Marketing Hypnosis......

Yesterday was a great Monday for me, I was refreshed and had a great weekend with my friends at Chennai and returned back to the developing rural land at the place where I work. I was feeling very energetic and the very first thing I wanted to do was to sit in my desk, log on to my virtual world and write something on my blog. But like always I was short of topics. But as the time passed one lady in my office made me think over something very important. She was actually looking forward to buy a Television the coming festival season and was trying to get some reviews and information about different brands. While she was conversing with her colleague about the same, I poked in between (which is my regular habit) and started giving my non-sensible advice.  I asked her which segment of the Television is she buying for which I got a reply saying LED. I advised her not to by LED, instead go for LCD. She said that LED will give a great level of comfort to eyes and wont effect your eye lot. This made me think over it again and again with the following questions :

I think there is an unseen earthquake in the Bell Curve!!

Reading the title of this post, I am dead sure that majority of you may be thinking as to what this slim and weird guy means by "BELL CURVE"?. For those of you who are not the student of Marketing, I will take excuse from the ones who knows marketing and would cover up the next few lines of this post with the definition and history of Bell Curve and its resemblance to Marketing.

Everette Rogers  , professor of rural sociology, explains in his famous book "Diffusion of Innvoations" about how the purchasing psychology of individual vary from person to person. He says that there are 5 types of categories into which these individual patterns can be captured and segregated, 

1. Innovators,

2. Early Adopters,

3. Early Majority,

4. Late Majority and 

5. Laggards.

These categories are shown in the picture just beside. This is based on a concept of Mathematics called "BELL CURVE".

Brands and Bands - The Hyper Sonic Marketing...

As any other Indian citizen I have been brought up watching movies and TV serials which are filled with variety of songs. As a kid I used to enjoy the jingles and anthems that used to be a part of the advertisements which used to flash after every few minutes of a program. In fact I was so crazy about those jingles and anthems that I set the britania biscuits tone which syncs as "tin tin tidin" as my message alert tone for my first mobile phone. One day while I was going through the Brand Equity News paper, I heard about a branch of Marketing named "Sonic Marketing/Branding". Sonic Marketing refers to Marketing your brand with a musical feel. For example : Airtel tone, Nokia mobile tone, Britania's tin tin titin, Titan watch tone etc and etc. But today I find the concept of Sonic Marketing taking a curve into something which can be termed as Hyper Sonic Marketing. Brands have always been using jingles and music but suddenly they are extending their engagement levels with music to a new highs. 

I want is to be a part of Credible India!!!!

Hope is the most essential feeder for growth in any nation. What Hope asks for is focus to build a nation that is compassionate, humble, confident and above all a great one.

The great Indian obsession with wanting to be a great power is impractical, completely undesirable and nonsensical. I want India to be a GREAT NATION instead of just a GREAT POWER. I want a CREDIBLE INDIA instead of being a part of INCREDIBLE INDIA, because:

• Great Powers destroy, Great Nations Nurture
• Great Powers are built by Rulers, Great Nations are built by its Citizens

Unfortunately contemporary History is filled with many such examples which supports this thought. Without exception many nations who were once super power failed to the core; be it the Roman Empire, French or the British Empire. All of them have been liquidated. The American empire is now teetering on the brink of collapse.

Twitter , Politicians and Politicking

Twitter - one of the widely used social networking site has been witnessing a great hungama with the tweets and counter tweets from Politicians from all around the world. Head of states and governments of at least 125 countries are represented on Twitter. The density of tweeting varies from person to person though. 

Very few leaders tweet regularly and tend to use it more as pre-election engagement tool. 

It will not come as an surprise today to see National Leaders, International Leader and the World Leaders tweeting from their tablets, laptop and mobile phones every now and them at not so common timings. US President Barack Obama was the first World Leader to get on Twitter in March 2007; He is also one of the most popular politician on the micro blogging site with more than 16 million followers. 

The Yogi and the Commissar.......

The Yogi and the Commissar.......

Its almost been an year that the urge for a Lokpall bill is fuming in the belly of Mr.Anna Hazare and his followers. It also have been very long that the wants of Baba Ram Dev addressing the issue of Black money to be brought back to India is left unanswered. 

The Yogi is back again, but not with the old attitude of just being a bhola bhaala (Innocent) religious leader but as an activist who is looking for a change and for the betterment of his country. 

The title of this post is copied from the great Arthur Koestler's write up titled "The Yogi and the Commissar" where he speaks of the "Yogi" who seeks change within and for the betterment of the surroundings and humanity. He seeks a change so that he can transform the world. On the other side is the "Commissor", for whom only what matters is power and for whom change comes from without not from within. 



The Nation is witnessing a great match between "The Yogi" followed by his followers and the battalion of corrupt, unpredictable, power hungry politicians and bureaucrats on other hand. But between these two lies the India of intellectuals, business tycoons, new rich entrepreneurs, business man ,traders and the new middle class. But it is sad to notice that the intellectuals lives in the dream world of Ivory and don't want to dirty their hand in politics or join protests like the one of Ramdev to bring change (a very little percentage being exceptional). The tycoons hunting with the hounds and running with the hares are ready to prostrate themselves before every political party and place their bets on multiple horses as they know that peoples mandate and liking for political parties keep changing like seasons. The middle class lives in a cocoon of their comfort zone spending most of their time in working, spending time with family and friends, seeking entertainment etc neglecting the issues which are plaguing the nation. 

If I note all this I find that with all their faults, Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare are better than the best of us irrespective of what kind of allegations related to funds and IT are charged or raised against them. 

I just hope that we see India shining and being called as "The Golden Bird" of the world......

Regards,
Rohit Tiwari

You don’t get it right with one eye closed!!!

You don’t get it right with one eye closed!!!

Ever imagined how does it sense to look around with one eye closed? I guess many of us have tried that and also have found that you don’t get to see the complete picture of the view in front of you. And none of us would want to be the pirate character whose one eye is covered with a black cloth.

In real life if we want to see the world with two eyes open, then why don’t we understand that we gotta see the business world even with the same two eyes open. In majority of cases the students at Business School or academic institutions and the newly joined freshers at the offices are trained in a way to see the world with only one eye open.  I recently had few converstaions with the newly passed out MBA’s from different B-Schools who joined different national and multi-national companies. Majority of these people said that what they were taught at the B-schools was no where in connection to the reality. The major problem which every one faced was they were trained to be a specialist in one subject of business management without connecting the dots with the other areas of management. For Example: one person who specialised in marketing  working in a shipping company had the problem while closing the deals with the clients because he had the best knowledge in marketing but no knowledge of finance, operations and law.

Therefore for any successful business professional today it is a must that he doesn’t see the business world with one eye closed. He/She should posse’s knowledge in each and every area of Business management. it 

Regards,

Rohit Tiwari

Untapped Market – “THE POOR”

The world is getting smaller as a result of Globalization. The distance between people, cities, states and nations is narrowing down to very minimal because of the development in the technology in the areas like tele communication, internet and transportation and so on. It was very difficult for someone who lived during 1800’s to think of reaching England from India in just a journey of less than 24 hours; the local transport from one city in south to capital city of India would have cost a more than 24 hours of time for a person during those days. Likely it was next to impossible to think about having an instrument called mobile phones which will make the communication easier than just easy.

But look at today; the generation living today is more equipped with all those speedy and flashy gadgets and instruments which have made life more and more comfortable. Almost every product from every company – from a pencil to a laptop to a limousine to an airplane is available in every part of the world. The markets throughout the world are almost covered and companies are looking forward to find new fresh markets to get into.

SO, what could be the left over untapped market which these companies should be planning to get into? The answer is not hidden somewhere; the companies have actually found out the world’s only untapped market and the market is “the market for BPL (below poverty line)”.

Many companies (nationals and multinationals) are investing their time and money on conducting research to find out ways and means to tap their feet into this untapped market. The primary base for this kind of market is the rural areas. Majority of the companies in the world are heading towards finding out the ways and means to get in to the rural markets of the continent of Africa and the subcontinent of India.  Now, the developed world already reaching its saturation level and the developing world still figuring out ways and means to develop, corporations are vetting their luck upon the rural markets which they feel are the most potential and less exploited markets ever.

Let us see some examples of companies and industries getting into the rural markets with focus upon the Indian subcontinent. Hindustan Unilever Limited- the sister concern of the FMCG giant Unilever entered the rural areas of India during the early 80’s with an innovative idea set of providing its products in the form of the sachets at very minimal and affordable prices to the rural customers. HUL still backs upon its much acclaimed “Lady Shakti” program which it launched in the rural areas where female residents of the rural India goes from door to door explaining about HUL’s products and selling it and making their living out of it.

Likely, it would not be surprising to know that rural India uses and subscribes to mobile phone and its services far much more than the urban Indians do.  Same is the case with the DTH technology; the growth of DTH technology is more in the rural areas when compared to the urban areas.

The reasons may be many. Firstly rural India has a mix blend of poor and rich people. There are people as rich as an owner of BMW or Mercedes in urban India who lives in rural India. For example few rural citizens in Punjab own their personal limousine and Bentleys which a moderately rich class of people in urban India cannot afford. But also on the contrast there are also rural residents who survives on $2 a day which in India is considered moderate (Indian law as today says that BPL= <20 rupees a day).

There are various schemes and innovations being done in the area of selling which is being customized for the prospects in the rural areas (mostly the poor customers). Understanding that it would be troublesome for the people in BPL category to invest in the products which are very expensive- the companies have started pool buying - where individuals in the same locality or community buy a product together and use it for mutual benefits. The seller (the company) will provide financial assistance for the same. For example: farmers can buy one tractor and use it mutually or a community can buy one washing machine and use it for mutual benefits wherein the cost is distributed and shared. This is one type of scheme few companies have come up with. Few other have collaborated with the micro loan or the micro finance companies to reach the audience. For example German giant METRO, has reached nook and corner of the state of Andhra Pradesh by creating their retail distribution lines with the mom and pop stores (kirana stores) in the rural areas with the help of SKS finance (the much talked about micro finance company recenlty in news). Few others are trying to hold upon the "we finance" you buy schemes.

The companies are trying their best to make the best use of these type of markets and have figured out that there lies a great potential and prospective market which is still untapped in the rural areas of the world mostly focusing upon the rural segment. That’s why its said as – “Poor- the untapped market”. 

Regards,

Rohit Tiwari

Do Your Home Work Properly before you Start!!!!

What is easier for any company?

 A. To  conquer 1% of the huge, well established Market

                        “Or”

 B.     To conquer 100% of a completely new market

The majority of answers would go in favour of “A”; majority of the already established companies and the soon to be launched types feel that, it is easy to conquer 1% of the huge-well established markets. They think this on the basis of different factors clubbed together. Firstly the expenditure to get into an already available market or business would be comparatively less when compared to the option B. The risk involved is also comparatively very minimal.

But the main question is do these companies which tries and enter an already available market with an already available product/service do better or the one who gets into the new line of innovative business?

Take example of Apple; i-Pod to i- Phone to i –Pads to what not -A complete innovative product portfolio.  That’s the company who followed the road less travelled and made its mark on the world. It is rightly said that there are three apples which changed the world:

• -          One that Eve ate,
• -          One that Newton saw Following and
• -          One which Steve Jobs Co-Founded

Let us now consider example of automobile two wheeler manufacturing case in India to check to project that why it is not easy to get 1% space in already available market and industry.

When Bajaj had launched its Scooter named Bajaj Chetak; it was a huge success. Following the wind, Lohia Motors Limited was formed and started producing LML scooters. But what happened, today we don’t find the company at all.

Same thing happened when bugging on its success in the American Market, Kellogg entered India to cater to the needs of Indian citizens with a new variant called “Kellogg Basmati” which flopped miserably. Even after years of its arrival; Kellogg has not been able to cater to 1% of total Indian audience. The main problem with Kellogg was their unpreparedness. They thought that there is a great potential in India for ready to eat breakfast items after observing the huge demand for the Idlis, Chapatis and all which cater as the breakfast item to majority of Indians. But what was wrong with this insight? The answer is that Kellogg forgot to understand that “Indian unlike Americans likes to start their day with warm milk or warm food stuff and Kellogg Cornflakes was on contrast a cool milk based breakfast. If Kellogg has done this study then they should have done well.

Now let us examine the opposite of what we were talking about. Samsung has entered an available established market just like LML and Kellogg’s did but it succeeded. Likely, there were many new start-ups which created many unique products but failed miserably.

So the crest of the talk is that it doesn’t really matter whether you enter an already established market with available product or you try something innovative and create a new market. The only thing that matters is “Do your Homework Properly before you enter any market”. Companies have to do a proper research before entering a market or launching a new product.

Regards,

Rohit Tiwari

MBA & the Ganga Belief.....

MBA- Master of Business Administartion, PGDM - Post Graduate Diploma in Management are few of the courses under the academic domain of Business management which are hugely popular today. If we consider the growth of this domain of studies, it is surpassing any other masters course like M.Tech, MCA, M.Com and many more.

In India, the belief with which one joins this intellectual course is as same as the belief a person has with the river Ganga (the Holy river according to Hinduism). Like the belief with the River Ganga states "one dip in Ganga and all your sins will wash away"; likewise majority of the students who joins this course thinks that they just have to enroll for the course and their life is all settled.

The centuries long belief with Ganga has been misinterpreted. The real and apt interpretation according to mythology : "One who takes a dip in the river Ganga will do it because he/she accepts that they have done some sins and they will struggle hard to make sure that they wont do it ever again in their life". So the person who goes to Ganga have a goal that he/she will do good deeds and be pure. But in reality people have tailored this belief according to their convenience saying that "one dip in Ganga and you are sinless".

Same is the case with the MBA/PGDM course, people think this course to be an ATM machine, you insert you card (Fee) from one end and you get the cash (Great Placement) from the other end. But students forgets to understand that they need to work hard, understand the business scenario, groom themselves and so on. In this dream that just by having admission they will get placed well stops their growth and finally they end up getting jobs which otherwise an uneducated fellow may also deliver.

I would also like to discuss the fact that an MBA student from an average college struggles more than a student from IVY League college to get placed due to several reasons. The reason for this thinking of mine is : a student who gets admission in a Top B-school have to just focus on studies and assignments but a student from average B-School have to  push themselves harder to get placed. The learning which one acquires in struggling is far much better than one which is bought through a brand name of the school.

I really appreciate what the lead character of Mr. Chetan Bhagats recent novel titled "Revolution 2020" says. He says "If you are in the top 20 Percent of the entrance exam rank holders then you are seen as a guy with intellectual brains,;if you don't belong to that league of 20 Percent, then you are seen as a good for nothing fellow". I think this loop hole in the education system has to be drastically change, the approving authority like AICTE , Ministry of HRD etc should not provide grants to the incapable institutions. 

Regards,
Rohit Tiwari