Colgate Total PayTM Cashback – Most Rewarding CEM Ever?

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Colgate-Palmolive is currently running a Customer Engagement Management program for its premium toothpaste brand TOTAL. Like all CEM programs, this one also mandates product purchase. The price of the product is INR 102 (US$ 1.25) and the reward for purchase is a cashback of INR 50 (US$ 0.67) credited directly to the consumer’s PayTM eWallet. … Read more

If The Pandemic Persists, Indian IT Will Enter Fortune Global 500 Next Year

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The title of this blog post might sound insensitive at first glance but I couldn’t find a better way to capture the fact that Covid-19 has favorably impacted some companies and adversely impacted others on the FORTUNE magazine’s ranking of the top 500 corporations in the world. Last year, I predicted: … the assymetric nature … Read more

CoWIN Certificate – Travel Ready Or Not?

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As soon as the UK government announced that it won’t accept CoWIN Certificate as proof of vaccination of Indian travelers, all hell broke loose on Twitter. Some people argued that CoWIN portal provides cloud-based, digitally signed vaccination certificate. UK cannot make sense of India's CoWin vaccine certificate, because India's QR coded, digitally signed document is … Read more

Calling BS of Disruption of B2B Sales

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It has become a favorite pastime for a lot of people to predict the disruption of B2B sales. (Ditto banks, telcos, et al.) Take the author of this LinkedIn post entitled Enterprise Sales Has Been Disrupted – Why Sales Pros Should Care for instance. Like disruption talk in many other areas, this is a sureshot … Read more

How Merchants Will Fight Subscription Dodgers

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Many product and service providers entrap consumers in subscriptions that they no longer need or want. The Rogue’s Gallery of shady merchants includes some of the largest and most valuable companies on the planet, as we saw in What Is Subscription Trap?. Uber fines Rider even when Driver cancels. Few Riders jump thru' the hoops … Read more

Teardown Of “Direct To Consumer” Business Model

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Both FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) and DTC (Direct to Consumer) companies manufacture their own products. (NOTE: In some markets, FMCG is called CPG or Consumer Packaged Goods. Source: McKinsey.) Both of them sell online and via brick-and-mortar stores. Their products are used by a Consumer i.e. private individual in his or her personal capacity … Read more

How To Revive Interoperability In UPI

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In Interoperability – The Sole Loser In UPI, we saw why interoperability has been compromised in UPI. In this post, we’ll explore ways to revive this noble goal. Some people advocate education campaigns to increase awareness of VPA and thereby revive interoperability. Once people know what a VPA is, first they would ensure better VPAs and … Read more

What Does Customer Centric Really Mean?

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Customer Centric means “thinking about the customer while designing your product and overall experience”. There are various facets to the customer: Tasks – as in jobs to be done Preference – as in taste Interest – as in vested interest Welfare – as in happiness All of the above Which facet should customer-centric credo think … Read more

Decoding The Tenuous Link Between GDP And TPV (Total Payments Value)

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Many people conflate the amount of payments processed in a country with the country’s GDP. This is wrong: GDP drives, but does not cap, TPV. Take the COO of a leading mobile payment fintech: April loss of business is $80bn approx vs cost of vaccinating India $8bn:RTGS – 🔻33%NEFT – 🔻34%UPI – 🔻3%IMPS – 🔻9%Credit Card … Read more