Digital Edge for Business to Business Marketing:

Digital marketing has been around and is now established is one of the important strategic force along with traditional marketing Practices. Companies from all walks of business are trying to reach out to the customers and engage with them in a big way on various platforms, however when it comes to using the digital marketing for business to business marketing one can not use the same tactics as used for consumer marketing simply because results expected out of digital initiative in case of business to business marketing would be completely different.

Business to Business buying is more informed, multifaceted, high value purchase and direct process involving face to face interactions largely. However, in today's globalized business environment, where boundaries are blurred to great extent business to business marketers can't afford to turn blind eye towards the new age digital marketing force.

Digital marketing may not help business to business marketers’ in actual selling the products but it can be of great help in creating positive perception among the buyers and their buyers buyer, it also helps in attracting the talent, building positive perception in buyers end consumers and over long term it dose contribute in absolute monetary terms.Here are some ways in which business to business marketers’ can use digital marketing to their advantage. 

Website: A well designed, search engine optimized website is an asset to any organization. It can be good source to demonstrate your capabilities and achievement to the buyer or strategic partners situated in distant corner of the world. It has been found that, almost 50% of business to business buying process is being done on Internet which involves critical steps like identifying suppliers, analyzing the capabilities of the supplier, rating the suppliers, getting the quotes and other basic information. Dell is one of the first organizations to offer enterprise wide solutions online.

Blog: Well research and industry specific blog can be great asset for any organization wish to become the thought leader in the area operations. Companies can talk about the capabilities and their future endeavors and their resource capabilities to reshape the industry.

Email: As written in my earlier blog, email is one of the most powerful tools available in digital space. E mailer in the form of newsletter can be of great way information dissemination across the buyers and suppliers and all the other stakeholders involved in the process. Also can be use for sending invitation to be part of exhibition or conferences or product launch.

Social media:- Specifically linked is great platform available to B2B marketers to explore and take advantage of. It ahead the highest response rate for mail communication. Companies which have offerings which can be influenced by buyer's buyer decision making then one can explore the social networking platforms like Facebook, twitter and Pinterest to build the positive perception and create a pull for their products from the end customers of their buyer. For ex. Companies like Intel, SAP etc. YouTube: YouTube is second most searched social site after Google. YouTube can be a great way for advertisement and product demonstration.

Webinars: Organizing regular webinars regarding your product and services for relevant audience can contribute to sales department by generating the qualified leads. Companies should organize webinars on regular basis to inform and update the potential customers about the companies next generation plans, new product developments or application of your offerings across the different sectors.

E-Mail marketing - Old but still relavant.............

Sent first time in 1971, E- mail has revolutionized the way of communication across the world. Currently, approx. 145 bn E-mails sent per day worldwide & still close to 70 percent people start their work by checking E-mail every day. E-mail has been undoubtedly choice of communication for digital marketers as it delivers desired results with high Return On Investment (ROI). In current scenario, even though marketers are focusing more on engaging platforms like social media, cloud based applications. I think E-mail marketing still is a force which can deliver the desired results. Based on my experience of E-mail campaigns & knowledge gain through reading, I have listed down some good practices to be followed for E- mail marketing. Some of the Do's & Don’ts of E-Mail Marketing: 

1. Objective: Marketers need to define the objective clearly, to achieve the desired results of any digital campaign. Clear objective guides the marketer to keep on track and do necessary changes required throughout the campaign. There can be different objectives like awareness, registration, Lead or conversion etc.

2. Database: Collect the database of customers from various touch points like on web registration, web inquiries, affiliated websites, CRM, feedback, store visits, exhibitions, events, trade sites referrals etc. Seek permission for future communication via Clear Opt-In declaration. Don’t buy the database from someone else, it may work sometime but may not deliver results over longer run. 

3. Segmenting the Database: It helps in designing the message strategy relevant to particular segment. With highly fragmented markets & changing consumer behavior, undifferentiated message strategy does not work with majority of product or services.

4. Subject Line: Follow "KISS" Principle for subject line; it should be between 4-15 characters. Short subject line E-mails get considerably high open rate compare to E-mails with long subject lines. To break through, 120 email/day in short time span calls for high level of expertise in digital space & core marketing. 

5. Size, Content, Placement & Landing Page: Size of the mail may act as deterrent for receiver to open it. Ideally E-mail size should be 40-50kb, at Max. should not exceed 200kb. Content should be relevant to the offering and in line with the objective of the campaign. Try to avoid heavy flash files & images in the mailer which may turn out the receiver. Placement of the content should be based on the E-mail browsing behavior of the receiver. Marketers need to do some experiment to get the optimum clicks for links in E-mailer. Landing page should have relevant content with the intention of conversion. The attempt should be made to have minimum bounce rate on landing page and it takes huge efforts to get customer on landing page.

6. Scheduling properly: As some studies suggest, E-mail communication have highest opening rate in first hour of receipt and subsides over as time moves on. It leaves out marketers with very short window to make a mark. Best schedule can be Tuesday or Thursday, 11.00am to 12.30pm or 2.30pm to 3.30pm for sending E-mails.  

Frequency matters: In case of regular newsletters or even promotional e-mailers, marketers should maintain the enough time lag between the two e-mailers. Once in 15 days, can be reasonable frequency for E-mailers. Bombarding customers with E-mailers frequently may repel them from receiving further communication. 

7. Clear Opt Out: Every E-mailer should carry clear opt-out link for receiver not to receive further communication. 

8. Optimize your E- mailer for Mobile: Writing on the wall is clear & loud, that MOBILE is the FUTURE. 1.08 bn smart phones worldwide 36 Mn in India smart phone users in India 86 Mn people access internet on mobile in India. Digital marketers can't afford to miss this segment. Recent trend shows that E-mail open rate on mobile has shown substantial growth up to 30 percent. Your E-mail communication must be optimized with the mobile for better results. 

9. Test Split test or AB testing: It is advised to do split testing / AB testing on the database of the particular segment to get better result from E-mail campaigns. 

10. Analyze & Learn: Analyze the campaign results using the standard reports & customized reports provided by E-mailing service providers. One may use Google analytics for the same. Analyze campaign for few certain parameters like Open rate, CTOR, CTR, Bounce rate (Hard bounce & Soft Bounce), Spam meter, unsubscribe numbers, Time spent, Landing page visits, conversions etc. It gives immense learning for future campaigns regarding subject line, message strategy and online customer behavior. Analyzing campaigns also help marketers in optimizing the database. If we consider the resources requirement & ROI for E-mail communication, E-mail still stands out as great strategic tool out of digital marketing tool mix. 

Yogesh Baviskar, Faculty Marketing & Digital Marketing

Breakdown nation: The cost of weak leadership

                                                Breakdown nation: The cost of weak leadership  

"In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing"                                 

-Theodore Roosevelt

No one can imagine the country which was being hailed as the breakout nation has become the breakdown nation in short span of time. One really wonders, what are the reasons for such debacle?

Well, I think answer is pretty simple; this great country of ours, the land of opportunities has everything right except strong, transparent and decisive Leadership.

Its seems that economist, Investors and academicians have took into account only the positive factors in to account while pronouncing, India as next economic superpower like Domestic market size, Demographic dividend, Investment, infrastructure growth however I really doubt anyone has consider the prime mover of the all theses things and that is strong, clear and decisive leadership to move the nation in right direction.

Let’s take look at state of illusion we believe in:-

v  Largest democracy with Worst Governance

v  Huge domestic growth with very High inflation and very few Indigenous Brands to cater to this high domestic growth

v  Huge Demographic Dividend but where are job for millions getting in job market every year?

v  Large agricultural sector which is having only 35% agricultural land under irrigation, and every year 1000’s farmers suicide/year

v  Huge IT sector which is almost dependent with no real global IT product

v  Huge infrastructural growth which is hardly moving ahead due to complete policy laps, and bottlenecks at each step

v  Great entrepreneurial spirit however huge obstacles in starting & doing business

          (70 Licenses are required to start new business in some of the cases)

v  Great strategic location but unstable & volatile neighborhood with no real trust factor within these countries like Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh…

v  Strong manufacturing sector which is recording sluggish growth or stagnant since last few years.

Can every problem be sorted out immediately? May be not……however all these issues can be address to great extent…..As I believe current state of Indian economy has every thing right except the leadership. The current leadership has failed to win the confidence of the investors, have failed in giving clean and transparent governance to the nation. Even now, as we have entered in pre-election mode, the current leadership have relied more on populism over rational decision making similar to decision making in pre-election phase of 2009.

Current state of decision making (Populism over Rational):-

1

     2013 ( Pre-Election Year) , “Food Security Bill” instead of designing mechanism to provide employment opportunity for masses to earn the food………….( what happened to GARIBI HATAO since last 60 years) Its classical case of looting tax payers ( who usually don’t vote in large numbers) to benefiting non tax payers (who vote in large numbers)

         2009 (Pre-Election Year) , Government designed loan waiver scheme to farmers costing 60,000 Crore to the nation

One really wonders, If farmers need loan waiver or

Irrigation facilities? (Only approx. 35% land is irrigated after 60 years of Independence)

Continuity in electricity (One of the most developed states Maharashtra has failed to provide electricity for half a day continuously in rural area)

And even after the scheme is offered there are some crucial questions unanswered like:-

Did loan waiver schemes reach to real beneficiaries?

Did it solve the farmer’s problem for lifetime?

What about the accurate forecasting from MET department? Do they get that?

Is there any improvement in supply chain mechanism for farmers to get fare price?

In this phase, the nation needs a leader who believes in Great Indian Dream, Who can sell Indian Story to the world, He must not be just honest but can give good governance in functioning of entire government.  He must reach out to nation and understand the public sentiments; He should rise above the religious and sectorial politics and should take rational and logical decisions rather than popular decisions, and above all he should be able to break the shackles of policy paralysis and make things moving. 

If we look back to the history, every nation which has attained the new heights & prosperity had great deal of leadership to steer them in right direction with their wits and wisdom.

I think we are due for one such leadership since long time…..hope to get one soon………………………………………till then expect the large number of welfare schemes, inaugurations and illusionary promises coming our way for next half year.......

Yogesh Baviskar

Demographic Dividend : Myth Or Reality.............

One of the prime driving factors of Indian economy is its demographic dividend. Experts comparing growth prospects of Indian and Chinese economies are betting high on the younger India over aging China.  As the recent studies affirm, India will be the youngest nations with the average age in late twenties.  There will be addition of 200 Mn youngsters in the Indian economy in next 20 years from 2011-2030. 

With the great Indian growth story of the last decade, economist across the world have singled out demographic dividend as the most important factor in realizing the long awaited dream of emerging as an economic superpower.

The demographic dividend is competitive advantage to any economy as it means less no of dependents which in turn helps in increasing the productivity which directly results in a favourable impact on the GDP of the country. 

In recent times China has been successful in exploiting demographic dividend to its fullest potential. It has emerged as the world manufacturing hub. Today’s world Economic & Geo-political policies cannot be designed without reference to China. 

Economist across the world have forecast that India will be the next superpower, fundamentally  based on the promising growth witnessed after the opening of Indian economy and stable socio-political environment with huge FDI and obliviously demographic dividend.

In above all the demographic dividend have two sides to it. It may backfire and would do more damage to the country’s economy, If not managed properly.

The series of events in last couple of years have halted growth story of India. There have been large number of corruption cases which has virtually halted decision making at each level, there is complete policy paralysis due to coalition govt., important bills like land reforms, coal & mining, FDI in retail and lokpal to control corruption are pending since long, foreign investment is drying up on account of international events, the increasing twin deficits & stalemate on reforms initiative by the government. 

On the backdrop of this economic scenario the demographic advantage would be burden than the dividend. There will be addition of 10-12 Mn youngsters every year in economy for next 20 years looking for employment. To provide employment opportunity to such large number will be herculean task and India can not afford the price of failing to do so. Failing will not only impact India economically but will cause the imbalance in the society at large.

There is need for  strategic planning at each level of employment generation starting from education, entrepreneurship  and reforms in all three sectors of Indian economy.  

Currently, only 30 % land is irrigated, yields are all time low which makes today’s youth no longer interested in making a career in farming. The manufacturing hub seems to be distant reality without land acquisition reforms and ensuring the availability of very basic utilities power & water to industries to flourish.

The IT & ITES sector which has played crucial role in India’s growth story is losing out major chunk of business process outsourcing business to small countries like Taiwan and Thailand as India is no longer amongst the  lowest cost service providers.

So far young India has been promising and have grabbed whatever opportunities been offered to them. Young Indians have been successful in leaving their mark of excellence in every field they have been into. 

Today’s youth is well informed, educated, more dynamic, creative, competitive and have zeal to excel. If provided with right opportunity there will be no stopping for India to be emerging as developed country in near future otherwise demographic dividend will be just a Myth in case of India.

New reality for marketers :- Augmented Reality

In today’s knowledge based economy technology is playing crucial role in shaping the world. Technology is impacting every aspect of business from manufacturing to consumption and from marketing to distribution. For instance, since the last three decades, Internet has emerged as a strong force which has drastically changed the way business is done.


Recently there has been a lot of talk about the concept of “Augmented Reality” which is a term used to describe a live view of a physical, real-world environment that is augmented by computer-generated sensory input, such as sound or graphics. A typical AR environment has digital information transposed onto a real-world view. The termed coined by the Tom Caudell to describe a digital display used by aircraft electricians that blended virtual graphics onto a physical reality. The most common example relating AR to common people is sports broadcasting showcasing football field marked with yellow line to show offside player.

Since 2008, the concept has gathered huge momentum, thanks to the surge in usage of Smart phones and tablets across the world.

In the last two years, there has been a huge increase in the applications of AR in almost all the business sectors. There are number of innovative AR based applications in the market for Business cards, Equipment servicing, Weather services, Travel application, 3D gaming, Computer Aided Surgery, Airport Information, Navigational Overlays, Interior design & Modeling, industrial plant maintenance and many more…..

Marketers across the world have responded very positively to this new concept as it helps in engaging the customers in a better manner to create unique kind of brand experience.

Leading brands like Volkswagen, Kraft Foods, Coca cola, Carlsberg, Toyota, BMW, and Nestle have executed brilliant communication campaigns using AR. the key benefits of AR in the communication campaign are:

• AR increases engagement and ensures better user experience & usability

• Research has shown that AR increases the perceived value of products and brands

• AR is mobile and personal and, therefore, hugely accessible to a rapidly growing Smartphone market

• AR is an inexpensive alternative to other media platforms as no specific media needs to be purchased

• Brands have access to detailed analytics enabling them to truly understand their audience

According to ABI research the market for AR based application in the US alone is expected to be $ 350 Mn by 2014 from just $3.8 Mn in 2008. Juniper research predicts that revenue from mobile AR is expected to reach $ 1.5 bn by 2015. With current development and the pace at which it is growing, AR has a huge potential which is yet unexplored. I am sure a few years down the line, AR will be the crucial part of marketing communication for marketers across the world. And for the very same reason, there is no alternative for the budding managers but to equip themselves with the know how of augmented reality.


Prof. Yogesh Baviskar


Reference:-

http://www.bannerblog.com.au/news/2009/06/35_awesome_augmented_reality_examples.php

http://mashable.com/2009/12/05/augmented-reality-iphone/

http://www.inc.com/guides/201104/how-to-use-augmented-reality-in-advertising.html

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/12/13/augmented-reality-marketing-in-2010-and-beyond/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6irc0jwKC8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fGav7FI5P4&NR=1&feature=fvwp

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/research/8969.html

The Road To Superpower VIA Innovation & Inventions

Since last two decades the world economy is experiencing the transition, BRIC nations have shown promising growth and emerging as the new centers of power. Growth of BRIC nations is interpreted as “Third economic super cycle” marked with emergence of China as economic superpower by 2050 and India as third largest after china & USA. The great visionary like Dr. Peter Drucker forecasted this shifting of power to east in 90’s attributing t mainly to change in business models, manpower and material resources in his book titled “Managing in turbulent times”.

Today we are one of the leading economies with robust banking, huge demographic dividend, Strong domestic demand, stable political environment and huge forex kitty.

But on the contrary, there are some serious issues related to infrastructure, energy, healthcare, food security, employment opportunities and poverty (200 Mn people at Bottom of the Pyramid). Currently our economy is led by the service sector dominated by export led IT & ITES, manufacturing is yet to recover from the global downturn and agriculture is highly depended on monsoon.

On the International horizon China has emerged as world manufacturing destination, minnows like Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand are emerging as new low cost outsourcing centers, where as product and services from countries like South Korea, Japan, Germany, Holland and Finland along with USA are dominating the global markets. More over, India is seen as most lucrative market with huge growth potential by the economies across the world. Today, Indian market is flooded with global brands; on the contrary there are few Indian brands successful in global markets.

In order to join the league of developed country or super power in near future, we need to address the serious domestic issue and work on building the capabilities in delivering the innovative product and service at the global level and to do that, we need to concentrate and mobilize our resources on infusing the culture of innovation and invention at all possible level in the society.

Innovation and inventions are the crucial tools of competitive advantage in today’s knowledge based economy. Unfortunately our country with great legacy of Arybhatta, Chanakya, Dr. Bose and Ramanujan has failed to raise the bar in innovation and invention. In 2012, India rank 62^nd in the innovative index and have ranked much below China in filling of Patents.

Today there is need to build the ecosystem for nurturing the culture of innovation and research at all levels. There is need for strategic interventions in education system from primary to higher education in providing optimum infrastructure, qualified resource, sophisticated equipments, rewards & recognition for the motivation and assistance for scaling up & commercializing the innovations.

Industry- Academia relationship is also very crucial in innovation and research. In spite of large scale industrialization, there is huge gap pertaining to the same. There is need for fostering atmosphere conducive for strategic industry –Academia partnership. It helps in sharing infrastructure and resources & to increase the pace of new product development

With proper attention, we are the country with huge potential to unleash; Indian’s have gave the very famous word “Juggad” which simply means “workaround” or “Resourcefulness” and which is the integral part of every average Indians routine life.

With the announcement of 2010-2020 as the Innovation Decade” by our Hon’ble President, If right stimulus is provided, we are the country to with potential to rule the world many decades to come………………….