Why are we still a third world country in SERVICE MARKETING?

I resisted for long to write on this topic but in the last few weeks so many things have shaped and prejudiced my thought process, so here I am with one more perspective.

Prima facie Service Marketing is such an innocuous term. Every college student dreams of opening a dhaba or restaurant, without even knowing what Service means. Almost all of us have had horrifying experiences with one or the other service. Movie halls, Bus ticket vendors, Restaurants, Banks, Telecom service provider, everyone has brazenly and blatantly swindled the customers in one or the other grotesque (literally) act. In India despite the presence of legendary companies the service levels have been pathetic.

Vision Statement of India’s leading telecom service provider: "To provide global telecom services and delight customers."

With customer care call waiting time that could even run into days, one has every right to mock at these statements. These statements and company actions are so paradoxical in nature, that one wonders what is a need of these empty bunch of words tied together with loose thread of hypocrisy . We deceitfully preach “atithi devo bhavah” but we barely follow the spirit lying underneath these words.

Let’s try to explore where and why the, disconnect lies.

CXOs may come up with fancy customer focused statements sitting in their AC and sound proof chambers (to customer’s voice) but they will not be able to translate it into customer satisfaction until they make efforts to sync goals and actions of every function (Marketing, Operations, HR etc) with the Mission Vision statements. Focus should be on removing the huge disconnection between the people framing the policies and people on the ground.

The most important “P” of service marketing is “People”, undoubtedly. Service marketing is all about people on the ground. They are the ones who will either make it or break it. But with most of the companies outsourcing their recruitment process in parts or fully, how can they expect to hire people befitting their needs.

In service industry one needs to “Hire for attitude, train for skills” (statement: courtesy Guru PVR) but companies are trying to do exactly the opposite. They are hiring based on certain facts on CVs and trying inculcating attitude. One may argue on the feasibility of hiring for attitude but great companies know how to do this also. Take Singapore airlines or Hilton hotel, they have mastered the process of screening and hiring people for attitude. They know Training can only act as reinforcement and nothing more.

So next time while you are standing in front of huge BSNL advertisement, your call gets disconnected due to network congestion, press redial and call again. You literally have no alternative. We still are and will remain a third world country in Service Marketing at least for the coming decade.

E Campaigning @ Lok Sabha Polls 2009

If some US politician would have made a Face book profile for election campaign nobody would have given it a damn. Or let’s say if some EU politician would have given banner ads on internet then also nobody would have given it a damn.

Now take this…

Some Indian politicians (Parties) have hired a team of internet marketing evangelists and bloggers and to campaigning for upcoming LS elections. Guys few of them even don’t know what Internet is and how to use it. Call it an e-blitz or “Obama Effect” but it is definitely capturing the balls of lots of people.

Parties like BJP are particularly very active on internet communities these days. One can see Mr. Advani everywhere starting from Blogs, websites, YouTube, Orkut. You name it and he will be there. In fact BJP has reserved 10% of the total budget for e-campaigning which is 9% higher than the previous e-campaigning budget. I came across these interesting urls

Advani's Blog has 6586 members, 2940 topics, and 9354 posts and has blogs in Hindi also!!!

Advani @ Campus First of its kind of initiative to mobilize College goers!!!

BJP is relying on e campaigning more than congress. This can be attributed to the fact that Congress has Rahul Gandhi to charm the younger generation so ball is in BJP’s court to make the cut.

Let’s look from the marketing angle to find out why all this makes sense:

You might have read this umpteen times that we are a young country with 500 million plus youngsters but now even political parties seems to understand this well. They have got their Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning on the dot. This e campaign is precisely targeting this young generation who seem to live their life in their inboxes.

E campaigns are 360 degree campaigns where perspective voters can freely e interact with the candidates. This provides an opportunity to the political parties to tilt the inclination of voter in their favor.

Now let’s look at the other side of the coin:

India has around 40 million direct internet users from all the age groups. One can add another 60 million who access internet from cyber cafes or from their college labs. 100 million is definitely a big number and can make that difference. But having said that one must realize that the attitude of, this 100 million and growing tribe is indifferent towards politics. Lots of them care a damn about what BJP or Congress can do to them. They are busy writing their destiny with their own hands. Though the campaigns like Jaago Re have been launched to address this very issue but their effectiveness is questionable.

Also with heavily skewed population distribution in favor of small towns and villages, reach of this e campaign is very limited.

Hence this e blitz may not translate into votes at all.

“Much can be said on either side”.

Let’s enjoy the ambiguity till May 2009 and then during post mortem I will present one more perspective on effectiveness of the e campaigns in politics in a truly political manner ;)

Sell Yourself…Sine die!!!

Few months back Barack Obama was everywhere on web starting from magazines, newspapers, media, blogs, websites, face book, twitter and what not. It was one of biggest publicity blitz ever. No one could have sold himself better than what Obama did.
It is not difficult to imagine how big he is or how big he has become. The crucial question is – How? That’s the power of Marketing.
Modern marketing concept caters mostly to the products and / or services. You can find books, blogs, websites dedicated for marketing on the same. But Self Marketing (SM)? How to do that?
SM is for people who want to make it big on their own. They want to enhance their visibility. They have something that can add value for the customer. This blog is not a guide, but just a perspective on how to go about SM.
The basics are simple. First, you need a person who has done something in life (no clichés please). Accomplishment should be good enough to showcase e.g. MBA from IIM or B.Tech from IIT, a rank in some national/international event, work ex with some big company etc. Secondly, create a self identity. This means writing about yourself (not the Arindam Choudhary does). Can you describe yourself with some key attributes and skills that befit the kind of role you are offering (It is really difficult – try and you will know)? Now use the power of advertising tools. If you want to market yourself locally – put an advert in the local magazine or newspaper. Do not describe what you do, but what you have achieved and what you can do for others so they can also achieve something tangible. Write a one liner that describes you. Marketing Guru? Consulting Expert? Vocabulary Master? Guitar Maestro? Thought Catalyst!!!(All these look cliché, don’t they?). If you have the money, go for a professional manager (all big stars have). Make sure to pursue something in your own line so that you can bolster the success story. Also, create an atmosphere of dependency. Make sure that whoever comes to you can’t go back (many big MNCs do this). For PM, these means two things – if you offer something that gets over in a limited time frame then ensure that word of mouth is generated (Do you know of Mr. X who gives GD/PI classes in South Delhi. He is brilliant!!!) And secondly if it is a long term relationship, create hard dependency. Don’t allow anyone to leave. (IBM does that)
Finally you can use the power of web for large scale marketing. Create your own site or a blog. Showcase yourself there. Or put adverts on the sites if you want. (Most stars have their own blog as you might know). Connect with people – create a charm that bewilders people – move ahead with authority.
This blog entry is not about marketing of the rich and the famous. They can always do other things (controversies are best tools!!!). If you are a small time teacher in a remote locality or a painting expert in a small city, use this as a perspective. At least you can have more and better …

Book Review: Built to Last

“Built to last” by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras is about identifying patterns based on qualitative and quantitative research on existence of legendary organizations. Jim Collins in particular has been associated with this kind of research for more than two decades. He has written some unforgettable HBR articles like “Level 5 leadership”, “Built to Flip” and best seller books like “Good to Great” which consisted of research on more than 1400 companies. Phew!!! More on Jim Collins: www.jimcollins.com

Patters consist of financial data, vision statements, and business strategies of the companies for the past 100 years. As the name suggests Authors have tried to find out why some companies are ageless and seem to exist forever?

The most fascinating aspect of this book is the depth of the qualitative research. Mission, vision statements, strategies and philosophies of the companies like Morris Philip (Marlboro), Boeing, and HP have been studied in depth and essence has been brought out in true sense. Authors have tried to filter the values with will remain intact even after 100 years of existence of company, audacious goals which company will strive to achieve for many years (Wal-Mart target of $125 billion revenue), cult cultures which run deep inside the organisations (free cigarette boxes with pay cheque to Morris Philip employee), actions consistent with vision statements and core values, band of leaders eligible as successors (GE) and many more insights.

A diligent comparative study backed by the huge research effort has been done to bring out in light the gravity of differences between legendary and not so legendary companies.

Sometimes while going through this research work it seems as if you are reading some boring history book full of facts and qualitative data. So you need to be patient enough. It’s more imperative to grasp underlying message than the details of the example given.

I think this book will particularly be helpful to budding entrepreneurs who want to build companies to last forever and not to flip.

Gandhigiri or PR gimmick?

Few days’ back Mr. Vijay Malaya brought belongings of our Father of Nation, Mahatma Gandhi back for a whopping sum of $1.8 million. Government failed to prevent the items from going under the hammer, in its everlasting fire fighting mode claimed that Mr. Malaya was the joker of their pack and they made him do the trick. On the contrary Mr. Malaya claimed that he has acted in the most sovereign way and has brought everything back on his own to the country, as it brought him peace…”THE PEACE”
Was it Gandhigiri or a PR gimmick? Let’s look at this potential soap opera from a cynical Marketing viewpoint.
Kingfisher Airlines is bleeding and desperately trying to maintain cash flows to meet its working capital needs. On the other hand UBG with 40% share in Indian Beer market seems to be doing fine with around 20% growth in its bottom line in 2008.
Having said that, let’s agree that by buying Gandhi’s belonging Mr. Malaya will not be able to induce people to fly or drink more beer. He knows other ways to achieve the same (Kingfisher calendar) ;). So there must be something else which could have propelled him in this grand philanthropy.
Hey do you know that Mr. P Chidambaram has assured full security for the coming IPL season, despite the fact that a week back he was advocating change of schedule of IPL as it was (is) clashing with Lok Sabha polls?
Few facts…IPL means big moolah!!! Mr. Malaya owns Royal Challengers Bangalore, one of the IPL team which did badly the last IPL season.
IPL franchisee Team earns from title sponsorship, selling merchandise and selling tickets apart from the share in TV advertisement.
“Revenue stream from Merchandise can be a big money spinner if the franchisee is able to build a huge fan following and city loyalty. From a small income of $1 million in the first year, it is estimated that this can go up to $ 15 million in the tenth year.”
-Times of India
Here comes the crunch point. These three revenue streams depend heavily on the popularity of the team and its owners. What is better than almost free PR for the Brand Malaya and hence Brand Royal Challenger?
Vijay Malaya is India’s Richard branson, expert in hitting the headlines because of everything else but business. All these activities help in garner the power of PR (drumming of unbiased message through third person- Kotler).
Timing of these innocuous events may be sheer serendipity and Mr. Vijay Malaya act might truly be philanthropic as he has done a similar deed in the past by bringing back Tipu Sultans sword to India.
Bottom line remains that “it’s all about bottom lines”

Marketing Perspectives

The primary purpose to start this blog is to share the perspectives on various aspects of Marketing. Influence wielded by our mentors on our thinking process would be difficult to subdue, though utter care would be taken to avoid plagiarism.

Let’s start with the core questions. What is marketing?

I would like to quote one of our Prof who perhaps has provided with the oversimplified yet unassailable definition. It goes like this

Marketing is:

Reason to Try

Strong reason to Buy

Compelling reason to Stay

I will not do the anatomy of these legendary lines but would rather like to add that Marketing is about what you think is right and should be done to sustain and grow your business. It is about having perspectives, ideas and believing in them. It is about making yourself comfortable with uncertainties, conflicting idea, areas of grey. But at the same time it is just not about options it is about compulsions. I must add that one can have more than one compulsion to pursue at the same time.

Lots of work has been done in the field of Marketing. Every second there is a new survey on every possible topic and claims what not. It is good to learn from the existing knowledge base but one should not be obsessive about them. No doubt, adding a Mackinsey survey in your report adds substance to it but one should rely more on his observation rather than anything else.

Without iota of doubt one can make out that I have done lots of preaching in the last paragraph. But I told you… it’s about perspectives ;)…