, with the proposition. Its a good learning from this exercise which effectively makes the marketing campaign absolutely simple and highly engaging. The simplicity and ease of understanding is another.

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All right. So the word is out and I have to start this post with a clear thought that if you are proud of being an “Active on Social Media” business, then you are being plain simple dumb!

Don’t make any assumptions about what’s next in this post after reading those words above. I have been hearing so much of the word “social” lately, that I feel the buzzword is nearing its exhaustion in the usage of the context. Businesses are just lining up to be social. I have seen so many companies who are “wanting to be social” int he recent times, that I strongly feel, they don’t even have their basic customer understanding and service right.

What I want to clearly deliver to businesses is, that being social is not about something drastically different! Its just another extension of being there. The ultimate goal of the business is to serve the customer is the best possible manner and being social won’t replace this.

Set it In Your Culture!

Being social is not simply a marketing function. Its the mindset, I strongly believe. Its one thing having a great facebook fan page, a great looking YouTube channel with many hundreds of views, but its a whole different game to have “engaged audience”, for the same. In my view its a simple black is black and white is white proposition. If you understand your customer bloody well and are serving them in the manner they expect from you, well, then, being social will automatically fetch you engaged and active fans. You will not have to pump in those many hundreds of marketing dollars and then start a cycle of engaging your fans to make them from mere listeners to active contributors.

Are You Sure You Understand and Know Your Customer Bloody Well?

Most of the companies that I work with, while creating their social media strategies, my first thought simply is to understand the audience. And NO, I DON’T look at the audience from the mindset of a salesman. I clearly and simply look at understanding, who is the influencer, who is the decision maker, who is the ultimate consumer and what all do they expect from the business!

To me its simple, if you have not been able to create a satisfied and engaged customer, someone who listens to when you communicate, well, you will always keep fighting for engaged fans on social media as well.

So many businesses today are leveraging the digital medium to present a proposition, what they are missing is a very critical and powerful point. Everyone online today has the power and freedom to express by creating content and hence if you promise something and don’t stand upto the experience, well, you will one day be written about and that day aint too far!

Connect With the Core Human Motivation to Do Things!

My personal view is that social is no different from the usual way of connecting with your customer. For a while just think of a world which was a few decades back. When businesses used to communicate and reach out to customers in a ‘now rudimentary’ format of physical letters etc. the call to action was simply based on exploring the customer motivation and delivering the same as an incentive.

Going social though has made companies lose out on the understanding the customer’s basic motivation bit. Most businesses outsource the social part to agencies who again are working with limited manpower, with more constrained knowledge of the still nascent digital media. And these agencies well, many customers can share their personal experiences!

For God’s Sake Campaigns Won’t Fetch You Actively Engaged Fans!

I must speak it out loud, marketing folks please understand, if your objective is to create a buzz, great campaigns work. Yes they do. If its about creating actively engaged fans, well, a short-lived, time constrained campaign might not be the right approach. You might be successful in acquiring a fan through a campaign, but will that fan be actively engaging in future. I have serious doubts and have examples to share from my own experience.

Understand Your Customer, Do the Basic Right and You Will Win!

All you need to do to win the social world as well is to do the basic right. Ensure that you are reaching out to your customers and creating active touch-points with him/ her, which enable you to collect critical data about the customer. His/ Her preferences, Likes/ Dislikes/ Motivations etc. Once you have this existing, you will be able to develop a far stronger strategy to reach out to the set of people online who would have the highest probability of converting for you as an actively engaged fan.

Remember, A Real Smile is Anyday Better Than a Smiley!!

As I always say, a real smiley is always far more effective than a digital one. Create powerfully engaging and NOT SELLING touch-points with your customers in the ‘real’ offline world. Once your customer comes in your communication and listening range, then create the motivational pulls online!

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This one’s going to be interesting. Just a couple of days back, the Noida DND Flyway, which is one of the fastest ways to commute between Delhi and Noida, announced a toll hike of INR 2 for four wheelers, which in figures is INR 22 from INR 20 previously and INR 1 for two wheelers.

Now this is not the first ever toll hike in recent years, but what is interesting about this hike is the purpose with which it has been done. For people who are new to the entire thing, let me give a little introduction on the numbers:

According to a news report by the Times of India, in February 2011, almost 1 lakh vehicles use the DND Flyway daily. I am myself a daily user of the DND Flyway and I see a fairly large number of four wheelers using the DND Flyway on a daily basis.

I asked this question (why did DND Flyway increase the toll) to many people before this blog and almost everyone responded with an obvious answer, to increase their revenue. Now that’s obvious.

User Behavior and Revenue – penny saved is a penny earned

Lets look at the picture from a user behavior perspective! If you are using the toll plaza, you obviously are wanting to save on time and that’s why you are ready to invest money into crossing the toll, otherwise you are always free to use the kalindi kunj, Yamuna flyover, which is generally jammed during rush hours. Having INR 2 in your pocket each time you pass the toll plaza will sooner than later, become a frustrating activity. You cannot always keep looking for change and hence spend more time doing what you were initially doing to save time for.

Chances are, you will one day reach out and get yourself a silver/ gold card made, which will make your commute far simpler and easier. The cards will do couple of things:

• Ensure that the Toll plaza confirm revenue at the first level of transaction itself
• Reduce ground staff in terms of the actual toll management personnel and invest into better resources probably
• Get correct data figures which help in strategic decision making

All of this, by simply playing with the user behavior. This is an interesting case which pretty much reflects, how powerful can real customer understanding can be. If you understand your customer amazingly well, you will always be able to visit and re-visit and engage your customer just the right way.

User behavior understanding and knowledge of the customer has led to making of brands like Apple and the amazing products that people take pride in owning today. Get the lesson straight, its about your customer and how well you know him/ her, so get this piece right and you will be on your way to a great business!

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Of all the things in the world, money makes everything go round and round. And well, in today’s times, when everything around you is growing, so is the inflation, when the top chart-buster song of the year is: mehngaai dayan khaaye jaat hai, you obviously need to ensure that you manage your money well.

Managing Money

Now, in my life, I have my parents, my wife, my grandma, everyone has their own view of how to manage money. And interestingly when I hear of their views, I feel like wow, how have we as humans evolved overtime to reach to where we are and how was our parent’s time and their tryst with earning money and building things from bottoms up and what times do we live in, when we have increasing buying power in our hands and we are growing!

The Challenge With Managing Money:

The biggest challenge which I see and have encountered with managing money is to keep a constant track of it while I am constantly on the move. Let me confess, life has become so upwardly mobile that today I check about my health as well, on my mobile devices. As we are growing to the next level of growth, we are getting dependent on technology to simplify our lives.

Thank God, My bank is in My Pocket!

YES! I am not kidding and neither have I lost it and sure I haven’t yet gotten a free debit card with unlimited cash to spend. What I do have is, I am a customer with the Standard Chartered bank, since the past couple of years. While I have been banking with them, overtime, I realized that in my tenure with them, I have rarely gone to the branch. The online banking is so fast and quick, that it serves me everything and in no time.

Sure, I had my own doubts in terms of being a “private bank” and how will it survive the Indian shores, but as their campaign says, here for good, I believe it now.

A Fresh Breeze of Mobility

Recently I got to know that SCB has launched a mobile banking platform across all possible devices and platforms which we know of today called: Breeze! I mean from iPhone to Nokia to whatever you can imagine, its there! So effectively speaking, now I have the bank in my pocket wherever I go, whatever I be doing. Its simple.

Why am I so happy about it that it occupies a space on my blog, well, because I realize how easy will it now be for me to access my bank without any hassles.

How does it look like?

As I always do, a sneak peek into the whole new world of easy, fast and on the move banking in your pocket!

And obviously I expect my bank to give this to me at no extra cost, so have they. The app is free for download on any mobile device you use.

Happy breezing, I am personally satisfied that SCB understands, as we grow ahead and move faster, technology has to make our lives simpler and not complex. Good to be your customer guys, keep up the great work!

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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!

Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mO7qCYLnaTc/TZmsjWR-4iI/AAAAAAAACAA/B6KGupGPA98/s1600/halls%2Bapril%2Bfools.png

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.

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Social Media Marketing – are your kidding me?

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.

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Before I venture ahead into this post, I would like to extend an honest “Thank You” to everyone who has stood by me, towards raising up Until ROI. Though I may not be able to put all the names, let me try and recount all I can in the time I have:

My Mom, Kamal Sir (my graduate school professor), Avinash Raghava (the turning point of my professional life), Neha (a great support), Sarika (one who knows, I’d be too lazy to work on what she says always, till she scolds me bad ), Sonam Budhiraja (a great support to Until ROI), Akanksha Seth (a great friend), Gargi Sharma (a great support and a fantastic human), Geetu Mam (this is one lecturer whom I used to adore in college times , one lecture I never bunked)

The first turning point in life

Just a little over 3 years back I bumped online into someone who, with his insights and thoughts, actually helped me evolve as an individual. Avinash Raghava from NASSCOM. Avi has been both a mentor, guide and a friend of sorts.

I remember, when I had this super lucrative job offer from a large company, Avi called me up and actually helped me decide by saying: Paritosh, Job or Until ROI. And he said, if you utter Until ROI, well, we wont discuss the job part again. And we did not. And today Until ROI has challenges, but we are poised to create a success story, a part of India’s growth story!

Avi, as I call him, and many others too, extracted the best out of me by making me always push for raising my level of performance. And I am so thankful to him always for this.

The Second Time, Life Took a Turn

This one encounter with a gentleman called Rajiv Mittal, has been one of the steepest learning curves in my life. Rajiv Sir as I call him always, is a Mentor, not just to me but for Until ROI. He is one of the best people undoubtedly who you must work with once in your lifetime in the industry.

Rajiv Sir, has helped me evolve as an entrepreneur over the past 6 months and is now helping me transition into a well bred CEO. And Mind you, he’s not another mentor, who will come and share his insights. He actually has sat with me overnights, late at work, helping me work on various aspects of business, running a venture, raising capital and much more.

I am not sure about the others reading this blog, but how many times the mentor actually takes your work and does it?!

And well, in all honesty, its not really the fact that he’s just been a client, its a relationship on a different level. Try telling your boss/ mentor/ Chief, that I dont agree to you and go up against his views and put up a fight, well, chances are somewhere it snaps. With Rajiv Sir, its on the other level. We argue, we listen, we learn and at the end of the day Iv always actually seen that his experience wins. His insights into what may happen right/ wrong actually proves right.

For Emerging companies, having the right insights at the right time is very crucial and obviously you as an entrepreneur, must always be ready to learn and un-learn from such people in your life. Be open, and you will create magic faster!

I surely am excited to be on the path to raising up a successful enterprise and contribute to the nation’s growth thank you all again, look forward to your support always!

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