So the big news of recent times was the launch of the Apple iPhone 3G in India less than 11 weeks after its glonal launch and the big shocker was the price point - 31,000 for the 8GB model and 36,100 for the 16 GB model - roughly 4 times the US price.
Frankly speaking they got it wrong. India is an extremely price sensitive market. People here no matter how affluent will always look for value for money and will not splurge good money on things like design. Its in our DNA. Let me state that its not the question of price for the indian consumer but if the price is justified at all. Thats the moot point. Once we are convinced that its worth the price, only then we'll go for it. Thats why all the companies around the world have a special strategy for India because we are firm about things and what they are supposed to cost.
Thats why the iPhone strategy is baffling. Are they really asking the Indian consumer to pay 4 times the price of what consumers pay in the US after not being able to avail the 3G facilities because (this is classic) 3G is not functional yet in India. Are these people for real? The folks at Vodaphone are defending their strategy by saying that they wanted to position this product as an aspirational product rather than as a mass product. When did mass become a bad thing anyhow?? and how does a product which does not have facilities to forward an SMS become an aspirational product??
Apple doesn't have cult status in India. They don't have frenzied fanboys who'll wait in freezing cold for a midnight launch. They can afford to be arrogant in the US because they have managed to cultivate a loyal legion who'll lap up whatever Apple offers and be its evangelists. Not in India. They don't even have an India office. What they needed to do was create that loyal base in India to ensure that they had some presence in the fastest growing telecom market in the world. Granted in the US, AT &T heavily subsidizes the price of the phone by keeping the user locked to the service for 2 years but I hear in India too its on similar lines. One needs to pay activation charges and the sim is locked to the phone.
The telecom operators could have played it in a smarter manner. I'm sure if the price was attractive enough, people would not have minded sticking on with the same service provider. They've lost a brilliant opportunity to control a captive market. The ones who are gaining in this mess are Nokia and Sony Ericsson. All they have to do is come with a phone which costs half the price and double the features and they can pretty much kick IPhone's butt. They really don't get the indian consumer do they??
Showing posts with label Marketing For Tech Companies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marketing For Tech Companies. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Long tales and other good reads
So things have been good. Been reading a lot of good reads lately. Few of the really good ones for your perusal & consumption below:
Chris Anderson's Book - The Long Tail
I know, I know i'm behind the curve on this one. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (2006) by Chris Anderson, the Editor-in-chief of wired magazine (the favourite read of this blog) is a stellar book and must be read by everyone who is remotely interested in economics. Yes Economics and not just the internet. Anderson in this book talks about the remarkable manner in which the internet has re-written traditional retail that focussed solely on "hits" due to the constraints of supply chain and inventory costs. The main focus is on how, due to the internet, the market is moving towards the "non hits" as people are moving from mass consumer products to more customized niche products.
I knew about the Long Tail theory pretty much when the book released but this book has given me an insight on Search Engines that I never noticed before. The sieving quality of search engines to negotiate all the clutter on the net.That, methinks, is the saviour of the long tail. Yes there is significant choice out there thanks to the internet and the availability of information. But choice is useless unless you can get to it. Search Engines sift through the internet to get you what you want. That's why a Search Engine on the web portal is crucial.
Most companies do not pay attention to the search engines on their own web portal because they think their own portal is a small universe and people will get to the content any way. But regardless, navigating any portal can sometimes be overwhelming. I personally hate it when search queries within a site don't work and give out odd results. Especially when its at odds with Google. The big takeway for me personally from this book was that marketing to the long tail because of its niche drive preference is going to be difficult and sometimes not feasible but if one has an elaborate website, investing in good search engine technology and a recommendation alogorithm will ease things up significantly.
One of my favourite lines in the book tho, is when he describes Fiona Apple as "Delightfully Unhinged". I'd like to wear a T-shirt that says that! More on the book here. Also read the Long Tail blog here
There's a blogging exchange of words going on in Harvard Business Review between Chris Anderson and Anita Elberse, a harvard prof. Elberse is arguing on if one should take the long tail seriously and invest in it. Its an extremely good read and besides its greatly stimulating to see two intellectuals argue. Register on the HBR site and you'll get access to it. Can't link to it unfortunately :(
More shameless Wired Plug Alert
Yes well, what can I say I'm like a wired groupie these days. Wired is celebrating its 15th anniverssary this year and because of that one is able to access a lot of past gems. I chanced upon a wired article on the landmark US Vs Microsoft anitrust case. Th article, all of 45 pages, was published after the judgement to break up Microsoft was delivered in 1998. The article brilliantly narrates the events leading up to the case and gives inside scoop on all the players involved especially the Department of Justice (DoJ) and Microsoft.
The article reads like a salacious saga and is completely absorbing. Besides that it gives one valuable insights on US anti trust laws. By the end of this article, one gets to know the Sherman Act better than one's right hand. You also get know the ugly side of Microsoft. I'm not sure if the article was particularly biased against Microsoft but its not flaterring in anyway. I don't really get why people in tech hate microsoft so much. It may be vehemently dominating and they may not make the best of products but hey nobody out there has an OS that matches Microsoft. I use MS products evryday and I don't think I should crib particularly when I have not seen a better product to rival it. Read the article here
This made me wonder if India has Antitrust laws? Anyone know? Also I don't particularly think its a good idea, not right now any way. We've just become a free economy, what we don't need right now is a regulatory law. Besides, the ambanis and tatas of this country would never allow it
*end shameless plug*
More bounty
The Economic times recently had a great article on Leadership. In an article called "Four fundamental laws for CEOs racing against time" the author, with good examples, illustrates the 4 guiding principles that CEOs, who are pressed for immediate results, should adopt.
Another article in ET talks about the importance of customer advocacy. The author makes the case about why one should always invest in building a loyal community of users as the latter could come to the rescue during bad times. Read the Article here
Chris Anderson's Book - The Long Tail
I know, I know i'm behind the curve on this one. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (2006) by Chris Anderson, the Editor-in-chief of wired magazine (the favourite read of this blog) is a stellar book and must be read by everyone who is remotely interested in economics. Yes Economics and not just the internet. Anderson in this book talks about the remarkable manner in which the internet has re-written traditional retail that focussed solely on "hits" due to the constraints of supply chain and inventory costs. The main focus is on how, due to the internet, the market is moving towards the "non hits" as people are moving from mass consumer products to more customized niche products.
I knew about the Long Tail theory pretty much when the book released but this book has given me an insight on Search Engines that I never noticed before. The sieving quality of search engines to negotiate all the clutter on the net.That, methinks, is the saviour of the long tail. Yes there is significant choice out there thanks to the internet and the availability of information. But choice is useless unless you can get to it. Search Engines sift through the internet to get you what you want. That's why a Search Engine on the web portal is crucial.
Most companies do not pay attention to the search engines on their own web portal because they think their own portal is a small universe and people will get to the content any way. But regardless, navigating any portal can sometimes be overwhelming. I personally hate it when search queries within a site don't work and give out odd results. Especially when its at odds with Google. The big takeway for me personally from this book was that marketing to the long tail because of its niche drive preference is going to be difficult and sometimes not feasible but if one has an elaborate website, investing in good search engine technology and a recommendation alogorithm will ease things up significantly.
One of my favourite lines in the book tho, is when he describes Fiona Apple as "Delightfully Unhinged". I'd like to wear a T-shirt that says that! More on the book here. Also read the Long Tail blog here
There's a blogging exchange of words going on in Harvard Business Review between Chris Anderson and Anita Elberse, a harvard prof. Elberse is arguing on if one should take the long tail seriously and invest in it. Its an extremely good read and besides its greatly stimulating to see two intellectuals argue. Register on the HBR site and you'll get access to it. Can't link to it unfortunately :(
More shameless Wired Plug Alert
Yes well, what can I say I'm like a wired groupie these days. Wired is celebrating its 15th anniverssary this year and because of that one is able to access a lot of past gems. I chanced upon a wired article on the landmark US Vs Microsoft anitrust case. Th article, all of 45 pages, was published after the judgement to break up Microsoft was delivered in 1998. The article brilliantly narrates the events leading up to the case and gives inside scoop on all the players involved especially the Department of Justice (DoJ) and Microsoft.
The article reads like a salacious saga and is completely absorbing. Besides that it gives one valuable insights on US anti trust laws. By the end of this article, one gets to know the Sherman Act better than one's right hand. You also get know the ugly side of Microsoft. I'm not sure if the article was particularly biased against Microsoft but its not flaterring in anyway. I don't really get why people in tech hate microsoft so much. It may be vehemently dominating and they may not make the best of products but hey nobody out there has an OS that matches Microsoft. I use MS products evryday and I don't think I should crib particularly when I have not seen a better product to rival it. Read the article here
This made me wonder if India has Antitrust laws? Anyone know? Also I don't particularly think its a good idea, not right now any way. We've just become a free economy, what we don't need right now is a regulatory law. Besides, the ambanis and tatas of this country would never allow it
*end shameless plug*
More bounty
The Economic times recently had a great article on Leadership. In an article called "Four fundamental laws for CEOs racing against time" the author, with good examples, illustrates the 4 guiding principles that CEOs, who are pressed for immediate results, should adopt.
Another article in ET talks about the importance of customer advocacy. The author makes the case about why one should always invest in building a loyal community of users as the latter could come to the rescue during bad times. Read the Article here
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Best Practices: Marketing by Being Neutral
Lets face it, we all hate a sales pitch. A direct full on, obvious, loud, insensitive sales pitch. It brings to my mind, images of door-to-door sales people selling encyclopedias. Its the worst possible method to sell encylcopedias, because, the person selling it does such bad job of it and it also makes me feel guilty when I slam the door because, really, who buys encyclopedias on opening one's door?
BUY MY CREDIT CARD,BUY MY CREDIT CARD!!!
No, the first thing that any sales person must do, is to convince the buyer that she needs another credit card because of whatever reasons. Once a strong need has been created, the sales person can then swoop in and sell her the credit card.
The first step of creating a need in the buyer's mind is very important because it builds trust with the buyer. To the buyer you're like a third party neutral observer giving advise and most importantly there is no agenda in what you're saying. For, in a full on sales pitch, you'd hardly believe a word of what is being said because you are aware all along that the sales person has an agenda and that he's out to get you.
That's why behaving like you have no agenda can sometimes be the best marketing tool. Take for example, this page I landed on: http://www.lsfnetwork.com/importance-web-analytics.html
when I was doing some research on a web analytics article.
LSFnetwork is a internet based marketing agency. they do everything from media planning to search engine marketing and more. But look how they "sell" their products and services on this webpage for search engine marketing: http://www.lsfnetwork.com/sem-services.html
They first give solid statistics. Make a claim about web users and then provide third party articles on the right side bar. These articles give tips, elucidate web concepts and even provide strategies on marketing. Anybody who has a business would be interested in learning about all these. In all these articles, the LSFnetwork pitch comes only in the last paragraph but the thing is, the moment I come to the last paragraph, I'm convinced that LSFnetwork knows what its talking about, knows the internet better than I do and so I'm convinced that they can do the job.
All they did was appear neutral by putting in relevant resources. These resources project them as a company that understands the medium thoroughly and ergo built trust with me. Then when they sell me their stuff, I'm more receptive to their pitch and it does not sound like hollow sales talk.
I think its a brilliant strategy!
I think this strategy is pertinent to tech companies especially because tech products need the most amount of convincing. Technology is a difficult place to market products in, especially when its changing so rapidly. Customers will buy only when they are convinced about the product and no amount of sales talk is going to do it.
And customers will be convinced only when they see a product that meets their need and they see a product coming from a company that understand that technology thoroughly and seems confident about it. That's why "Thought Leadership" image is so important to tech companies these days. Customers will buy only from a company that truly seems like its an expert in a domain because it gives confidence to the customer. That's why I think its very important to be neutral sometimes in marketing technology products
Encyclopedias are not a commodity, so inorder to sell it, the person buying it has to be convinced that she really needs it. Nobody these days bothers with the convincing, they just straight away move to selling their product and that's what makes a sales pitch such a turn off.
BUY MY CREDIT CARD,BUY MY CREDIT CARD!!!
No, the first thing that any sales person must do, is to convince the buyer that she needs another credit card because of whatever reasons. Once a strong need has been created, the sales person can then swoop in and sell her the credit card.
The first step of creating a need in the buyer's mind is very important because it builds trust with the buyer. To the buyer you're like a third party neutral observer giving advise and most importantly there is no agenda in what you're saying. For, in a full on sales pitch, you'd hardly believe a word of what is being said because you are aware all along that the sales person has an agenda and that he's out to get you.
That's why behaving like you have no agenda can sometimes be the best marketing tool. Take for example, this page I landed on: http://www.lsfnetwork.com/importance-web-analytics.html
when I was doing some research on a web analytics article.
LSFnetwork is a internet based marketing agency. they do everything from media planning to search engine marketing and more. But look how they "sell" their products and services on this webpage for search engine marketing: http://www.lsfnetwork.com/sem-services.html
They first give solid statistics. Make a claim about web users and then provide third party articles on the right side bar. These articles give tips, elucidate web concepts and even provide strategies on marketing. Anybody who has a business would be interested in learning about all these. In all these articles, the LSFnetwork pitch comes only in the last paragraph but the thing is, the moment I come to the last paragraph, I'm convinced that LSFnetwork knows what its talking about, knows the internet better than I do and so I'm convinced that they can do the job.
All they did was appear neutral by putting in relevant resources. These resources project them as a company that understands the medium thoroughly and ergo built trust with me. Then when they sell me their stuff, I'm more receptive to their pitch and it does not sound like hollow sales talk.
I think its a brilliant strategy!
I think this strategy is pertinent to tech companies especially because tech products need the most amount of convincing. Technology is a difficult place to market products in, especially when its changing so rapidly. Customers will buy only when they are convinced about the product and no amount of sales talk is going to do it.
And customers will be convinced only when they see a product that meets their need and they see a product coming from a company that understand that technology thoroughly and seems confident about it. That's why "Thought Leadership" image is so important to tech companies these days. Customers will buy only from a company that truly seems like its an expert in a domain because it gives confidence to the customer. That's why I think its very important to be neutral sometimes in marketing technology products
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