e Magus

Management's history is steeped in the rigid discipline of military order. I remember my MBA professor’s mnemonic— Manage/Men/Tactfully —a sly nod to management’s early roots in hierarchy and precision. F.W. Taylor, the father of scientific management , designed a system built on oversight and efficiency, where managers commanded from their thrones of polished mahogany. When I joined the workforce in the mid-90’s, the control structure was very much visible. The manager’s workspace spoke volumes: a cavernous office with a desk that could seat a small nation, side tables, a fridge laden with benevolence, and a sofa set that whispered exclusivity. In India, most meetings called by the manager, was called a durbar : audience in the royal court.   Control was about proximity. Managers were gatekeepers of information, issuing directives and reinforcing order with the close watch of an army general. In some companies, at the time of joining, they even required a conduct certificate, prov...

For the past few days, I’ve been working on an online media plan for a client. It has been almost 5 years since I had actively been involved in making media plans. I realize nothing much has changed – then & now… Media planning, we have been made to believe, is a mixture of art + science. What the ratio of the secret mixture is like the Coke recipe formula – everyone knows it is there, but no-one is aware what exactly it is. 5 years back, media planning was mostly about impressions (CPM), Clicks (CPC), and Leads…. The ROI’s were mostly about Click through Rates (CTRs) and effective CPCs… It still is. 5 years back, the tags and weight of the creative were an issue with most publishers… it still is. A normal flash file of 25KB to 35KB is what most of the publisher accepts. It seems like the broadband penetration has done nothing good to the quality of ads that can be served. 5 years back most ad serving tools reported the performance, basis the type of inventory, time, g...

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...

Couple of things that happened recently, made me think… Has the growth of technology (esp. Internet) actually diminished the value of information? 2 reasons that got me thinking were - 1) I was planning to make a Goan dish – Vindaloo... I logged on to the Internet to check the recipe. I read it, used it to make the dish. All throughout, I never made an effort to remember the recipe and process of making it…One reason could be - In case I need the same information in the future, I could get it at the click of a button… 2) In the past few weeks… the (scam) news sequence could be summed up as follows – IPL scam>CWG scam>2G scam>Adarsh>Media Tapes. While each of the news is important in terms of the freshness and context…the value we attach to the previous incident diminishes drastically with each passing day. The News today has a short shelf life About 20 years back, (access to) information was scarce. The only known and popular sources of information were – the books, Newspap...

Ok. I know it is a very uncomfortable question, especially in emerging markets where Internet advertising is just about finding its place, and is also one of the fastest growing - in terms of advertising revenue growth. It becomes all the more uncomfortable when you are talking about it online :) Some weeks back, I overheard someone say that compared to other traditional mediums of advertising Online Advertising as a medium need not to be considered seriously (at-least for now). India, for example, still is a market driven by TVC and Print ads. True? True, but partially True, because most of the online advertising is limited to online banners (a replication of the mainline creative/message) with a campaign website that is informative in nature. True, because in most ad agencies, the creative think about the message in terms of TVC, Print, Radio, etc…. and then decide to do something ‘cool’ in the online space. “Let’s have something cool on Facebook” is the latest mantra. True again, be...

The online would have enough and more dope on Brand Positioning; So, I'd not go into the detailing of what is positioning, and how it can be achieved? I will also not talk about the Importance of Positioning but would try and give some examples of some brand names you are familiar with and interact on day to day basis in the online space. Couple of days back, I was talking to a brand manager who was mentioning how the online platforms are only best suited for tactical purposes. He went onto mention that maybe in future "positioning" would not be a marketing focus, and "being tactical" would be the marketing strategy of the day. I argued, on the importance of positioning, and had taken couple of examples from the Internet space and said if online companies are focusing on positioning, then 'positioning' is and will be crucial aspect of marketing. While there is a grain of truth in saying that in future "being tactical" would be important…since n...

I was mentioning in my earlier post that almost 80% of the SMS messages I receive are SPAM. Looking at the propositions they are offering me through SMS, I think this is what they think I am – their Target Customer. One Marketer thinks I am a pot-bellied person, and have some interesting schemes on buying slim belts for 0% interest on EMI’s According to another Marketer, I am a rich person who invests in properties. The number of Apartments for sale, realty projects that is coming up in Delhi and NCR I have the details of those in my SMS inbox. Another Marketer too thinks the same way bombarding me with 12% return of Investment through mutual funds. How I wish I fell in this category Yes, I am deeply into religion and devotion. With the service provider themselves sending me ‘exciting and interesting’ offers of VAS. Download a devotional song as ringtone or set it as a caller tune….else offers of Mobile wallpapers and screensavers of gods and goddesses is a daily norm Some other market...

“Hello, aap Rajeev Rai-ji bol rahen hain?” I’ve been hearing this since the time I took a new mobile connection when I got transferred to Delhi (about 3 years back).. The calls on my new number asking for Rajeev Rai has been insistent and consistent over the last 3 years…. Phone calls from banks, friends, loan sharks, out of town relatives..and even from the mobile service provider!!! (Vodafone India you have an awesome database about your customers) Basis the inputs (from the wrong calls) I’ve been receiving on Rajeev Rai… I’ve been able to create a personality of Rajeev Rai…. I believe Rajeev Rai is around 35-40 years old….He would belong to SEC C category in terms of the socioeconomic classification… (Reason… most of the calls address him to either Rajeev Rai-ji and also some instances of him being referred to as ‘mama’ (Uncle)and almost all the calls are from people who speak vernacular Hindi) My strong guess is that he is/was a small shop owner… this number was his primary phone ...

This can be part – 2 of my earlier blog on how technology affects human behaviour. Couple of things that has come to my notice in the past few days made me think… is the popular technology more of a communication enabler or disabler? A colleague of mine has recently been to Singapore for holidays. An interesting observation, he mentioned, was that how people seem to be in their own world – the ear phones plugged, listening to their ipods, mobile phones, etc… or they were busy fidgeting with their mobile phones, either playing games or watching some video on the phone/ipod. They seem to be in their own world as if they have created an invisible wall around them. Another is a report that was mentioning about the increase of mobile VAS. Currently the mobile VAS contributes to 12% (in India) of the revenue. While text (SMS) seems to be the major revenue generator in VAS services, contribution from other VAS sources like – Music downloads, Ringtones, Caller Ring Back Tone (CRBT), screensav...

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...

A few weeks back, I was working on a proposal for marketing of an e-commerce portal. One look at the stats showed that the e-tailing in India never took off. While categories like travel (led by IRCTC, and the OTAs) and Hotel bookings has taken of in a big way…it has been a dismal performance, when it comes to e-tailing. e-tailing can be defined as a business to consumer transaction through direct sale of limited quantity of goods or services.. The industry experts have been talking about the rise of e-commerce in India, but what is being missed out is that most of these e-com transactions are done on the B2B space. The data shows that the B2C industry size of ecommerce in India is around INR 11,000 crores*. About 80%* of the B2C e-com transaction is from the Online Travel Industry, followed by online classifieds The e-tailing pie is only about 9%*. While the numbers and growth might be encouraging, it is nothing great to make a big noise about (* Guesstimates by classical extrapolati...

An interesting news article that came out a few weeks back has got me thinking…. Facebook has overtaken Google to become the most popular website in the United States for the first time, according to new data from Hitwise, which measures Internet traffic. For the week ending March 13, the social networking juggernaut registered 7.07% market share, beating the search giant's 7.03% market share. See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/8XVAKZ What got me thinking was how could Facebook in such a short span of time overtake Google -the default destination for millions of internet users globally? The data shows dramatic rise of Facebook- this can be attributed to the fact that people are spending more time on the net socializing, and an average user visits more pages on Facebook (not sure though if the Facebook Chat window refreshes are counted as part of the Hitwise data as the chart shows a phenomenal increase since April 2009). On a different note, a person usually visits ...

I saw this new stuff that Google Labs is working on… FollowFinder it made me curious to know what exactly does this feature do, and how will it help the users and also how will it help Google as a company. Followfinder is basically a search engine that will help you find people (nay, tweeps) and expand your twitter network. While I’m not sure why would people go to a Google feature to search for Tweeps, while I have this function on Twitter page… in terms of finding people. In fact looking at the growth of twitter access through mobile apps (I guess in the last count it was close to 45%) Google is looking at only half the twitter user universe through this feature… Another reason and I find this most stupid is the fact that if I am following say 2 publication tweets…what inference makes Google believe that I might be interested in other publication tweets too.. I mean, I do not subscribe to all the newspapers or magazines.. I stick to 1 or 2… and I’m sure most people also would be hap...

2010 has started off with a lot of promise when it comes to digital marketing. I have seen a sea shift in terms of the clients pro-actively seeking digital marketing ideas and solutions from the agencies. Some reasons for the same could be: - The user base of internet has grown to an extent, it can be called as a mass media. Reports say that the Internet users in the country is over 71 Million - The traditional news mediums (TV and Print) are quoting from twitters and blogs that has increased the awareness of these platforms. Quotes (nay tweets) from popular personalities (nay tweeps) are the source of information and content for many of the newspapers and TV channels… What iamsrk is saying, or the recent tweets from iplt20 (Lalit Modi) and shashitharoor has made twitter a household name.. - A phenomenon called Facebook has spread like a pandemic. In today’s world – People have started taking up professions which most will never plan to do in their real life – Farming, Cooking, Mob…et...

3 incidents. 3 clients. Same condition. Client #1 had to get a website done… their campaign was about to launch in 1 weeks time and they haven’t decided on what their website should contain and how it would look. Now they wanted a website FAST. Client #2 wants to do an online advertising… a lead generation campaign… The creative haven’t been cracked; the landing page not yet ready; and the database (lead capturing) haven’t been thought about. But they wanted to go live FAST. Client #3 just got an approval for doing some social media marketing. They want to do ‘something’ in SM space… why, what and how…they are not sure of… But they want to create a Facebook page, and they want it FAST. When it comes to Digital Marketing every client wants things done FAST. I’m curious to know who had sold the idea to the world that every thing about Digital Marketing is FAST. Looking back at my own experience, I realize that during the early days of internet marketing… there was resource time available...

A few days back I was reading an article on how the titles of the IPL franchisees are basis words related to royalty – Kings (2), Royals, Knights, and Chargers - Words from the medieval world. The more I think about the co-incidence of the titles to royalty, I realize that the similarity to royalty is more than just in the name The IPL setup: A typical ‘empire’ style model…. With BCCI as the head of the empire, and the franchisees as the ‘jagirs’…. Every jagirdar (franchisee owner) has to pay a standard sum to the emperor every year… whether they make that much money or not… Each Franchisee has its own flag; and war cry… similar to the medieval times… where the kings had their own flag and the army rallied around it…. Like the kings and their ministers… you have the business/entertainment Czars with their Durbar sitting in the Franchisee enclosures watching the matches… The kings also are seen showing off their spoils (especially the trophies from the fairer sex)….and as in the King’s ...

Imagine you own a popular coffee chain in Denver that you want to promote. On Monday afternoon, it’s warm and 80 degrees in the city. You run a display ad campaign online that offers Denverites a discount coupon for an iced cold latte, with a searchable map embedded in the ad to show local branches, and a real-time feed from people who have tweeted publicly about your newest flavor. That evening, a cold front rolls over the Rockies. Your ad automatically and dynamically adjusts to present a photo of a hot, steaming cup of hot chocolate in front of a warm fireplace, together with a home delivery number and an offer of free marshmallows. Creative? Absolutely. Impossible? Hardly. You can do this today using technology from Teracent that we’re working to roll out for our clients who advertise on the Google Content Network or who use DoubleClick Rich Media. There’s no doubt that advertisers today are increasingly seeking to run campaigns that are highly measurable and relevant to users. Tha...

I had got this interesting article from WebProNews... More people use Farmville than Twitter, according to Bing, and People are sharing all kinds of activities within Farmville itself. That's why the company saw a great opportunity to experiment. What they did was offer a special offer inside of Farmville, that would give users free "farm cash" if they became a fan of Bing on Facebook, which would encourage continued user interaction with Bing. As a result: - Over 72% of users who clicked on the engagement became fans - 59,000 people published the story to their news feed - Over 70,000 clicks were received on secondary feeds - In 24hours, Bing had over 400,000 new fans to keep Microsoft said its goals for engagement and social media efforts have been to: - Add or create relevant value (stuff that's not even necessarily a Microsoft property) - Add depth to Bing's personality - Lead someone to a relevant engagement with Bing or each other. - Yield passionate or emot...

Looking at the naming stuff that has been happening in Apple... iPod iPhone iMac iPad.... i'm guessing that their next 'innovative' product launch is going to be... iCard.... It would have a camera attached which would act as a business card scanner... 2 gb internal memory for music, an sms application, calculator, bluetooth/Wireless... and a MS office, Adobe suite viewer to check files... Santosh

Since the time it launched few weeks back, Google Buzz has been just doing that. Creating Buzz… While the critics are mentioning about the privacy issues (Facebook too had faced privacy issues about a year back), many have started experimenting with this new platform… For Google, it was necessary that they integrate the Buzz with their ‘star performer’ – Gmail (search engine being the sacred cow they cannot fiddle with). Google has been dabbling in the social media space for past many years, but somehow the success has been elusive. Their strike rate in social media is close to zero. While Orkut is popular in Brazil and India… but in markets that matters, they hardly have been able to make a dent. Flickr has far more traction amongst the online users that Picasa…and Google Wave just managed to create a ripple. Twitter, since it hit the market in 2006, has been gaining popularity worldwide. The reasons for the same can be attributed to the following: - Simplicity: Most people are normal...