Empowering Frontline Is Still Key To Customer Delight

Those of you that have read the all time classic business book In Search of Excellence might recall the anecdote of the automobile company that rushes a part by helicopter to a customer whose car has broken down in the middle of a desolate highway. Needless to say, the company wins the customer’s loyalty for … Read more

Why Advertisers Must Pay For Ads Seen By Bots

There’s a raging debate about ad visibility in recent times. Much as I’d like to think it’s triggered by my post Don’t Fall For The ‘Invisible Versus Unseen Ads’ Charade, the real reason doesn’t matter. The crux of the issue is that advertisers are claiming that ~15% of their online ads are seen by bots, … Read more

A Truly Indian IT Company Will Join Fortune Global 500 Earlier Than Predicted

In the latest GLOBAL 500 list published by FORTUNE magazine in August 2015, WAL-MART STORES (USA) ranks #1 and WUHAN IRON & STEEL (China) ranks #500. EDIT: The above table has been revised to reflect the correct profit of Wuhan Iron & Steel, which is US$ 54.5 million, not billion. The world’s 500 largest companies collectively … Read more

Teardown Of Myntra’s App Mantra

India’s leading online fashion brand Myntra recently shut down its desktop and mobile websites and decided to go mobile app only. As far as I know, this is an unprecedented move by any ecommerce player anywhere in the world and flies in the face of moves by brands to increasingly hop on to the omnichannel … Read more

Role Of Emotion In B2B Sales

People buy from people. People have emotions. Ergo, B2C or B2B, emotions play an equally important role in sales. There’s a fairly large group of people that subscribes to this view. It comprises mainly of B2C marketers who are trying to switch to B2B marketing e.g. Deanna Lazzaroni in Dear Modern Marketer: I Dare You … Read more

Leading Insurer Boosts Sales With Omnichannel CRO

Here’s our latest success story: Leading Insurer Boosts Sales Omnichannel CRO increases conversion of browsers to buyers This leading insurer uses integrated marketing to drive sales of its automobile, health, and other general insurance products. Traditional marketing comprises of ads in newspapers, bus shelters and so on. Digital marketing includes banner ads, SEO, etc. QR … Read more

Retargeted Ads Or Retarded Ads?

Retargeted Ad is one of those things on which my take as a consumer is diametrically opposed to that as a marketer. As a consumer, I hate them. As a marketer, I love them. For the uninitiated – or, in this case, the unchased – retargeted ads are the banner ads that follow you around … Read more

Five Ways To Sweeten A Deal – Apart From Discount

Traditional retailers aka kirana stores sell almost everything at MRP* whereas modern retail aka supermarkets sell almost everything below MRP (for the unintiated, this and other India-specific terms are explained at end of the post). Since Indians are price-sensitive, modern retail should totally corner the Indian retail market, right? Wrong! Modern retail accounts for barely … Read more

Millennial Obsession Will Bankrupt Neobanks

Personally, I don’t find too many serious shortcomings in the digital banking offerings from my banks. On the contrary, virtually every neobank / fintech I’ve come across is little more than a leadgen tool. But that’s outside the purview of this blog post, the purpose of which is to do a reality check on the … Read more

Ensuring That Buyer 2.0 Contacts *Your* Sales

In What Happens Before A Prospect Contacts Sales?, we’d shared CEB’s finding that B2B prospects complete 57% of their purchasing decision before contacting sales. As we saw in that post, the new Internet-powered purchasing process introduces a blindzone in the purchase process. Unless navigated successfully, this blindzone will lead to a situation where the Buyer … Read more