Speakers at the Dream 500 million smartphones event last week sought to debate on two important drivers for smartphone adoption in India. The first driver was pricing; the argument being that a smartphone priced at below Rs. 5,000 had a significantly higher probability of mass adoption in India. The second driver was language customization; or […]
Why online communities die
Even the mighty Facebook, the world’s third largest ‘country’, and one that constantly gets press as an addiction, is no longer impregnable. A recent survey found US teens are ditching Facebook for Instagram; the latter has become the most preferred social network for the teenagers. Reports predicting Facebook’s demise have been surfacing for many years, variously […]
Building online communities: Questions to ask before creating one
Back in the nineties, online communities organically grew around gaming, particularly around the gaming consoles from Sega, Nintendo and Sony. Users would spend hours discussing new games, hacks and tricks and gameplay for the most popular games of the day. Right from those days of Bulletin Board Services (BBS), Usenet newsgroups and IRC, consumer brands in general and Internet companies […]
How Flipkart bungled its Big Billion Day: lessons for marketers
We are sorry to interrupt our regular programming to bring you this special post on a few critical marketing lessons from Flipkart’s ‘Big Billion Day’ fiasco. In this post, we observe how the basic rules of services marketing and brand building were ignored in conducting Monday’s event. This surprises us, as we simultaneously acknowledge and appreciate the enormous time, money and […]
Building new communities: overcoming the network effect
This is the first of a multi-part series on the relationships between brands and online communities. It’s nearing the end of September 2014 and many of you would have already secured, or at least requested for an invitation to join Ello, the all new Facebook-replacement social network that counts ad-free and privacy as its USPs. […]
The point of brand personality
Do all brands have a personality? Do all of them need one? A brand personality is simply a set of human characteristics associated with a brand – think Virgin’s fun and irreverent personality vs British Airways’ warm, comforting albeit a staid one, or Johnson & Johnson as a nurturing and caring brand vs Harley Davidson’s rugged one. […]
Why content curation matters
It’s a paradox of our times that people still crave for a good read or a watch, even when they are drowning in the content deluge, especially online. Even as mainstream content consumption increasingly shifts to online from TV and print; the volume of new content being generated online and pushed out to people is […]
How Xiaomi built its brand in India
Chinese phone company Xiaomi recently sold a few thousands of phones to eager Indian buyers in a matter of seconds. Xiaomi hosted two online sales in two weeks on partner Flipkart.com’s website; and saw over 100,000 people register for the sale. Remember, this is a brand that is new to India, alien to most India-based […]
How email trumps social marketing
Here is a pro tip for all marketers planning their digital marketing strategy – maximise your attention on email marketing, while still glazing over social media marketing (SMM), in your overall mix. As antediluvian this suggestion may sound; conjuring up imaginary visions of thousands of frustrated users hitting the ‘Report spam’ in their inboxes at the sight of your next […]
Why CSR does not work for marketing
Many companies consider their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs as a powerful means of enhancing their corporate image. A few of them even ask their PR or advertising agencies to recommend ideas for CSR activities or projects that can be, well, marketed well. However, this approach inevitably skews the choice of potential CSR projects to a handful […]