Mobile service providers & marketing in India

This post is at least 3 months overdue - so, here we go: observations of the last year or so of the exploding, number porting, marketing laden Indian Mobile phone market

It is no surprise that each of the major global telecom providers eye india as their best chance of growing world wide market share. Having said that, with the number of new entrants and the estimated potential for growth, there is clearly a race for market share and organic growth amidst the top groups that have established themselves in the telecom space already viz. Reliance, Tata, Bharti airtel, Idea cellular, Vodafone, etc. Docomo & ,Telenor have joined the fray. Domestic players welcome the foreign entrants and view it as an opportunity to gather expertise while strengthening their positions themselves.

The race for growth and share has manifested itself in significant marketing. You only need to watch a cricket match to end up singing docomo's catchy jingle,



feel warm and fuzzy from vodafone's ads,


get puzzled by airtel's weird antics and


get the message from Abhishek Bacchan's brilliance


However, if you have seen some of the ads that these service providers have invested in, some ads, like those of Docomo & Idea state the value and benefits of their networks/ products, while that of airtel is just plain confusing. Docomo, since their entry have been clear with their advertising, taken a simpler price and feature communication approach, while telenor's ads all over South India clearly has something lost in translation.

Idea cellular have quickly learnt a lesson and moved away from their ads featuring their not so "green" ideas of why using a cell phone is better, to talking about how their network is different than the others in the market. In the latest iteration, they have taken a slightly different approach from the price wars that Docomo helped perpetrate to possibly creating differentiation on the issues that are slowly becoming apparent to the Indian mobile user - poor customer service, network availability, call quality, etc. It remains to be seen if they can truly build a reputation of delivering their election manifesto.

With number portability having made its entry in to the market, the challenge ahead for all of these players and their respective marketing departments would be to provide a message backed up by a proposition that is likely to make consumers break their inertia barrier to switch or acquire a new service line. Today, while vodafone 's ads promise warm & fuzzy service, I am not sure what they promise to deliver and see no reason to switch and risk what I have. Idea does seem to convey better reception, prices and service - but then, I am not sure I'd believe them yet. Typically, it takes a bad experience with an existing service provider or a great differentiator for a consumer to switch. These are likely to happen in post-paid accounts, data plans, wifi broadband plans, where there is a higher level consumption and need. Consumers are likely to shop again for services and compare plans before making the commitment.

With 3G starting to make its appearance in India, we are embarking on interesting times - the Indian consumer is only likely to benefit, with the competition to gain their buck.

Entrepreneurship in our bloods + Asia

As I follow fellow entrepreneurs, blogs, twitter, vcs, angel investors, etc, there is a general reverence and veneration towards the spirit of entrepreneurship. Yes, it takes guts to leave the jaws of comfort & start something of your own. It takes tenacity and willingness to adapt, to be successful. While the investing community has good reasons and have created several forums to incubate and to egg on, those that take this step, I wonder why there is such a barrier to taking risks for a proportional reward.

Especially when entrepreneurship is in our blood and habit, until recently. For a minute, if you think back about what we have learned in our history lessons, we know man has evolved as a hunter  and gatherer. Which means, there wasn't always the guarantee of a square meal or dessert. Over time, we have created societies, settlements, cordoned off plots, perfected agri practices to ensure a reasonable guarantee of food, safety and comfort. Even till recently, the main occupation of many was indeed agriculture. While man has gone on a quest for assurance of comfort by honing best practices, the promise of safety & comfort in the last century (in developed economies) has likely veered us off what we know best - to take risks and be rewarded accordingly. If Darwin is to be believed (despite what he said being applicable to survival of the fittest species), those that will remain are indeed those that can adapted, take risks & fight to survive.

As we look at the world economies, while we look at developed economies such as the US, there certainly seems to be a natural attraction towards jobs that provide the promised of comfort. Whereas, In the Asian countries, the huge population density has imbibed in it a sense of hustle that is just plain visible. You can see it in the railway station queuing up to buy tickets or at the local bank waiting your turn for a transaction. You will see people trying to cut the lines, get to the counter, edge in front of you with the elbow & what not - What the western world would see and curse as disorganization, is really truly a sense and deep seated habit of hustling. No one terms it that. But, if you closely look at the hunger in these markets, you will see the desire to succeed coupled with the recognition that only hustling will deliver a competitive advantage, behind every effort. The resigned & plentiful drop off like dead flies at the first sign of adversity. Be it getting a ticket on the train, the food ahead of others in the counter or securing business for their company.

That and the fact that, these economies have a decade's experience in solving global problems gives them confidence that they can create solutions that will solve problems locally while creating value on global scales. While I may be over optimistic in Asia dominating the thinking in the next few decades & discarding the other factors that weigh in favorably for the west, I can see India turning in to an Innovation hub, while china is gearing to produce a dozen new wal-marts. It's going to be an interesting decade. Meanwhile, prepare to hustle or be hustled.

Bangalore food street

[caption id="attachment_149" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Food Street, Bangalore"][/caption]

I visited the "food street" in my childhood when I stayed with my Aunt & Uncle in Basavangudi near Lal Bagh in Bangalore. They were foodies too, like almost all bangalorians and had taken me there in a one late night jaunt. The street was famous for opening shop at 11 PM & going on till the early hours of the AM. Some things have changed or my memory doesn't serve me right - now, you can find a good variety of things there, fresh, made to order & relatively very less expensive.

With my new found freedom, in the form of Vishwa's bike and google maps on the iphone, Charan & I decided to

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="298" caption="VB Bakery location"][/caption]

venture to this almost mythical place that I have been raving about. Charan learned from friends that the "food street" does exist in Bangalore and is in V V Puram. We searched on google & found out about VB Bakery and its fame for freshly baked goods. VB Bakery is right at one end of food street - folks in Basavangudi will point you there with a smile, knowing you are new & wishing the bliss of eating here. We parked our bike in front of VB Bakery. By the way, the google maps service was incredible & guided us well - despite many roundabouts being a bit confusing.

[caption id="attachment_148" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Simla Mirchi Bajji"][/caption]

We arrived at the place by about 6:45 PM. The place was just beginning to stir - there was a gentle crowd in front of the shops. We walked up & down the now very small stretch (my memory was of a mile of shops lining both sides of the road serving hot freshly cooked food). We decided we were going to start with the simla mirchi (green peppers) bajjis at the other end of the road. The entire pepper is battered & fried just right - the man cuts it in to quarters - garnishes it with onions, carrots & some lime - taste suggests bliss!!

[caption id="attachment_150" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Akki Roti"][/caption]

I then wanted to try an akki roti - the process of making the roti & frying it was far more fascinating than the end product itself. The chutneys were spicy enough to churn my stomach, but not stop the mouth from consuming them - the highlight of this dish were the two chutneys on the side.

We decided to try something north indian - the paratha stall was being manned by two kids, one of who was beginning to expertly make fulka chappathis. We weren't sure if we should trust kids with our gastronomical pleasures and decided to move on. We moved away from the standard chat stalls, gobi manchurian stall etc. We went to another man who was serving kachoris and got ourself one. Again, the chutneys & the mirchis (peppers) stuffed with spices were just fantastic.

[caption id="attachment_152" align="alignleft" width="224" caption="paper roast "][/caption]

I then decided it was time to succumb to some dosas - I didn't want a masala dosa & hence, ordered a paper roast. Again, watching the man pour the warmed ghee straight from the packet on to the dosa makes you wonder how fat you are going to get. Charan dissuaded me from adding extra butter. So, the paper roast was done to perfection - however, it turned out that wasn't my favorite after all. I hadn't thought about the consumption process & how unweildy the dosas were going to get. I'd suggest doing the traditional masala dosas in the streets of bangalore.

It's now time to taste the sweets - jilebi wala, here we come. Unfortunately, we couldn't find one who had rabdi as well - however, there was another store that sold rabdi - so, we did the jilebi & rabdi bit. We then, got a masala pepsi in a store at the other end which claimed it sold "Butter Gulkand". I must tell you, having had these "masala pepsi" drinks before, I am not a big fan of these!! however, this one was absolutely fantastic!! we quickly gulped that down!! got a parcel of the gulkand, which comes with a small fruit salad as well - the gulkand turned out to be very very very good, with real rose petals & what definitely tasted like honey!!

We walked back, picked up some "dum root halwa", which is unbelievably heavenly and some khara biscuits in conclusion of our extravaganza and biked back home really quickly. Total damage to packet was Rs. 205!! (approx USD 5). This is cheap, even by Bangalore standards - we will absolutely return to Food Street - despite how small it has become!!

Customer Service 101 Mr. Mallya - Kingfisher ain't 5 star yet!!

Now then, I am not one to blog every small delay or bad experience with an airline - God knows I have had a handful to write about in the 250K odd miles I have travelled over the last couple years. This one is interesting - with the media blitz that Kingfisher has created, especially after getting to be crowned as 5 star, you expect a certain quality of experience, a better treatment from an empowered set of employees - yet, they fall apart when it comes to delivery.

We booked Kingfisher because they flew out of coimbatore at 8:40 & arrived at 9:40 PM in Bangalore (BLR). I had worked out that would allow me sufficient time to drop my wife at Malleswaram, pick up my luggage & head back to the airport for my trip to Shanghai. Now, I get that airlines are sometimes delayed a bit - in fact, they often are - so, my plan would work even if I had a two hour delay.

On our way to Kerala the day before, I get a call & the person announces that Kingfisher has now changed the time of the flight to 10:30 PM and if I had any issues with it, I could cancel and be reimbursed the full fare - the trouble with this option is, my travel need doesn't change because KF has changed their time. I still need to get back to BLR & need to do so at a reasonable time. I asked the gentleman if he can help re-route/ re-schedule me & he said I need to call the call center and after a couple more questions, I realized that was going to be the standard canned response I was going  to be doled out. and by the way, surprise surprise, the prices on all the other airlines for this route, which isn't very frequented has soared, given this is the day before.

Ok - so, we try to call the call center - keep getting the busy signal until 4 AM when I reached Mr. Pravin Kumar of (probably) the Bangalore call center. He suggested I could either fly at 11 AM the same day or fly their newly rescheduled time of 10:30 PM. On asking to be rescheduled via another airline or route, I received the response that was not an option he had. Upone asking to speak to his manager, the response was none was available and that they would have the same options as well. This is a bit strange - for an airline touting to be the best; even china Eastern Airlines, with its appalling & falling apart planes courteously have rescheduled me on to alternate airlines without even my having to request the change - now China Eastern is bottom of the barrel, when it comes to airline quality. When saying this is a problem and explaining to the agent this was an issue, he neither had the interest/ care, the authority to make a different decision and wasn't inclined to escalate either.

Ok - we show up at the airport. Go to the check-in counter & were advised that the plane was further delayed by another 30 min. Obviously, I am not a happy camper at this stage in the game - I asked to speak to the manager. While I understand Mr C. Vinod, supervisor of Kingfisher's operations in Coimbatore had little choice at the moment, his manner of dealing with the situation can only be characterized as strange & not exemplary of an organization that claims to be customer friendly! He goes on to pontificate that this is normal in airline operations and that this wasn't his problem. The exact words he chose were "this isn't my fault" - which is what infuriates me. At occasions such as these, most customers, including myself want someone who can simply sympathize and accept a mistake on part of the organization and offer some compensation - a taxi fare, perhaps because I am going to have to hurry back & forth in Bangalore. It doesn't matter whether there is a compensation or not - what infuriates me is that none of the three employees thought that this traveler's problem was theirs. Ideally, the organization should have empowered the first two to find an alternate solution that is acceptable to their customer - granted, this comes at a cost.  The benefit would be that of winning a likely loyal customer - in my case, one who travels quite a bit & does appreciate and can discern between the incredibly awesome customer service of Cathay/ Dragon Air and the likes of Air India.

Mr. Vinod, in Coimbatore is the figure head and at the interaction point of the customer and should have been empowered to speak on behalf of the organization and not just himself. If he doesn't feel it is his responsibility to apologize to the customer, whose is it? Unfortunately, Mr. Vinod also refused to let me escalate the issue to his manager - the entire affair lets me rethink choosing KF for these short hauls which are at such risk as they are relatively less traveled & hence likely less profitable.

I do write this as an open letter/ critique of KF's customer service. I expect no response though -

My article, that I wrote a couple years ago - has been featured on wikihow.com and viewed more than 60K times .. 

How to Wear a Pancha Kachcham

The pancha kachcham (panja kacham or kacham) is a form of wearing the dhoti, typically worn by grihasthas (men who are married) on special occassions such as poojas or festivals. It is typically a 8 or 9 yard dhoti worn in a specific woven way.

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Chennai - under construction

DSC02818

After 10 days in Chennai, there are a couple things that are apparent. Chennai is under construction - several flyovers (bridges between roads - for free flow of traffic) have already been constructed. I remember the days when some of these projects were criticized as money making schemes for the politicians - but these have come in handy when there are more cars & much more cars on the road.

There are automobiles of every kind Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, Tata, Maruti and ofcourse the inimitable India's own Ambassadors. The traffic is unruly in a typical India cum Chennai way. Travelling in the past 10 days has required considerable planning for delays due to traffic jams - a jam feels inevitable .. even on a Sunday..

Sundays are even worse with the hard working folk out with their families.

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In India, giving the customers what they want means offering the art of chaos

Great article: (as appeared in the times, UK):

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/india/article3181925.ece

Kishore Biyani knows the Indian consumer. “You see that lady,” he says, pointing to a young woman with a shopping trolley laden with goods from channa to Colgate toothpaste. “She is a domestic help. She’s wearing her best sari and gold jewellery because this is a social outing and she may see people she knows. Her boss must be somewhere.”

Sure enough, a woman with an authoritative air returns with more shopping and marches to the checkout counter. Pushing the trolley in her wake, the servant smiles at another girl in a mirror-image scenario.

“They’re friends, you see,” Mr Biyani, 46, says knowingly. The shopping magnate’s smile soon fades, though, and he rushes off to berate the store manager in Food Bazaar, an extension of his successful discount hypermarket brand Big Bazaar.

It is one of several admonishments dished out to panicky staff for poor display arrangements, checkout delays and wayward trolleys. “It is so stressful coming in to my stores. All I see are mistakes.”

It quickly becomes clear that conducting an interview in one of Mr Biyani’s flagship malls, to put into context his extraordinary rise from textile merchant to India’s largest listed retailer, was a bad idea. He cannot stay still for a minute. Between outbursts of micro-management, conversations on one of two mobile phones and random approaches from wide-eyed fans, it is difficult to sneak in a question.

The place is absolute chaos - deliberately so. Whereas Mr Biyani thinks that Western retailers such as Tesco have turned supermarket shopping into a science, he believes that he has made it an art form.

His canvas is India and its many sub-identities, which he aims to recreate in his 76 stores across 50 cities. In one corner, the grain seller is yelling out prices as customers jostle to weigh their spoils. It is like the local market without the haggling.

Elsewhere, a man pushes a 2,000 rupee (£26) washing machine around in a trolley while announcing its bargain price over a megaphone. It is like the village mela (fair) without the elephants and magicians.

It is a format that has proved a success and exposed the underlying characteristic of the average Indian consumer: they prefer goods stocked in piles rather than neat rows, want to dig around in buckets to feel as if they are getting a bargain and won’t set foot in a place that is quiet and pristine because that equals expensive.

Curiously for a man who is selling to the Indian masses (his stores attracted 200 million shoppers last year), one of the retailers that Mr Biyani admires most is Abercrombie & Fitch, the all-American clothing brand that employs beautiful people as shop assistants. “They have models, I have megaphones. It’s all theatre, in a sense.”

For any international multibrand retailer looking to crack India, once the Government drops obstacles that limit foreign investors to wholesale, his business provides clues about the diversity of this market. By realising that one size does not fit all in India, Pantaloon Retail, the flagship component of Mr Biyani’s Future Group, has achieved sales of £476 million and now operates about seven million sq ft of retail space. Its target is revenues of £3.8 billion and a presence in 90 cities within four years.

Even now, 20 years after he left the family textiles business to sell stone- washed denim, Mr Biyani can get it wrong. A high-end coffee house in the Orchid City Centre Mall in Bombay, which Future Group operates, failed because it was too upmarket. The shopping centre, which is in a largely Muslim area and was a cowshed only two years ago, is Mr Biyani’s testing ground. Shops selling burkas, specialist saris, tailor-made suits and fashionto the college crowd, the latter with the backdrop of deafening DJs, are all new, own-brand concepts that seem to be taking off. If they work, they will be rolled out around the country. If not, they will be closed. The pace of the consumer revolution in India is why Mr Biyani, whose retail infrastructure fund has attracted investment from George Soros, the billionaire financial speculator, visits one of his stores every weekend. “I am a little scared the market is changing,” he says. “Nobody understands all categories of the business today, so we are building up expertise.”

He admits to borrowing ideas from foreign retailers – a new loyalty scheme, offering instore credit and loans, is much like the Tesco Clubcard – but he constantly returns to the fact that everything must be distinctly Indian. “India is not an individualistic society. I never thought the Western way would work,” he says.

Still, he is leaving nothing to chance. It may be that he merely has first-mover advantage, so he has hired McKinsey to advise on his next move. He is also considering joining forces with a foreign retailer for a cash-and-carry venture to rival Wal-Mart’s alliance with Bharti Retail. “We need more scale and efficiency before the competition comes in,” he says – and then he is gone, peeling away to tell staff how to improve the flow of customers around the shop.

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Defeating poverty

http://defeatpoverty.com/ - As I read through this blog, there are several examples of micro finance in India & worldwide - This is a great resource.