Official Blog of GTM360 Marketing Solutions
The typical tech startup’s backstory goes as follows: Founders observe a problem in the real world, find a way to use technology to solve the problem, and build a product around the technology. According to common wisdom, product management is the foundation of any startup. Sales, marketing, HR, finance and other functions can come in … Read more
One perennial question that startups – and even product managers of established companies – ask us while designing a new product is whether they should ask customers what they want. Our standard answer is NO! Only a services company asks customers what they want. When a product company does that, it can prove counterproductive – … Read more
Every now and then a startup comes to us with the idea of aggregating fragmented markets, seeking our assistance in product management. The common theme behind most of these marketplaces – across corporate gifting, handicraft, printing and other industries – is to make use of technology to mediate a physical business. All of them will … Read more
As a technology marketer, I constantly preach that technology must solve a business problem for it to enter the mainstream. I also believe that it’s the technology provider’s job to explicitly convey how their product or service alleviates pain areas. In the context of analytics, this would mean that analytics is useful as long as … Read more
Cult loyalty is the highest tier of loyalty. Consumers at this level patronize the brand forever, recommend it to everyone around them, and, most importantly, talk about the brand well outside the context of the product, as though the brand is a part of themselves. What drives cult loyalty? Is it the product? Is it … Read more
They say every product or service must have a secret sauce. Some startups take the secrecy part of this advice to the extreme by going into stealth mode until they launch. Some others point to today’s open world of startup events, mentoring sessions, Twitter and TED talks and question if it’s even possible to keep … Read more
Yes, you read that right. There are ways to remove features and increase a product’s appeal. This post was sparked off when I heard about GPSVoice, a new mobile app that uses GPS to help parents track their children’s location without draining battery life. More on the app in a bit but lest you think I’m … Read more
Before developing a food discovery startup’s GTM strategy, we recently did a test drive of its mobile app. The app lists dishes of various cuisines from restaurants in the local neighborhood. Like many hyperlocal startups, this one also started operations in one city and then had plans to expand to other cities. As soon as … Read more
Since I wrote HDFC Bank’s PayZapp Ends My Bill Payment Woes, I’ve made a few more bill payments using the mobile wallet. All of them went through successfully (knock on wood!). I’m even more convinced that PayZapp is the best way of paying bills for people who’ve tried out other alternatives. That said, PayZapp faces … Read more
I get around 15 bills a month from telcos, utilities and other types of billers. Being an omnichannel freak, I don’t have any bias towards where I pay them, with my choice of payment channel depending largely upon where I am when a certain bill falls due: If I’m close to my laptop, I pay … Read more