Retail & an Old B-plan

Few years back (in 2005), I made a small business plan for a competition in my college (DCE). The venture had to be based on a use of the internet.

The idea was fairly simple - a 'local' website with info, community and online sale from neighbouring stores. I lived in Dwarka (a sub-city in Delhi) that time. So, the concepts was that I could go on a 'www.delhi-dwarka.com' and get local info like-

- best deals on grocery, retail etc

- hotel menus and contact details

- opportunities for car pool (could post and use)

- info on local events

The ads from local stores could keep the site running.

The grocery needs are mostly repetitive in any household. The website would provide you the opportunity to buy from different stores sitting at home and order a free home delivery.

Some more facts:

1. Recently, I have been reading a book called "Why We Buy" from one Mr.Paco Underhill, who proclaims that without the impulse buying at stores the sales would plummet. Making my plan - a not so good one.

2. Retail research at Euromonitor says that internet sales in UK have already started to increase at the expense of direct sale. A favorable trend for my plan!

3. Justdial has this (amazing) database and service where you might as well get the store's number and call them! (but you wouldn't know stuff like best deals and car-pools)

4. Also, with the increase in population of senior citizens, this would be much more comfortable for them / their caretakers to shop. Ok maybe the senior citizens 5 yrs hence will be more net-savvy. (Although I could totally imagine my grandfather, who is quite net savvy, ordering grocery online)

So, is this an idea whose time has come? or maybe it will take another 5 years?

Amateur Marketeer on Social Media

A couple of years back I wrote an article on the effect of social networking. (http://tiny.cc/zKny7 ) Back then, orkut was the new craze and chat rooms were just going out of fashion. I wondered if companies would start hiring people by looking at their profiles OR would people start living alternate lives in virtual 3-dimensional worlds!

However, the net was shaping up another surprise. People got more interconnected than ever before and started to talk to each other and share pictures, videos and most importantly - opinion. Today, almost no net-savvy user buys products without researching for it on the internet. Whats more? The research always includes user-reviews, friend recommendations, opinions on orkut communities etc. I recently decided to watch the movie Ingulorious Bestards when a ‘friend’(someone I barely know, but is on my friend list) announced on facebook that he loved it!

Such phenomenon throws up new challenges for marketers. No matter what the advertisements say or what the product’s official website says, customers are still likely to make their decisions based upon user-reviews from people they may or may not know. To make matters worse, there are the customer complaint websites which provide enough outlets for people who do not like a product or service to voice their concerns.

Let us be honest, every marketeer has (or soon will) ask himself, “can this huge media opportunity be ‘managed’?!” With the huge number of users generating content and ever increasing outlets offered by the internet; I’m afraid it can’t.

Let us assume theoretically that some marketeer had the budget to buy off ad-space on practically every website. Still, people will write what comes to their minds. A big web-banner next to the worst review from a customer would surely be little else than farcical. Therefore, at least on the social media: ‘the truth shall prevail’!

We have official Tata Nano communities on Orkut, Facebook and maybe soon on Twitter. Rather than imposing our thoughts, we let our customers express themselves and listen to them intently.

Social Software

(published in www.dcetech.com/undertones edition 003)

(and Tata World magazine May 2006 edition)

Recent times have witnessed a deluge of ‘social sites’ on the Internet. And if you are reading this, in all probability you are a happy member of one of such websites as Orkut, Del.icio.us, Flickr, Hi5, Friendster, Gazzag…the list is endless.These community websites are helping people across the globe stay connected. Such is their popularity that it has been the cause behind yet another revolution on the Internet, by the name of ‘social software’.
Taking it to another level are websites like ‘Second Life’: a 3D virtual World entirely built and owned by its residents where people live alternate lives.

On the outside, this looks like a simple and easy way to find your friends online, send messages to them and stay in touch. But a deeper look at it reveals amazing realities. It is leading to radical social change. In fact many researchers and psychologists are busy studying the psychosis of online social networks.

Let us look at the situation as a scientist would do. From the Random Graph theory, we know that if you take a set of nodes, like say people, and link them randomly, you will end up with a complex graph where anyone can reach anyone. In fact, the theory of six degrees of separation says anyone on this earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. The theory was first proposed in 1929 by the Hungarianwriter Frigyes Karinthy in a short story called Chains. Later, this was proved to be true through interesting experiments done in 1967 by American sociologist Stanley Milgram and later by Duncan Watts.

Watts' research and the advent of the computer/information age, has opened up new areas of inquiry related to six degrees of separation in diverse areas of network theory such as power grid analysis, disease transmission, graph theory, corporate communication, and computer circuitry.

On more general terms, being on a ‘social site’ is almost like having another set of peers altogether. It also means gaining greater acquaintance with people you barely know otherwise. Also, from the graph theory (and common sense), people having larger number of friends can grow their networks faster because it means so many more connections from each node. So, like it is usual, the rich keep getting richer!

The ‘growth’ of the network occurs due to sparsely linked clusters of people. Studies have been done on ‘strength of weak ties’ which basically imply that your two best friends will know each other well and similar connections would lead to higher ‘cohesion’ in the group or in other words higher chances of interlinking of people and more people knowing each other. This is basic idea behind the ‘Friend of Friend’ type connections, in case you are familiar with them.
More importantly, these click-connections would eventually have everyone on the internet connected to everyone else! This would transform the way people think of cultures different from their own; leading to a more cohesive and tolerant world: a global village.
Well, that does seem a little too far away right now but it wouldn’t be surprising if companies start giving interview calls right away on an orkut or a friendster!! Hi5 to that!

Written in winter of 2006