Mobile marketing In India- Definition, Types, Process, Policies and advantages.

 

Mobile Marketing

Introduction

India will have  65crore internet users in 2020.  70% of this population i.e. 51 crore people are using  mobile phones for their internet. Among these 43 crore customers uses 4G telecom services.Added to this, mobile data consumption in India has seen 133% growth year on year. However, the internet speed in 4G is a major concern. With the 9 MBPS India’s 4G mobile data speed is the lowest in the world. Though, internet speed is a bottleneck, YouTube video consumption has gone up by 400% and taking the total number of India’s video content consumers tally to 25 crores. Uniquely to the preceding numbers 22 crore people watch videos in their local language. Out of this 22 crore people 88% of them respond to advertisements on this local video content.  Another notable thing in the India mobile marketing is 28% of all web queries are voice based and the Jio smartphone made it possible to scale up. 

 Definition

According to Wikipedia

“ Mobile marketing is a multichannel online marketing technique focused at reaching a specific audience on their smartphones , feature phones, tablets and other devices through websites, emails, SMS, MMS, social media or mobile applications”

 Types of Mobile Marketing

• MMS Marketing
• Push Notifications
• APP based  Marketing
• In game Mobile Marketing
• Bluetooth Marketing
• Proximity Systems
• Location Based Services
• Ring less Voicemails
• Mobile email marketing
• Mobile social Media Marketing
• M-Commerce.
• Mobile Advertising
• SMS Marketing

 

 Mobile Marketing Process

Information Search

1. Industry mobile marketing strategies
2. Research information on mobile marketing
3. Comparative study.

Consumer Profiling

1. Customer background( Age, Income, Gender, Location, and occupation)
2. Job Description
3. Goals
4. Preferred content
5. Customer role in the buying process.
6. Matching customer profile and mobile channels
7. Tone, style, and delivery strategies liked by customers.
8. Devices customers are using.
9. Hobbies and aspirations.
10. Customer purchase history.
11. Customer life cycle( passive awareness, Active researchers, trigger to buy, feedback, relationship orientation,  and customer advocacy)

Goal Formulations

1. Brand Building
2. New customer acquisitions
3. Relationship Building.

Key performance Indicators (KPIs)

Customer engagement

1. Number of people downloading applications(APP)
2. How frequently customers are using mobile phones.
3. How long customers are using mobile phones.
4. Do they participate in loyalty programs of companies?
5. Do they complete companies ‘ surveys?

Contact, user, and sales automation

1. Number of mobile users  for the content.
2. Contacts
3. How much does the company spend to acquire new mobile customers?
4. Higher conversion rates.
5. Customer Lifetime value of mobile users.
6. How to enable mobile app purchases?

Service quality

1. Retention rate
2. Lower rate of personal content

Mobile Marketing Policy

1. Safeguarding the consumer privacy
2. Original content and blocking spamming
3. Clarity on target audience before the mobile marketing process.
4. Content validation before marketing
5. Clear and communicable Key performance Indicators(KPIs)

Mobile Marketing Advantages

1. Customers can access the mobile marketing content, anywhere, anytime and anytime.
2. Modern mobile applications (APPS) have customer thumbs up due to their ease of use.
3. Mobile marketing allows companies to personalize advertisements.
4. Mobile marketing companies can access social pages of consumers.
5. Modern mobiles work as mini computers.
6. Mobile marketing is cheaper and has maximum reach.

 

Services Marketing notes

Introduction to Services marketing

Services are intangible products produced and consumed simultaneously in a short period Infosys, an Indian technology company offers Information Technology solution to ANZ Grindlays Bank those are intangible in nature. Here, a customer ANZ cannot touch the product but can perform banking tasks using software. Infosys offers Consulting Services, Cloud Solutions, enterprise resource planning software, block chain technology, and other services. These Solutions may have a software product, website, software manual, and a report in the tangible format, but clients like ANZ do not see coding testing and executing part of the solution. Apart from this, business meetings follow-up calls and annual maintenance are series of actions and performances in an intangible format executed on a particular time and place.

Services Marketing characteristics. 

Intangibility

Services are employee actions and performances based on company procedures and are not a physical goods. Thus one cannot touch, feel, see or inventoried like goods. For example Apollo hospitals performance actions like medical examination, diagnosis, treatment, and surgery on patients that cannot be seen or touched. In many situations, patients don’t know how surgery has been done. Due to this characteristic of Intangibility, managers find it difficult to forecast and execute the demand. For example Taj Vivanta, Panaji, Goa, experiences huge demand in March, April, and May. Conversely the demand goes down in July. Yet, Taj Vivanta, has similar number of rooms to book throughout the year. 

Further Services cannot be patented; Hence these are copied easily by competitors. Services cannot be easily demonstrated like goods.  Though, Metro rail carries passengers from one destination to another it cannot show how exactly a rail was driven. So this is quality measurement is another hurdle for marketers and consumers. A customer finds it difficult to assess the service quality of restaurants like Saravanan's,V asudeva adigas, and Adyars. In addition to these Services marketers has a hurdle of deciding about what to include in advertising and other marketing communications. Indian Institute of Management Bangalore can communicate about courses but cannot advertise the pricing. The unit of service cost is complex and difficult to determine. Lakme saloons have different beauty solutions at different price points. This difference leads to the evolution of price quality relationships that vary from customers to customers.

Heterogeneity:

Services are performed by people. Therefore, services performed by different people are not the same. Even the same person's service performance on different days varies.  Further, a customer who avail services may have different perceptions and satisfactions. These characteristics exhibit services heterogeneity.  For example ,  Kesari travels may provide two different packages to two different customers on the same day depending upon a customer's affordability and acceptability. Keasri travel desk executives may provide maximum offers to customers in the morning when they are fresh to work. However, same executives may offer less packages to customers in the late evening when they are tired. These variations in services  based on people's  time and the organization pose a big challenge for maintaining the service quality. Apart from this, other customers at a service location also influence customers' purchase. A few customers like crowded service outlets and a few do not. Added to this, employees behaviour also determines customers purchasing. In addition to this, if a service is given by the third party, it increases the service heterogeneity. For instance, Airtel customer queries are answered by IBM executives who are not part of the organization. However, customers think that they have called Airtel executives.

Simultaneous production and consumption

 The major distinguishing feature between goods and services is goods are produced first and sold later. Whereas services are sold in the beginning and production takes place later. To illustrate, Hero motocorp produces the two-wheelers at Kolar plant in Karnataka, dispatched to Bengaluru, sold over months and used by customers over the years. But OYO has to sell its rooms first and customer experience the stay and dining later. Here, customers of OYO is a part of the production and consumption by asking room boy for facility adjustments or modifications.  Customers can ask for sugarless tea or spicy dishes with a dining staff. A notable thing in this entire process is a customer interacts with the service employees regularly in a production and consumption process. Therefore, a customer may be happy or happy with the room service. In a travel industry company like VRL do not allocate seats next to the female passenger to any strange male passenger. If seats are not reserved like that a female customer may not experience the service properly. This services characteristics of simultaneous production and consumption often makes service providers take the role as a part of the product. Shahrukh Khan, a film actor from India, actively takes part in the production and marketing of his red chillies entertainment products. 

As service production consumption is simultaneous, scaling it to the masses is a daunting task. More than that, customers’ satisfaction depends on employee services and his interactions with the firm in real time. A customer who walks into State Bank of India will be either happy or unhappy after his interaction with a clerk or cashier.  Due to this feature of production and consumption simultaneously, a few companies are decentralizing their operations to localize services. McDonald's restaurants in the different countries have adopted local sourcing; It reduces the cost of importing and also provides local Cuisine. McDonald India, do not sell beef burgers due to religious sentiments but sell veg burgers in a large quantity. Another problem of production consumption simultaneously is irritated customers.  As they are part of a production and consumption process, they expressed their happiness or unhappiness on the process itself. Wonderla and excel amusement parks must have secure yet fun facilities in their premises otherwise customers express their opinion on the location also on social media. 

Perishability 

Services cannot be stored, saved or returned or resold. A journey in Indian railways by a customer cannot be stored or saved. Here, customers would experience a service in a given time. If a customer is unhappy about the train facility in the journey, can he return it? No, because they are perishable in nature. Today with Advent of mobile phones and internet-based movie technologies, movie theatres in India are facing occupancy rate issues. One cannot inventory the seats of a particular show. Hence, PVR should make proper demand forecasting for the capacity utilization. Services cannot be returned or resold. Flipkart in their first Bill Billion Day Sale did not anticipate technology problems. Customers on that day could not buy anything. Later, Flipkart had apologized in the public for the service failure.

Services marketing mix

People

Employees of the organization who are part of a service delivery influence buyer behavior. They create awareness about services. Reliance Trends executives provide new arrival information to customers 

Employees grooming and their behaviors have a direct impact on  customers satisfaction. Hence,air hostesses in the Indian Indigo Airlines  should be wearing company uniforms and have a cordial relationship with customers while serving in an airline industry. 

In certain services like education and career counseling, service providers themselves act as a service. The success of an education institution solely depends on teachers. However, in certain services like house maintenance plumber has a relatively less significance in the service delivery though they are very critical for the organizational performance. In a few services, customers' timely information or requirements have a significant role in the service delivery. If requirements are not specified or information not given when required it affects the service quality. For example, a customer books an apartment with a Godrej property without specifying his requirements in the beginning has to accept later whatever the property built by the Godrej. A customer who goes to the indica saloon should tell about a haircut style in the beginning. Otherwise, he cannot modify it later. Social media has allowed customers to share their opinions and recommendations to other colleagues or customers.  When The War like a situation has broken up between India and China many have asked  the customers and colleagues and friends to boycott the China mobile applications like Tick Tock and sharechat. 

Hello, everyone. Today, I am discussing on 

Supply chain objectives.

 The main objective of any supply chain is to increase the value. 

 What is the value? 

Value is benefits divided by the cost. 

In such circumstances, marketers are having two options. Either increase benefits or decrease costs. 

What are the major benefits a firm can increase? 

1.       Have a proper order management.

 Indian Railway catering and tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Initially was asking its customers to come to the reservation counter and fill the form to book a ticket. Many customers were not having enough knowledge which train will come at what time and how many seats are available. Later, RCTC has adopted the agent model wherein it has appointed agents who can book tickets. Customers rather than going to the railway reservation counter started booking through the agent. However, the customer has to pay extra commission to the agent. Then IRCTC has begun their own websites.  Thereafter, a customer can book a ticket on the internet. However, a customer has to take the printouts and submit while traveling along with the address proof and ID proof. To reduce this hassle, IRCTC has created a mobile application wherein a customer can book the tickets now and show the SMS to the ticket collector. This is an example of how a company can increase benefits in order management. 

2.     Benefits can be increased through quicker delivery 

Amazon is having the two types of orders one general orders second is the prime orders. In the prime orders Amazon delivers the product within 24 hours from their fulfilment centres. For this Amazon charge premium but a customer gets the product on time.

3.     A company can have better information systems. 

Earlier when a customer books the Courier he was not sure when he will get the courier. Now, companies like professional courier give you the token number or a ticket number through which a customer can track their parcels and couriers and exactly you will come to know when the product will be delivered. 

4.    A good pricing and revenue Management Systems is another benefit.

India post earlier was delivering simple cover and cards but as the competition has grew from courier services, India post also came out with a speed post options for the same size of the card or a cover. For this, India post charges 30 rupees extra.

5.     Increase benefits from the supply chain coordination among members.

 Hindustan Unilever limited (HUL) a major company in FMCG in India have a stricter control on their C&F agents, wholesalers Distributors and retailers to see that products available at every retail store in India. 

In a second option to increase the value of a firm, one can

 decrease the cost. 

So a question is what a cost a firm can reduce. 

1.      Reduce order cost. 

For example, PVR earlier was asking the customer to come to the theatre and book tickets. Added to this, a customer who'd like to book tickets three four days in advance could not do it but now with websites like book my show one can book tickets well in advance. Like this, company like PVR, are reducing their order cost. 

2.    Reduce inventory.

I would like to take an example of a Spanish retailer Zara, known for their fashion merchandising. The company has an inventory turnover of 21days.  This is helping Zara to keep new fashion and reduce inventory.

3.     Decrease the cost of transportation. 

Cement and fertilizer companies were earlier sending their Goods via the truck but it was taking a lot of time to them then they have come out with a railway as an option, which is speedier and also reduces cost to them. 

4.    Reduce sourcing cost. 

General Electric the Pioneer in the call centres has shown the world how a firm can decrease costs. Today, Indian ITES sector depends on Outsourcing activities of American and European companies. Another example is bigbasket.com that sources their merchandise directly from farmers and can pass the cost benefit to customers. This is how forms are adding value in the supply chain. 

5.     Reduce manufacturing cost. 

Today in operation automation word robots and artificial intelligence are playing a significant role in reducing the manufacturing cost. 

The second objective of the supply chain is to 

increase the profitability or commonly known as supply chain Surplus.

 What's the profitability?

 It's the revenue minus the cost. Obviously, there are two questions that come to us are how do I increase the revenue and decrease the cost?

 We already discussed about how we can reduce the cost. Let me give examples of how one can 

increase the revenue. 

It can be increased in three ways. 

1.      Adding the new customers to the company 

Let me take an example of Infosys the company, every year recruit new customers and increase their revenue. 

2.    Increasing volume purchase of customers. 

Telecom companies earlier getting customers recharges worth Rsv20 and Rs 30.However, today customers are charging data packs of 149 199 and 249. This is how companies are increasing revenues. 

3.    In case of the differential pricing 

a company can think about high and low pricing based on the seasons, frequency of purchase, and delivery options.Flipkart, an ecommerce company from India has created their own Warehouse facility at Hosakote near to the Bangalore city. Another company more a subsidiary of aditya birla group has come out with their own private labels. These examples help the company to create the revenue and reduce the cost and increase the value of the firm.

 A firm can have other objectives also in a modern supply chain. There is an emphasis on bringing agility to supply chains. 

Let me take an example of a recent launch of Jiomart, an eCommerce platform of the Reliance. The company has not set any minimum order value. One can order 10 rupees or hundred rupees. Looking at the order level they plan for this scheduling and also the route planning. 

Now the question is how good a firm is to adapt to the demands and be 

agile? 

A company which is becoming agile is surviving the battle in this corporate jungle. 

Companies are improving their functions 

whether it is the storing or sorting or bulk-breaking or distributions. Let me take an example of Asian paints. Customers are demanding varieties of colours today. Therefore, Asian Paint supplies three basic colours to the dealer and also provides a machine that popularly known as colour World machine. Here, a dealer can mix   three basic colours and get whatever colour a customer wants. 

In a summary, what are the objectives of the supply chain?

1.      Enhance the value of the supply chain to increase the profitability. 

2.    Supply Chain  achieve this by increasing the revenue and decreasing the cost 

3.     create a supply chain assets for bring the agility to the supply chain 

4.    Improve functionalities of each stakeholder in the supply chain.

 

Parle-G positioning strategies- Review of advertisements

Parle-G Advertisement evaluations

The value of marketing

The company's growth depends on its marketing ability. 

HDFC, a private bank in India consistently clocks better performance in the banking and investment sector due to their marketing abilities. The company clocks 30% profit growth year on year even in difficult times. This growth is a result of their change in marketing strategy. HDFC reduced its corporate loans and increased the retail loans lending such as automobile, commercial vehicles, business banking, home loans, and personal loans to maintain the growth. 

 

A good marketing strategy creates demand for products and services and in turn increases employability.

 Bindu, is an aerated beverage brand in India. It is a mix of traditional jeera drink with a soda. The Shankar group from Mangalore that owns the brand moved to the third position after Pepsi and Coca-Cola in South India. In the beginning Bindu had made shopkeepers to taste the soda free of cost and asked them to spread the message. The company employs strength has increased from 8 in 2008 to 250 in 2012. Today,the traditional drink market in India is not only limited to jeera, but extended to Kokum aamras, Jaljeera etc…

The marketing builds value of a form by creating loyal customers and strong Brands 

Parle-G, Indian biscuit in confectionery manufacturer, began its journey in the year 1929. The company was incorporated by Mohan Lal Dayal. Since then the company's marketing efforts have made it to reach the tag of world's largest selling biscuit company. Today, the company's persuasiveness helped it to build the image of a quality nutrition and superior taste brand among consumers. Its value for money positioning strategy created a loyal customer base. Further, It's health and taste benefits created trust among customers and who in turn created a global brand.

Transfer pricing in India: Issues and Challenges

What is transfer pricing? 

Transfer pricing is the price paid by the foreign parent company or foreign entity to the local

 When it was introduced in India? 

 Transfer pricing introduced in 2001 in India

 What is the current mark up to the local companies by their parent companies like Google, IBM, and Microsoft? 

14-16%

 

What is Arms length pricing? 

This is international standard pricing method in which the price of the parent company to their local parts compared with independent entities. 

 

What are major areas of transfer pricing? 

Advertising, marketing, and promotion expenses(AMP) 

Some of the AMP expenses are

A. Increasing the brand value of MNC by its subsidary in India. For example, expenses incurred for increasing brand value of Unilever by Hindustan Unilever limited. 

B. Creation of supply chain

Example: Cost of developing distribution network in India by Vodafone. 

C. Conducting market research in India

Illustration: Coca-Cola cola marke research on Diet coke in India. 

Issues

 

. 

1. These are not included in the international transactions. 

Intra group transactions
Centralized procurement. 
Location savings