e Magus

When most us read or write about marketing predictions, it generally revolves around the penetration, usage, or suggested innovation and adaptation to existing model/behaviour. But, here, I wanted to focus more on the tec(h)tonic shift in terms of usage and patterns in Digital Marketing. Why I call it tec(h)tonic shift is because there is going to be a large-scale impact as we go along, these shifts are continuous, and these shifts are not overtly visible. The 4 major shifts are: From Information to Emotion From E-commerce to Experience From Email to Mobile From Perennial to the Ephemeral  From Information to Emotion: The Internet has always been about sharing & searching for information. In fact, till about few years ago, Internet was know as Information Superhighway & in most organizations website and other digital properties were in the purview of IT (Information Technology) department. Social media, nay, Facebook has changed the usage of the ...

The fact is that a cordless telephone instrument, working on radio waves, through which one could make or receive calls within a designated area called ‘cell’ (hence the word cellular), have now become an inseparable media device, we just can’t do without The Mobile phone has come a long way since the time Motorola made the first instrument. Interestingly so, the need for the device and every new improvement or feature was as an augmentation to an existing category demand. It then soon encompassed the entire category itself. For example, the earliest need was to increase the communication means by able to reach places which was hard or impossible to reach through landlines – Ship to shore communication, or reaching across through mountainous regions, etc Since then, with each enhancement, mobile phones ran over an existing media product category. There are 3 distinct timelines of mobile phone entering a particular category The early phase The current phase The future phase ...

Well, after long delay and many missed deadlines mobile number portability (MNP) has come to effect. It is almost 2 months since MNP is in effect and there has been some traction in terms of people shifting from one service provider to another. Some of the obvious impact of Mobile Number Portability are: - The customer service and network offering would become better; - Parity on the cost / packages On other hand, I think there could be far more subtle impact on the current mobile marketing environment. 5 changes that i foresee are:- - There could be increase in network locked phone schemes (Handset + Connection)...where-in high end phones are offered for lower prices - Increased Value added services. Companies would offer access to exclusive content so as to keep the customer engaged with content and thus create higher exit barrier - Annual subscription packages, in form of widgets and data which would get discontinued when people shift the service provider - Common denominators acro...

This year’s Independence Day was slightly different from the earlier year(s). No it is nothing to do with Flag hoisting, or the fact that it came on a Sunday (and thus a holiday that got wasted)…. It was different because I did not receive even a single SMS from my friends or acquaintances wishing me a Happy Independence Day. Strange, because over the past few year it was a norm that during festivals and occasions your mobile phone keeps buzzing continuously because of the deluge of SMS being received. Also…neither did I send any SMS to anyone. Well, it is not just Independence Day messages…. It is generally seen that people are slowly shifting from Short Message Services usage that the operators provide by default. Most of my SMS are limited to – I’m busy, call back category, My address/reference category, I’m avoiding talking to you category, and alternate to email category. While the industry trends show that the volume of SMS messages would grow for the next few years… (with Global...

Experts have been talking about how technology is innovated based on human behaviour, and the cultural behaviour of the people…. But this is no one way street. The use of technology is changing the human behaviour too. Remember the days of POTS (Plain Old Telephone Systems)…where in you had to actually rotate and dial a number…(I can still remember the kit-kit.kit…tone you get to hear when you release the wheel).. I’m sure like everyone else you would have been using the index finger to dial the number. In case you don’t belong to the POTS generation, ask your parents about the big black telephone covered with the white cloth placed in the corner of a living room…with the bulky telephone directory under it. It was an era when the index finger ruled. Then came the push-button dial pad telephones….It was usually gifted to you by your rich uncle or cousin coming from ‘Gulf’ on their annual holidays. The late 80’s saw the govt. owned company Bharat Electronics producing the same for mass m...

The recently concluded Copenhagen summit on climate change and non-conclusion of the countries on any accord made me wonder what could be the thing that can bring about a change in the eco-system… The answer was staring on my face. Digital. The growth of Internet and Mobile has been so phenomenal; I guess today most of us cannot imagine a life without this two. Most of the stuff we do in our professional or personal life is eased due to the use of these technologies. Some of the areas that will have direct impact of digital would be: - Travel & Transport - Automotive - Entertainment - Shopping & Banking - Media Trends rising out digitalization of our world: - We will travel less for work or personal reasons. In fact most of my work can be done Out of Office. Similarly, as we shift more and more into services economy from manufacturing economy…. Digital would help in fulfillment thus reducing the need of physical presence. Video Conferencing especially in the personal space – Fr...