Reliance Jio can change a lot in India

In my opinion India has been a hub of B2B family owned firms since 1947. The industry have remained under government control, still the govt wields heavy influence, because the industrial houses wanted it that way. Despite many public pronouncements by various govts since 1991 when Dr Manmohan Singh liberalized the environment doing business in India particularly in MSME domain is pretty challenging. But lets restrict discussing the grand roll out, a la Modi rally, by Reliance Jio in the huge telecom sector.

Firstly Mukesh Ambani made a Modi style speech promising big to Indians in the national interest. Although the reliance shareholders are used to such speeches as they heard such stuff during dedication ceremony of KG basin too to the nation too. But India has changed since and the youth was flabbergasted gasping for breath asking what did Mukesh Ambani invent to make such claims?

Secondly at the moment Reliance Jio is no pioneer in the telecom space. It has to contend with major established players capable of taking it on in a price war. Moreover customers have experienced Reliance service for quite a while and many don't have many positive things about its credentials. Customer trust, not the price play, is the cornerstone in service marketing in India as well as globally. Let's hope Reliance learns to win minds and consequently hearts of customers if it hopes to succeed this time.

Reliance don't have a shining record in customer facing business. Its foray into organize retail has not been able to earn it the numero uno position therefore it would have to work harder in telecom because telecom customers are spread over the rural market also. Indian firms generally lack in customer service area and in service marketing the quality of customer service can make or break a business.

How could i end without discussing launch campaign of Jio? Please ask any professional advertising guy in India to know how little space is allowed to them by the advertisers in designing the advertisement message strategy. Perhaps Ambani and family ordered the agency to prepare the layout as per their choice. I always tell my students to see the launch advertisement of Indica by Tata Motors. In my opinion the Indica launch advertisement has been the best ever launch campaign by any Indians corporate.  It contained all that you learn in a premier MBA course anywhere on the earth.

Finally let me state that i haven't got a response to my online booking of Jiofy within the stipulated 48 hour period. Speaks volume for customer service level. Anyways India need its major corporations to succeed so that we can survive and feed our enormous population,  

Why the Online Advertising (SEM.PPC) is unable to see a galloping growth in India?

Were you frequently pissed off to read newspapers cluttered with lengthy versions of already known stories dished out by some self-righteous johnny on TV channels? Indian journos have made the social media, particularly Twitter, their core source of news-leads, beyond what they are handed out by their media owners on orders from the above. Media chaos & clutter have become insufferable burden in India. Who could be in mood for looking at advertisements and moved by them? Therefore it can be safely concluded that the remaining 50% of the Advertising budget is also going down the drain along-with the first half.

Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube & Instagram are fast emerging as the new media for targeting the youth but still the online advertising don’t seem to pick up at a scorching speed that it must. The mainstream media of TV, Print & Radio in India continue to garner the lion’s share of the total advertising spend in India. These three could collectively walk away with Rs. 54, 320 crore in 2015 against Rs 47, 490 cr in the previous year.

Did you notice fewer advertising campaigns in the Print media in 2015 India? But you couldn’t blame anyone else for the virtual clampdown on the out of home media (OOH) in the name of clutter & safety. And surely you must have noticed majority of the urban consuming class, including you, diving into a smart phone, tablet or laptop trying to kick up a discussion or catching up with breaking news.  In nutshell, all the advertisers, media moghuls and marketing experts agree that the media consumption scene is undergoing a metamorphic transformation headed towards ascendancy of the online medium over the rest.

Despite mushroom growth of domestic Online Commerce platforms and entry of Amazon in India the online advertising category has not seen the kind of spectacular growth that it deserves & the economy of India needs.  Although overwhelming majority experts & industry agree that digital advertising can target customers more efficiently than the traditional but still vast majority of advertisers have not begin to leverage its potential. Although the industry watchers forecast that this space may grow much beyond anticipated 15-20% in 2015. Let’s hope it happens for the good of India economy.

Could you tell the single major factor responsible for the poor growth of digital advertising in India? Well most would have guessed it right. It’s the Indian advertising agencies that failed to adapt to the changing media environment and create capacities & skills to guide the advertisers to go online. I wonder if you could guess the second factor that is equally responsible for slack growth in this category. Think of the profile of Indian Entrepreneur in MSME and Large & Medium sector. The lack of education and attitude towards technology of Indian Businessmen has stifled the growth of digital advertising in India.

But the single most blameworthy player in the entire saga, I call it the Gabbar in the story, is the advertising agencies that were born to handle traditional print and audio-visual media but lack the knowledge & skills to execute a great digital campaign. In my opinion the digital advertising in India would not grow at the desired pace till a new type of advertising agencies are born that understand the complexities of this exciting & economical medium.

Let’s hope Sundar Pichai & Satya Nadella could step forward and offer customized programs to educate the existing and new advertising agencies in India in the domain of digital advertising. 

Print Media is run by duds !

Print media may be shrinking in developed countries but not in India. Actually print media in India is growing at a healthy double digit CAGR while shrinking worldwide especially in the developed world. If you wonder why India is an anachronism as compared to the rest of the world, well the answer lies in the character & attitude of the citizens of India who comprise the country inhabited by many separate nations based on cultural & religious identities.

For example telecom markets in all the major countries are made up of disproportionately large share of post paid subscribers whereas in India it is dominated by pre-paid customers. Moreover India is the only country that has been ruled by ‘foreigners‘for the longest period in human history. Indians are unique people with very interesting characteristics but that I would discuss some other time. Let’s have a look at what ails Indian print media industry.

Print & electronic media in general exploded & grew exponentially in early 90s and the advertising revenues kept showing a healthy trend till 2007 when the global meltdown happened that resulted in shrinking of advtg budgets like scales on the back of a porcupine. But the signs of stagnation of advertising revenues could be noticed in early towards the beginning of the twenty-first century as innovations in marketing of advertising space almost died completely.

Traditionally the advertising was marketed by newspapers mainly through the advertising agencies and some publishing majors looked down upon any effort at marketing the newspapers to advertisers owing to vain journalistic pride. Although most publishers & editors took sides of vested interest groups involved in politics & commerce but the journalist kept pretense that they are the fourth pillar of democracy in India which they agree is one of the most corrupt country on the face of the earth. Well while journalists sashayed up & down the political corridors singing ‘we are the savior of democracy’ pop song the media houses partook huge gifts of prime real estate & government advertising etc from the government.

When the economy opened up for the first time by India’s most honest and scholarly Finance Minster till date, Dr Manmohan Singh, the selling became a good word & print media recruited large in-house sales teams to market their products to trade buyers & end customers. This was the period when the management professionals begin to call the shots in running of the media firms which were dominated by journalists with ideas like a long editorial piece.

This explosive growth in media fuelled the growth in other sectors of economy as the new breed of trained Sales Management professionals from the field of media management were lapped up by other services firm particularly the telecom. In my opinion media can play a critical role in economic progress of a developing market but governments are oblivious to its potential. This growth phase was marked by numerous innovations to serve a variety of media buyers & advertisers.

Unfortunately once the media houses cornered the benefits of growth the publishers refused to acknowledge the stellar contributions made by some great media managers and ejected the professionals who made the media revolution possible. Every media analyst in India knows the couple of great media managers who led the growth of media in India. Point is, since the beginning of twenty-first century media lost its appetite for innovations. I would be surprised if any media house can claim to have infused culture of innovation in its teams so as to delight the customers with greater return on advertising spend every time. Print media has huge opportunities to grow and benefit from deluge of digital online space.  But to make that happen, media houses have to hire train & nurture marketing & sales leaders capable of producing innovation like the rabbits from magician’s hat. If you any have doubt that there is no scope for innovations in media marketing try sit with me with lots of black coffee, you would love to pick the tab. 

Why Shoot the Messenger !

"No one loves the messenger who brings bad news" -Sophocles in Antigone

When the PM said lets revive the animal spirit of the Indian economy media let loose its dogs of war. Because last time the suave economist did it in early nineties there was an explosive growth of economy resulting in corresponding increase in the earnings/salaries of the working class. The two decade long growth gave birth to new middle class India which demands better control over their lives & freedom. 

Slowdown in global economy have made the capitalist class unsure of handsome returns on their money so they look forward to governments to make available tranches of cash to bail them out of the mess. How could the crony capitalist media let the wages grow further making it difficult for the corporate to ‘control’ the rising independent middle class? Media editorial line is dictated by the Board not he editorial head.

Spectacular success of China is visible worldwide. It has lifted a staggering part of its population out of grinding poverty & made their lives worth living. China achieved all this without taking over other economies by force to rip them of their wealth. China quietly worked hard and served the consumerism in the developed world. Quietly is the key to Chinese success. Though China held Olympics but it has managed to stay off the publicity radar globally.

China leveraged local wisdom mixed with global technology to earn a respectable place on the high table of world’s leading nations. The Great Wall of China remains the enduring metaphor of its wisdom & success. China didn't join internet revolution without tweaking it to suit its national needs. India on the other hand jumped onto the internet wagon lock stock & barrel without a second thought as to where it will take it.

India remained under foreign rule for centuries so in the middle class India feels exuberant & can't resist the temptation to have an opinion on all subjects under the Sun without regard to any exposure to the topic. Like other 'unsuccessful' people, India has also similar self defense mechanism. People suffering from inferiority complex are very touchy about criticism. Moment you point out an aberration they reject your argument by citing two unrelated facts. Truth is gold in India actually, its very expensive.

Privately run media in India represent view of powerful corporate lobby and particular cultural supremacist  group. Media like Bollywood film industry prefer to divorce truth & reality for pursuit of greed. Instead of challenging the ancient traditions for sake of a modern and more just society. Indian media contributes to perpetuation of  an ancient way of life without regard to the fact that the very same culture caused immense pain to majority of the Indians for thousand years. India has a home grown slave tradition based on work profile of individuals duly sanctioned by religion and Dharma- the caste system of sage Manu. Media subscribes & works to perpetuate the ancient order.

Chairman of Press council of India Justice M Katju has held a mirror to media lately which has forced media to close its ranks & attack the illustrious gentleman with vengeance. I see the class struggle in India getting out of hand due to size of the population. Brahmins, the upper caste group, has been attacked several times by Dalit movements successfully, second ranked caste Kashtriyas have also been targeted in Naxal movements of 70s but the third ranked & actually financially most powerful caste group of Vaishyas have never faced any direct challenge. Opening up of retail to FDI is single most critical challenge to this caste group. Trade & Industry is dominated by this caste group only in India. This is the main reason for anti government stance of the private media in India.      

Media holds a mirror to society and challenges status-quo of all shades rather than  the political establishment. Indian media has completely failed to challenge the prevalent socio-religious order which has led to sudden increase in crimes of greed & rapes. Any sociologist would infer that spurt in crimes is directly related to psychology & culture promoted by media. Its time the visionary leadership in India wakes up and allows global media into India to give India a fair & free media. India should open up news media & education to foreign players so that India could join the new world order. 

Volkswagen India: Poor Branding

Germany, in India, has been known for Mercedes, Engineering, Football & Hitler. The consuming class in India loves the well established powerful brand equity of trust, engineering & solid quality of Made in Germany products.  All that has been altered by a dramatic full page ‘talking print advertisement’ by Europe’s largest car maker Volkswagen for the launch of a ‘luxury’ car into the fast expanding Indian passenger car market. The agency & the MarCom head at Volkswagen India has been all over the media claiming success of their strategy to get greater bang with smaller buck.

Lets us not get into the structure & size of the Indian car market but let us understand that the forecast of passenger car segment for the year 2010-11 is pegged at around 2.25 million units. And we all know that the largest share of this market goes to small car segments. Volkswagen does not have products in sub 4.5 lac segment as yet.  But I would like to analyze the issues that were the target of this interesting media innovation.

When MUL had launched their ALTO years ago with huge decibel level generating mega campaign so that masses could feel the launch it did not help them getting the trust of the customers. Volkswagen innovation is in sheer bad taste for the way Indian consumer behaves. Having a Chinese contraption blurting out crude words about an aspirational involvement product associated with serious engineering pedigree could only have worked to discourage the prospective buyers. My research with students at b-schools has established it beyond doubt that the talking innovation lacked the sophistication required for a serious product like a german car. I am afraid that some other innovative marketing guy may not suggest a similar company to get the car endorsed by a Swami to get immediate adulation.

If their budgets were tight then a full page bleed could easily be hived into two 40x6 releases to get greater OTS. Volkswagen India has to learn their India lessons by understanding the Indian car market, the buying behavior and socio-economic profile of Indian car buyers.  There are various serious ways to involve the customers with the product than vain media innovations meant to entertain the agency/media guys only.

This certainly is a body blow to the Volkswagen brand & the image of Made in Germany in Indian market.

A jingle for Sh. Ram Krishan

Nadwai mein Bhagwan hai!

1. Ram bhi aur Krishan bhi

Nadwai mein bhagwan hain

Hum sare uski santan

Nadwai mein bhagwan hain

2. Ram hamara Krishan hamara

Who apni pahchan hai

Bhai bhai hum sare hain

Nadwai mein bhagwan hain

3. Seedhay sahdhy hum log yahan

koi chotta barha nahin

magar na humse tum takrana

Nadwai mein bhagwan hain

4. Apni behno aur bachon ko

Ijjat aur piar miley

Gandi baten door rakho tum

Nadwai mein bhagwan hain

5. Bina bajurgon ke kia karna

Unke agay sir hai jhukana

Yahi hamari maryada hain

Nadwai mein bhagwan hain