e Magus

There are more than 4.5 Billion mobile users in the world. That is almost 60% of the world population. While the stats and market forecasters might predict a plateau in terms of the mobile sales, I think that the next billion in mobile sales will come from existing users picking up a second mobile phone. I observe that many of my friends and relatives have already started carrying a second mobile phone. The common reason they give is that one is  the ‘official’ phone and the other is ‘personal’. (Note: ‘Official’ does not mean that it is a company owned phone). Meaning,  that the first phone is for all and sundry stuff like browsing, data, etc and the second number for calls and to be shared with important people. This behaviour is pretty similar to what most of us had experienced or done with an earlier technology innovation - Emails When Hotmail started offering free web based email IDs and later Gmail with their unlimited storage, everyone who was online quick...

This is a Pulse post that I've written earlier in the day Maggi, the 2 minute wonder, from Nestle, has got its 15 minutes of fame...though for wrong reasons. I trust Nestle, as a company, and have faith that if the product did have toxic substance beyond permissible limits, it was by pure mischance.  This post is not in support of Maggi (or Nestle) nor it is to slander them for what happened. There are many more who are more competent than me to talk about it. In fact, as I write this post, Maggi is going for a huge PR exercise to minimise the damage and improve its image.  Being a digital marketer, I generally look at various opportunities and events from the prism of technology and marketing. Is there a value or customer need that the product can satisfy? Is there a marketing opportunity here? Can technology play a role in the same?, etc are few questions, I try to answer. This post is about a marketing idea that came out from watching th...

This is a long form of what I had tweeted some days back. The strategy cycle: for marketing, it is digital; for digital, it is ecom; for ecom, it is going offline; when offline, it is marketing — Santosh (@santosheg) February 6, 2014 Each and every meeting, with various clients, has been about "time we moved to next stage" and depending on which stage the client was - the story changed. Stage 1: When the client is offline, enter the marketing strategy - the digital is the future (nay, present) and get him onto the bandwagon. There are various sub stages within this, POWS (Plain Old Website Stage), to Search Marketing, to Advertising, to Social, to Mobile Stage 2: When the client is doing Digital Marketing, it is strategy time to create business models in the space.. Enter Ecommerce, M-Commerce Stage 3: When the client is doing Ecommerce, then it is time to strategize and plan expansion through offline initiatives. It works meeting after meeting....each time, ...

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...

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...

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...

The objective of this Report is to provide an operational, on-the-ground perspective of the future of 3G and BWA services in India, and is based on extensive industry inputs from carriers, handset OEMs, network OEMs,VAS providers and policy makers. The Highlights of the report include: * 89.9mn 3G Subscribers (including 67.5mn handsets and 22.4 modem subscribers) by 2013 * 3G subscriber base will represent 12% of the overall wireless subscriber base contributing USD 15.8bn in service revenues in 2013. * Annual 3G device sales are estimated to reach 81.3mn in 2013, with replacement market contributing to 52% of device sales in that year. * 3G ARPU is projected to reach USD 18.3 by 2013 with revenues totaling USD 12.8bn in the same year. Data is expected to contribute 29% to 3G ARPU from handet users. * The overall broadband subscriber base (including wireline,3G modem and BWA) is projected to grow to 46.1mn users by 2013 with an overall PC installed base of 75mn. Total 3G modem subscrib...

State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has said that it plans to launch 3G telecom services in national capital New Delhi in next 10 days. MTNL plans to launch 3G services in the commercial capital Mumbai by first week of February, reports PTI (via Business Standard). MTNL has not tied up with any content providers and has said that its Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) providers would give it the content. Department of Telecom issued Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and MTNL spectrum to roll out all-India 3G services last year. The spectrum auction for private telecom companies has been continually delayed, and many foreign companies may stay away due to global economic slowdown. Click here to view this article Cheers Santosh

The US Elections and the results have been historic. The way the campaign was fought and the results there of, are the cocksure way of the way the wind blows. Much more the results (it was a foregone conclusion that the anti-incumbency votes would prevail in this election), I was keener on the way the election was fought. The use of Online and digital media in the US election was awesome. It will be talked about and replicated in the developed world and maybe in countries like India too. India is going in for its General Elections in early 2009. In the meantime there are lot of states that would be going to elections. The elections in Delhi are slated for end of November. Already candidates sending emails to residents of specific locality has come in news articles. India has substantial online users (close to 35 Million) and a large population who have mobile phones (over 300 Million in the last count). Reaching out to this audience would be of paramount importance to all parties. From...