Want to be an Analyst? Use Social Media

While I was thinking on the topic to write, as flash, something on consulting popped up in my mind.. Not sure why it popped up but as I started thinking about it, started taking a different turn. In typical business consulting assignments some of the terms that we hear as a client from consultants/analysts are:

• Top 10 Technology trends as per Gartner or Forrester for 2011- 2016
• Best Practices given as Rx for success
• Some Frameworks or business models promising a glorious future keeping in mind the current day business risks

Record Events

I have no abject disregard for these predictions but when I think of the current economic recession or any major scam which hits the headlines, I am forced think as to what happened to those predictions or forecasting by analysts or top notch consultants.What we get to read is always the post facto analysis of  the event as though it was obvious and we as naive intellects neglected to see through or were ignorant of these early warning signs. 

Why is that we find it easy to find a reason for failure(s) and not way to predict such failures and help avoid it?

This trend really bothered me and I got some interesting insights from Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book The Black Swan..

We,humans, have this problem of retrospective determinism.Once we have an issue at hand, say economic recession, we are really good at looking at the chronicle of events,take a deep dive into it and come up with simplistic answers and the worst part is that the reason failure will usually point towards a single event or two.One more possible reasons,although not conclusive, that can be attributed for this kind of problem is our " Confirmation bias". When we have a set of events in hand, we would like to simplify it using our inferential systems and confirm our opinions than just look at events as is - empirical studies..

I am not going to proceed to try and solve this problem as I am also a victim of these biases. But the one piece that is interesting to me is " chronicle of events". In the chosen topic of interest start recording all the relevant events that you read or listen to. But how to record it? I use the social media platforms for doing it.The central point in this blog is about how one can record the chronicle of events in the chosen topic of interest using social media platform at no cost. Once could use:

• Twitter favorites
• Digg relevant articles
• Share events or articles on Facebook
• Audio/Video content on Youtube
• Google Reader 
• Any form of content syndication

pretty much the same platforms that you use on a daily basis. The only difference is that you will focus on recording events on the chosen topic of interest.Lets say the topic is "new technology in mobile phones". As you record these events and do an empirical study on a regular basis,your ability to predict future events can get  brighter..Imagine a set of predictions from side, if taken up by the right people, brings about stability /growth in that industry. I know that it sounds too ambitious and wishful thinking but what's wrong in dreaming such a scenario. When I think like an earthly mortal, these  events recorded in the social media platform can used to do a post facto analysis or retrospective determinism which anyways we are really good at. 

Let the analyst in you wake up!!!!

Build your personal brand through Resume 2.0

This blog post is inspired from the movie 3 Idiots.Great movie with an excellent message for the educational system in India. Watch this video clip especially the interview scene- from the time 4.43 till 6:50..


The key message from the interview is that ones' simple, honest and direct approach may or may not yield results ( in this interview it did yield result) but for sure will resonate well with ones belief systems. This self belief has certainly helped Raju Rastogi ( the student in this movie) to speak his heart out. What worked for him was not his resume,certainly not his grades or qualification but the direct connect that he was able to establish with the interviewer with utmost honesty. I like this statement " It took 2 broken legs to get me on my feet" -brand Raju Rastogi


Now imagine Us.The body of knowledge, interests,passion,hobbies all that we have accumulated painstakingly for so many years....how can we capture all that and represent ONESELF as a brand in a 3 page resume or within the 45 mins interview time.Tough isn't it 


The good news is that you don't have compress all that into a 3 page resume or a 45 min interview.We are living in interesting times.There has be a  tectonic shift in the way candidates are identified by organizations. For example Jason Zimdar, a graphic designer got his dream job @ 37  Signals without a resume. How is this possible? Its all about personal  branding. Much is written about the  need for personal branding and the ways to achieve it. Dan's Swabel Me 2.0 is an interesting book on personal branding.


 All it takes is 10 mins a day to just pen down your thoughts in some journal...even better if you can KEY down your thoughts in some kind of an online journal..


Although this blog post is not a prescription on how to build a Personal brand, here are some baby steps to get started:

• Read interesting blogs: Based on your chosen topic, identify interesting blogs using technorati or blogpulse and read these blogs regularly.. You get an RSS feed onto your desktop
• Start writing blogs: Use any of the free blogging tools like blogger,wordpress etc and get started with your online journal entries. I am sure there will be great inertia to start blogs as we are grappled with 2 questions: 
• What Do I write?
• How to ensure that am factually correct?

Don't worry about it. You are not writing a book for a world wide audience on day one. Let your blogs be based on your interests , areas in which you are  passionate about or on core subject matter. Content is more important than getting it grammatical correct( but don't ignore it)...The blog requires a theme and a personality and some mental disciple to put your thoughts on a regular basis.. Very simple isn't it

• Get your social Media foot print: Suggest you have an account with Facebook for personal and professional contacts and Linkedin for purely professional reasons.This will certainly help you to get new connections,exchange ideas, promote blogs as well as to answers some questions on Linkedin.This will certainly make you more visible
• Get Portable: Based on your interests, create portable video and audio files. Video files can be posted on Youtube and can be made viral through social media. Audio podcast is another interesting way to reach a large audience.You can push your podcast into Apple's iTunes or any podcast alley.
• Graduate to next level: Once you have gained confidence. start contributing to vertical specific  blogs or websites.Forex:www.boxesandarrows.com for Usability, www.junta42.com for marketing related content. This will help reach the right people within the industry

In all this there are 2 basic principles to be followed:

• The content should be original - true reflections of your thoughts and opinions
• Leave a trail - Make sure you leave your website or blog address or social media connect details

With better inbound links and social footprint your blogs/websites might get better ranking on Google.These initiatives will certainly make you easily searchable on the web.

New trend is that  organization wanting to recruit you will not longer be interested in the 3 page resume document. What will be more valuable and interesting is all the content that you have generated all along.The interviewer will potentially use all this information and form opinions. With the new age resume there is no need to compress information.  Get started and everything that you write gets automatically added to your new resume  - Resume 2.0

Make a journal entry and your valuation starts.....  

Reset your Value Systems thru Social Media

One of the books that has had profound impact on me is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey.This book highlights  2 important philosophies

• that which is confines to deeper principles called as Character Ethic - integrity,honesty, sincerity etc
• that which is much more superficial called as Personality ethic- positive mental attitude,skills, techniques

Seth Godin in his book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? makes a mention of how how tribal economies  were built around deeper principles such as mutual support and generosity.Communities believed that each one should support the other for the upliftment of the society as a whole. All this sans reciprocity.Giving was always a signal of surplus. The underlying message for the recipient of the gift is:

• Benefit from it
• Pass it on to others

The Bhagavad Gita states " Do your duty and do not expect the fruits of labor".

Simple take away " Stand up for your value systems....be generous and helpful and do not expect anything in return". Result: The tribes/communities grew with a lot more trust,honesty and openness which resulted in peace and happiness...

My guess is that in the last 200 hundred years, especially post Industrial revolution, a lot has changed in these tribes..

• Large tribes have disintegrated into smaller communities
• Receiving is more celebrated than giving
• Reciprocity has now become human nature- Quid pro quo is the motto
• We are nostalgic about the future -Expectation of results keeping past memories as reference

This is largely fueled by capitalism in which smaller tribes started focusing on  economic gains out of every transaction - " More for Less". While the world has benefited from many modern discoveries and inventions what is more damaging is that we have lost out on basic value systems like:

• Honesty
• Integrity
• Generosity sans Reciprocity

Lack of these character ethics creates fear and has resulted in mistrust, cheating,deceit and what not. There is unrest in the air and we all know it fully well. What is the way out?

How can we live in peace and happiness in this world?

Typically human behavior is that once pushed to a corner either the best or worst comes out. Recession, job lay offs, financial constraints and other external pressures have certainly ensured that we revisit our basics and reset our value systems.It appears today's individuals have realized what our ancestors have been practicing for centuries-Grow as a Community and not as individuals.

So people want to hold hands and move forward as communities and not just as individuals. The encouraging part is that this time around it includes people not just their families & friends but a new set of people called as friendsters- Virtual Social Communities(VSC). We are limping back to an era where any form of noble gesture for the community like philanthropy gives peace and happiness to the giver. Be it in the form of information, money, gift in kind or just an advice at the right moment.These newly formed Virtual Social Communities, not bound by geographical boundaries, need a platform to address their emotional and self expression needs.

Change Agent:  Social Media

Social Media pundits are calling this new platform as a change agent and possibly one of the best things that could have happened especially during recession. The Social Media has helped the Virtual Social Communities to

• Get Phenomenal Reach -Connects VSC members connect across geographies.This reach has reduced the marginal cost of generosity(Lovely statement by Seth Godin).A good example is sharing one's ideas on a blog to larger audience for no economic gain. Members of the tribe might gain from it.

• Social Footprint -By using this platform every member of the community would have established a social footprint which cannot be erased.Any contradiction will expose the member and might damage one's respectable character or Integrity. A good example - CEO of a company was trying to tarnish the image of the competitor through social media using an anonymous name. He had foot in his mouth when situation forced his company to acquire the competitor.

• Platform for expressing: Unlike the past, every member has an opportunity to express his/her views, opinions, write reviews, broadcast search. The community values honesty over abundant knowledge. Any member trying to promote a product or brand within his community for economic gains will be exposed

Similarly we can elaborate for each character ethic like fidelity, patience etc...

It is very natural that some of you may have disbelief /skepticism with this thought for what we hear is:

• People give to get.. Sharing is not without reciprocity
• Identity theft
• Confidentiality breach

and what not.. Yes I agree with you partially but it is also true that we have been indoctrinated to believe like this. Social Media is a new kid on the block. Approach,Use and embrace it for right reasons and am sure we will reset our basic value systems. As a community ( VSC) , we will be happier and more peaceful.

B2B business need a Social Media Marketing(SMM)

In continuation with the previous blogpost http://exchnageplacenj.blogspot.com/2010/06/business-on-web-mandate.html, will try and attempt to address the other  objections stated by SMB marketers

·                     My customers prefer offline marketing and sales

·                     B2B business need personal touch and online is not personal

What does this mean?

Customers, especially B2B, prefer to trust organizations who take efforts to

·        Build relationship and
·         Engage them on a continual basis and in turn derive customer lifetime value(CLV)

But I do not believe in the age old marketing tenet that building relationships and engaging customers can happen only in the offline (face-face) space. Enter Social Media 

Social Media has given voice to millions of ordinary citizens who now share and relate their experiences with anybody at little or no cost. This is not a fad as people do not abandon technologies that help them communicate better. More so because

·         Social Media will help marketers create trust with the customers as there is minimal scope to fake or falter on “Say – do “ratio. Customers are watching  hence organizations tend to be alert

·         Social Media Marketing (SMM) is non-interception based approach unlike traditional marketing. Companies give more relevant information to the customer and do not hard sell its products or services. This creates a better environment for dialog thus lends itself for continuous interaction/engagement. Many companies have seen success. Take the example of Indium Corp, makers of solder, solder paste. In an industry not known for aggressive marketing initiatives, Indium has managed to humanize its interaction with their customers through an effective SMM strategy.

The inertia from B2B marketers is mainly due to following  reasons:

•   If you interact with customers online, there will be negative feedback – So is it better to hide such feedback under the carpet or pull it out of the rug? Not knowing your customer perception is no good sign
•   RoI is not clear – I liked Paul Gillin’s response “ Would you trade off unclear RoI with Risk of Inaction”
•   Social Media is a Fad – I don't want to hit you with the stats.The fact that you are online and reading this post vindicates the need for strong online presence

Wait… don’t just jump into the social bandwagon. Here are some common mistakes why social media marketing(SMM) strategies fail in many companies:

•   Tool/platform is more important than the objective – Facebooks,Twitters of the world can wait. In order to succeed in the online world think like a publisher, crystallize your objectives and then decide the Medium
•   Its CEO’s pet project – If there are no takers at the implementation level, these initiatives will fail. Need  passionate resources
•  Social Media based interaction used for wrong business objectives- For example, Social Media is not a substitute for affiliate marketing based lead generation campaigns

What next?

•   Define your social media marketing objective in line with your business objective
•   Define Social Media Strategy
• Identify your Influencer
• Choose the social media platform
• Define the theme and relationship you want to build with the customer
• Define metrics/surrogate metrics
•  Execute your plan
• Listen to conversations
• Participate
• Influence your customers
• Act
•  Measure- Conversation Mining
•  Monitor Interaction/engagement index and optimize plans

I will take each of these points and explore in detail in the forthcoming blog posts. Till then read a few successful B2B social Media Marketing campaigns

• Dell's Ideastorm
• Indium Corp

Business on the web - A Mandate

"Many a false step was made by standing still". This quote from Tim Ferriss book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich  has a profound impact on me.

In the last few months I have been  interacting with quite a few Small and Medium size businesses ( SMBs) who want to have a foot print on the web albeit reluctantly.In most of these interactions, the business owners think that web is a mere online brochure ware and all it takes is a web developer to design & develop some static pages and have a domain address printed in all their offline collaterals.Cheap and Quick!!!!

Why do they want to go for this half hearted attempt? Simply because they are caught between new age consumers demand for an Interactive website against SMBs time tested ways for marketing and sales,typically offline and push based approach.The stated answers for resisting change includes:

• Don't want to spend a lot of money on a new channel 
• Not sure of the RoI
• My customers prefer offline marketing and sales
• Online is not personal. B2B business need personal touch

I tried exploring the reasons for the resistance/half hearted attempts to move the web and found that most of the reasons emanate from lack of knowledge of doing business on the web which further results in  trust deficit. Result: SMB owners contract a small time web designing agency ,usually chosen based on cost considerations,who inturn with scanty information and no direction will create a static brochureware website.No prizes for guessing the result of this initiative.The result of this initiative will prove the SMB owners  words ," I know that this will not work", prophetic.. .Project failure... Investment down the drain. All these are as a result of fear of unknown, lazy thinking and indiscriminate action

Dear SMB owner... doing business on the web isn't a choice anymore...Its a Mandate. Consumers across demographics research online before purchasing offline. This phenomenon is called as multichannel buying.

Doing business on the web is not all that complicated. . All that the SMB owner needs is clarity on the role of the online/web channel, conviction that it will work, commitment in terms of resources and few baby steps to set up the online channel.Few baby steps to set up the online channel:

• Register a domain name
• www.domaininseconds.com
• www.godaddy.com
• Decide on dependable hosting services
• www.godaddy.com
• www.net4.in
• Define the role of the web channel based on Persuasion Architecture
• Who are your target audience?
• What do you want them to do on the web?
• What are they doing on the web? If you don't have a website do research on competition website
• Identify design agencies who understand your domain,your customers and technology
• Build a website with a theme and a personality based on the product,brand and industry maturity
• Need for subject matter experts and user experience consultants
• Use a simple content management system which help manage the website in a seamless manner- Plenty of open source options like Joomla,Drupal can come in handy
• Need  an ecommerce site with payment processing capabilities. Can set up a store front using
• Yahoo store
• ebay store
• Need a payment gateway to accept customer payments
• Google checkout
• Pay Pal

Now your website is all set... Launch it...What next?

• Draw customer traffic to website - Based on budgets, the campaign can be pan echannels.To start small, invest on
• Google Adwords or Pay Per click campaigns- choose specific keywords that relates to your business and run continuous campaigns.Refer to www.adwords.google.com
• Know more about your customers,optimize website and Measure results
• Set up web analytics using the likes of www.google.com/analytics or www.clicktracks.com to measure various Key Performance Indicators ( KPIs)
• Tract competition using www.alexa.com and continuously improve your website

Very easy and simple isn't and interestingly most of these tools and services come at competitive rates...monthly plans are available.Now that you know your cost and website goals( it can be leads or online sale), its easy to calculate RoI. Tools like Google analytics provide such info on a dashboard. With these baby steps, 2 out of the 4 objections, high cost and RoI issue, stated by SMB owners have been addressed. 

Once the online business is in an auto pilot mode then it is imperative enter the world of web based customer interaction & intimacy - web 2.0. Will try and address the other 2 objections of SMBs in the next blog post

Taste Chocos Dosa @ KeLOGIN- Online Marketing redefines offline marketing

AOL's( online entertainment company)  takeover  of Time Warner (offline media conglomerate) in the year 2000 was the harbinger of how online world would potentially influence the happenings in the offline space. This influence is in an accelerated mode after the birth of interactive web or web 2.0

Web 2.0 has redefined traditional consumer marketing. Traditional marketing is always about creating products,right pricing, back it up with aggressive advertising/communication and having a robust distribution system in place. Getting the marketing mix (4P's) right is considered as the formula  for success.

The web 2.0 and social networks have ushered a new era where brand "connect and experience"  are not just tactical initiatives but key strategic drivers for business growth .In today's context, brands meet the consumer where they are which is different from how traditional marketing companies operate. We see B2C brands like Red Bull,Whole Foods,Comcast and many other brands across categories connecting,interacting , engaging the consumer through social networks/interactive online platforms like Facebook,Twitter to create a wholesome experience for the consumer with the brand.To further humanize the relationship leading personalities represent the brand, as trust agents, in the social interactions. Example Scott Monty of Ford, Matt Cutts of Google....

This shift in interaction levels and new found freedom for the consumer in the online space will naturally have a cascading impact  on the interactions with brands in the offline space.Some brands have spotted this trend early enough  and are very aggressive on Below the Line ( BTL) promos which creates a brand connect with the consumer.On the other hand it is very tempting for large brick and mortar brands to negate this trend based on their conventional wisdom.Warning!!!! Don't wait any further.Brand's must " Connect and Create unique Experiences" for consumers and that is the future.Be it offline or online. Successful brands will try create many such opportunities for consumers... Reason for this shift:

• Consumers have experienced this new freedom of interacting with brands up close,especially in the online space
• This change in interaction will have an impact on consumers expectation of similar experience in the offline space as well- cascading impact
• We live in an over communicated society with plenty of product options. The brands that humanize its relationship with consumer stand to gain

How can brands connect with consumers in the offline space,humanize relationships and create unique experiences? Lets try and attempt to do this connect using a popular brand.

Kelloggs- Popular Breakfast cereal

It took 16 years for Kelloggs to change the breakfast habits of Indians.When Kelloggs was launched in India in 1994, it didn't do well for 3 major stated reasons:

• Indians are not used to having cold milk in the morning but Kelloggs cereal was well suited with cold milk
• They had a rooster in th pack which made people think it was a non vegetarian product.
• The product was not Indianized

Since then the product has come a long way in replacing the traditional Indian breakfast. How can they do better?

 Scene Change:Consumers connect visit to  beach in the morning to health and fun. Kelloggs have consistently positioned themselves as "fun & tasty breakfast".How can the brand use this opportunity to "Connect and create unique Experiences" for the consumer?.

The promo should be run as follows:

• Kelloggs should open a cereal hut in the beach called as KeLOGIN(to make digital natives identity with the brand)
• The store will be open only in the morning from 5am - 9am targeting the health freaks who come to the beach 
• Consumers spend some time with friends and possibly catch up for breakfast especially during weekends.Use this opportunity...
• Create innovative breakfast options using Kelloggs cereal apart from the regular ones and induce trial.. I remember one of the restaurants in Pondicherry had murukku sandwich (Indianizing sandwich) in its menu
• Indianize it by creating new healthy and tasty options like Chocos Dosa,Museli Vada. I am sure culinary experts can help create such interesting options. If Oreo Pizza ,Panner Pizza can sell why not Chocos Dosa...
• Consumer would want to try out new breakfast options and this approach will help consumers adopt cereal as a part of the breakfast menu
• This promo will certainly create an opportunity for the brand to connect and create unique experiences.Marketers will gain immensely from this interaction between the brand and the consumer.

This is very different from the traditional approach of advertising, store merchandising and other promos which will result in one way communication between the brand and the consumer.

After this unique experience, the brand will possibly be top of mind  for the consumer which will lead to positive word of mouth hence retail sales will pick up.

Am hungry... lets meet at KeLOGIN for a Chocos Dosa...Sounds crunchy :-)  

Way to Influence purchase at a store - Create Panic

Conventional wisdom always states that consumers wish to have a clear idea about any product or service before they buy.Clear explanations of product through simple product brochure, transparent sales process, organized sales stores are believed to be sales enablers.

I did believe these "cast on iron" tenants as truth till I heard an interesting anecdote from my friend on how a chaotic and panic stricken environment helped create better sales for a product. Wait!!! Isn't it contrary to the conventional wisdom that we have since time immemorial. To understand the reason for this consumer behavior lets explore few situations:


1. Deep Discount sale @ clothes factory outlet during Christmas or Diwali
2. Jewellery purchase in India especially during marriage season or Akshaya Tritiya
3.Purchase of electronic goods at stores like Best buy or Chroma especially during festive days like Thanks Giving Day or New Year Sale

What is common to these environments beyond just great deals? Crowded stores.. Have you ever noticed why most of these purchases happen in a crowded environment? I am sure you would have walked out of the store after the purchase with exasperation and the common complaint why cant the stores be more organized?Believe me, the next time you visit the store,the chaos would have just increased.

But why did the consumer begin acting that way when it's clearly not in his nature to do so? Simple. Because everyone else was doing it. So many others were doing it, in fact, and doing it so loudly, he/she will find it impossible to just sit there without acting.

Dr.Robert Cialdini,in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials),calls it as the Rule of Social Proof ."Social Proof is what psychologists call a "decision heuristic" — a shortcut for making decisions. Life is too complicated to carefully evaluate every element of every situation, so we learn to take shortcuts to help us make what are usually reasonable and reliable decisions".

The reason for the consumer behavior to purchase despite panic/chaos can be deduced as follows :
- Crowd and chaos creates panic
- Panic sets in ambiguity
- When we feel ambiguous, we look for people who are similar to us and take decisions based on their actions
- Greater the number of people who find an idea correct,more the idea will be correct


When overwhelmed by the panic & chaos, consumer ends up thinking that the offer in hand is a dream deal and it cannot wait for the next day. The 'Suspension of Disbelief" results in a purchase without thinking, contrary to our conventional wisdom.

How can this technique of influence "Social Proof" be exploited by online marketers? While there are welter of ideas like limited period offer,testimonials, products sold for the dayetc, it's worth exploring an online shop where there marketer builds crowd and chaos by giving the consumer the option to user Nag,Tag (go social) and haggle at the online store to help make a purchase. Going social (integrating the online shop with Facebook, Blippy)at the time purchase will create enough noise for chaos to set in and then we know the consequence.The consumer ends up purchasing from the online store.My guess is that this kind of selling will be better suited for low cost, discount stores especially when the consumer is not sure of his purchase. Atleast worth exploring...

This influence technique appears to be a negative but in reality thats how consumers behave.Smart marketer will be on the lookout for this kind opportunity.

Beware... don't enter a crowded shop...

Hair Style - New way to Influence

The word 'Influence' is becoming relevant and apt for every action in our life be it personal or professional. How can we influence somebody to achieve our goals or how can I persuade somebody for mutual benefit seems to be the perennial thought.

Dr.Robert Cialdini is a seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion.In his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials), he refers to 6 distinct ways through which one can influence to acheive his goals. One of the ways is "Liking".Without getting into details on this technique, just wanted to highlight one key consumer insight - " Although it is generally acknowledged that good looking people have an advantage in social interaction, recent findings indicate that we have sorely underestimated this advantage. A halo effect occurs when one characteristic of the person dominates as a result of which we would automatically assign favorable traits such as talent, Kindness, intelligence, street smart to the good looking person".Looks like "looking good" will be  a useful influence/persuasion technique.

Scene change. Traffic is one of the biggest problems we face in our daily life.Traffic on the road is a bane due bad infrastructure and indisciple of motorists. Thats not what I was referring to.. Driving relevant traffic to the physical store or to the online store is one of the biggest challenges business face..Some of the metrics that businesses track includes footfalls, store productivity, week day traffic, week-end traffic,ticket size per customer, repeat visits,store utilization to name a few..

Will try and use this insight " looking good to Influence" and address a business problem-TRAFFIC for one of the business which is going through a huge transformation, atleast in India..

Hair Salon Business

From a mere neighborhood shop with no branding, they have moved to become hair stylist to beauty salons to beauty salon chains focusing on hair care,skin care and have become lifestyle brand.A lifestyle brand is a  brand that attempts to embody the values and aspirations of a group or culture for purposes of marketing.

 Why are salons going through this transformation? It's mostly market driven.

 According to the Census of India, 2001, we have almost 20% of our population in the age group of 15 to 24 — that’s what actually ought to be considered the core youth target group — and around 27% in the age group of 15 to 29. 

Opportunity:

• The group with the good propensity to spend..  
• The group which is always on look out for every opportunity to look good or  to differentiate themselves in the crowd to gain acceptance or influence. Some examples
• Street smart salesman trying to influence his prospect
• Job seeker trying to impress the potential employer
• Guy try to impress a girl or the other way around
• Looking good to gain acceptance in a peer group

Challenges:

I had a chance to speak to few people in the salon industry and some of the stated problems:

• Weekend is always full house but week days have minimal footfalls.How to get visits during off peak hours?
• With many stores coming in each neighborhood, what does the salon need to do retain its customers?
• With significant investment on branding and new stores, how to get their return on investment?
• How to generate new traffic to the store?

Insight:  " looking good to Influence"

Trigger feature:How many times have you walked out of the salon with a wonderful hairstyle after the hair cut but not able  reproduce the same style the next day 

Solution: Salon should use this insight  & trigger feature and create a new promo.Instead of just focusing on haircuts and related service to generate business, how about "Hair Style for the day".. 

• The program will be run from Mon -Friday between 9am - 5pm ( only during off peak hours)
• To any customer, walk into the store and get a new hair style done in just 15 mins for just Rs.50... just before your interview or before your date or before your crucial meeting and look good
• The salon can run daily/weekly theme promos like SPIKES for men, Curls for woman
• Flavor of the month:Popular  Hair styles of hero and heroine from latest movies
• Benefit for the customer/visitor - an opportunity to look good which will inturn help to influence or atleast feel good.
• Benefit to the business: additional traffic during off peak, new customers, start new relationships by starting small
• Extension could be mobile hair style salon in the popular hangouts like mall,multiplex, office complex etc.

This will generate significant buzz for the salon especially with  the right Target Audience. If this promo is a success , then all the above business challenges will potentially have answers

Remember, everybody is looking for an opportunity to impress or influence.Do it in Style!!!!

Restaurant 2.0 - New way to build customer relationships for a restaurant Biz

In one of my previous post,I did discuss about customer 2.0, celebrity 2.0, markets 2.0. There is a radical shift in every possible interaction that we are having in our daily routine, be it our work place, leisure, entertainment etc. If the interaction isn't remarkable, chances are that the business could be on the downward movement. 


Businesses are trying to re-look at the current relationship management strategy. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 2.0 is all about evolving from its traditional focus on optimizing customer-facing transactional processes to include the strategies and technologies to develop collaborative connections  and strengthen the relationship with the new age social customers. In this post,wish to take up an unorthodox business category and  attempt to bring in the 2.0 perspective. Restaurant!!!


This category is of high intrigue because:

• Restaurants do not have any data on consumer preferences. Every visit by a customer is treated as new visit
• Customers have no way to remember the order preferences during their last visit hence one's ability to try new things could be limited
• Consumer feedback about the restaurant is always on the overall experience and not necessarily about individual food items. Consumers do not tend to remember taste of the food beyond a day. Minimal scope to give or get feedback about specific food items at that instance
• In a busy restaurant, one ends up waiting for a long time to place an order. This leads to delay in service hence negative experience
• Consumers reviews are increasingly popular and is one of the determining factors for go/no-go decisions to visit a restaurant
• The restaurant management is always on the lookout for cost save initiatives

In a competitive environment, restaurants are looking at new ways of differentiating themselves beyond just quality, variety ,presentation of food and restaurant ambiance. Valet parking, toddler seats and other complimentary services have now become 'me too' services. Today's tech savvy consumer is expecting each and every interaction to be remarkable.


What should a restaurant biz team do to improve customer loyalty and relationship?


Enter Restaurant 2.0


I will try and attempt to provide a point of experience (PoE) solution which will help solve all the issues aforesaid for an upmarket restaurant. The solution will provide:

•  A remarkable experience for the customer as he will be able to  get reviews, real-time feedback ,recommendations using social media before making his choice
• Tons of information for the Restaurant marketer which will help  provide personalized service/campaigns to encourage repeat visits, improve ticket size and improve other relevant business metrics.

Walk through of the remarkable experience for the customer at the restaurant

• Customer enters a restaurant for lunch/dinner
• Each dining table will have a touch pad computer instead of a physical menu card
• Customer will log-in to his/family page or if it is his first visit then he will have to register
• The home page will have the menu. The page will also showcase other recommendations like top chosen food item for the month, restaurant's specific recommendations for the customer, user review about each food item, food preference of the customer the last time he visited the restaurant and other related information
• If the customer chooses to do a broadcast search on social media,he will have access to Facebook friends, fans page or any other social network to get real time opinions/suggestions 
• The consumer can place the order through the touch pad without waiting for any human intervention
• Once the food is served,the customer will have a choice to give real-time feedback about each food item ordered
• Provide feedback on overall experience after finishing the lunch/dinner
• Since the touchpad is connected to internet, the customer can pay the bill online which will possibly result in minimal service delays

This will truly be a remarkable experience for the customer and a good starting point for  strong collaborative connections & strengthening of  relationship between the new age social customer and the restaurant which is the whole proposition of CRM 2.0

I am sure skeptics will complain about the absence of human interaction with the customer while placing the order for food. The personalized home page will more than compensate for the human interaction. But am a convinced with Robert Cialdini's insight  " Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about it". This insight explains the possibility for lesser inertia for change to this new technology intervention at a dinner table.

Looking to get a much more personalized service the next time I visit a restaurant... Possibly the Restaurant 2.0 way!!!

CONNECT- New marketing program for credit card companies

One of the biggest challenges for credit card companies is to increase spends on the credit card. In order to achieve it, they do regular tie-ups with restaurants, pubs, bowling alleys and what not to offer discounts to customers.Almost every credit card company does it, hence there is too much clutter and commotion that even the greatest offer probably gets lost.More important the entire communication is one way and is very boring. As Seth Godin puts it" If people aren't discussing your products, your services, your cause, your movement or your career, there's a reason. The reason is that you're boring.


Is there are refreshingly new way to increase card spends? Are credit card companies ready to look at some trends that will help them create remarkable promotions to increase spends?


The trends:

• Thanks to social media, consumers are looking for every opportunity to network or to build relationship
• Call it location based services or Geotagging is getting popular. Twitter has launched this service by end of Nov 2009
• Consumers are looking for opportunities to spend
• If there is a web 2.0, marketing 2.0, Me 2.0 then there should also be a Promotions 2.0.. How can consumers generate promotions/offers?

Typically, every credit card company looks at discount offer as 'hero' in the communication( 20% off at the Taj, 15% at the Spa and how many more 'Me too' offers that fills up your letter box or email box),I wish to turn the whole approach on its head. If the consumers are looking for opportunities to meet/spend, Lets " CONNECT'  them. This would mean that the  occasion for the meeting should be the primary focus( 'hero') and let the discounts offered by the card company be incidental. Would like to explain this approach through a simple example. Assume I have an XYZ Bank credit card. Lets call the marketing program as " CONNECT" 

• XYZ Bank should have all offers in a website
• The portal should give me a choice to create an CONNECT ecard for the occasion
• Let's say I want to meet up with my college friend Ashok and I know he is the Chennai.
• The website should have multiple card choices ranging from formal to whacky depending on the occasion
• Once I create the ecard, I should be able to pick up a location from the list in the website.
• The ecard thus created will probably read like" Hey Buddy... Long time, Lets meet up at Anokhi( a popular coffee shop in Chennai) ". The Anokhi's address will be pushed into the ecard automatically.
• Once the card is ready, it will sent to Ashok's email id and to his mobile as SMS.
• XYZ Bank is offering a discount at Anokhi but the hero in the consumer generated communication is the meeting with the friend. The discount offer becomes incidental

If we have to take this consumer generated promotion to the next level, thanks to the proliferation of GPS enabled smart phones, an application like Loopt will help identify both my location and Ashok's location. Using this geo info, the creditcard company can come up with auto suggest CONNECT Cards based on location to meet, occasion and the availability of  discount offer. Using this info, I can send an ecard to Ashok and am sure it will sweep him of his feet. To reinforce the core of the program, the meeting between friends is the hero,discount at the store is incidental. The card company will stand to gain through this innovative promotion of ecards.

Waiting to send my ecard and create an occasion to build relationship. Truly remarkable..Lets CONNECT