Hey Robin Cook: We Want Another One But Not Like The Other One

In Robin Cook’s latest novel HOST, patients go into a comatose state during simple surgeries. Click here to read my review of this medical thriller. After reading the novel, I had a vague sense of déjà vu feeling. I thought it had a striking resemblance to the author’s 1977 bestseller COMA. So many years later, … Read more

Overdraft Protection – Another Hot Opportunity For BPOs?

Consumer advocates ranted about overdraft protection fees in 2008, saying the service was forced down upon consumers. While the uninitiated can Google “overdraft protection” for a prosaic definition of the term, Stanley Bing offers the following tongue-in-cheek description for one of the most lucrative services offered by US banks: “No matter what you spend with your … Read more

Using Persona 2.0 To Take Persona Based Marketing To New Heights

In Use And Misuse Of Personas In Marketing, I’d defended personas from being lampooned by some misguided marketers. That doesn’t mean I believe everything is hunky-dory with personas. There are at least three problems I see in the way personas are created and used in Persona Based Marketing (PBM) campaigns today. A. SOLE FOCUS ON WHO … Read more

Indian IT – Turning Crisis Into Opportunity: Part 2

The ink on my previous post Indian IT – Turning Crisis Into Opportunity has hardly dried than two Indian IT majors Infosys and Wipro have announced better-than-expected quarterly results. Much as I’d like to attribute their superior performance to the guidance given in my post (!), these IT veterans have been doing all this and more … Read more

Use And Misuse Of Personas In Marketing

Buyer persona is the bedrock of targeted marketing. HubSpot provides a succinct definition of the term: A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. Data includes not just demographics but behavior, emotions, wants, aspirations and other buyer attributes. A sample persona … Read more

How To Fight Surcharge And Take #CashlessIndia To Next Level

Take the following thread on Twitter. @s_ketharaman: Merchant A/c is reqd. for BharatQR, I wonder how many such merchants will qualify for it. Meanwhile, PayTM will race ahead:) @logic: After Banks figure this out and do something with eKYC, they will realize that people are not ready to pay MDR, want privacy @s_ketharaman: But Merchants … Read more

Indian IT: Turning Crisis Into Opportunity: Part 1

At the end of my blog post entitled Indian IT – Crisis Or No Crisis?, I reflected on the zeitgeist about the looming crisis faced by the Indian IT industry due to growing automation, digital challenges, H1B restrictions and Trumpism-driven Middle America outsourcing. Even if these challenges are real, there’s no need to panic. The industry … Read more

Uber Masters Abandoner Remarketing

Uber didn’t invent targeted offers but the “world’s largest taxi company” sets itself apart from other brands by the innovative ways with which it uses the new marketing tactic to deepen customer engagement, as I’d highlighted in Mastering Targeted Offers – The Uber Way. I recently saw Uber’s mastery of another “next gen” marketing tactic, … Read more

How Relevant Is “Crossing The Chasm” After 25 Years?

As the title of our website’s WHAT WE DO page proclaims, GTM360 helps growth-stage companies in technology-intensive industries to “cross the chasm” and break into the mainstream market. In a recent MEDIUM article titled 25 Years Later, ‘Crossing the Chasm’ Has Withstood the Test of Time, author Tiffani Bova has a fireside chat with Geoffrey Moore, … Read more