Ideas Maverick Blog by Preetham Venkky

Just a few days back, there was a rumour doing the rounds about Steve Ballmer (CEO, Microsoft) getting stage time at the upcoming Apple WWDC 2010. Though it was just a rumour from an unverified source, the news had hit leading technology blogs on the internet. Several news publications carried the story too.

Traditionally, under such circumstances, companies involved would issue an official company press release. But in this particular case, Microsoft decided to do it differently. Instead of issuing a press release, they decided to use PR 2.0 practices and issued a light-hearted tweet from their official Twitter account instead.

I’m going to put my money on more companies increasingly replacing their official press releases with simple responses to rumours and other web related controversies / conversations. Welcome to the new age company press release. Not only does this set the record straight, but it also expedites the process of getting the word out as quickly as possible. It also becomes a point of reference helping bloggers and news agencies get an official source. I for one, enjoyed the humour brought out in Microsoft’s tweet.

Bulk SMS has found commonplace in the marketing mix of most companies. Every local business, from restaurants to retailers to insurance agents use this as a mass marketing ‘solution’. With costs as low as 3 ps (Rs. 0.03) per impression, the net expense to reach a target audience of a 100,000 is a meagre Rs. 3,000 ($ 60). I personally receive more than 20 advertising / offer messages on a daily basis, but the one which dropped by most recently caught my attention.

SeventyMM is an online movie rental service with operations in Mumbai, Delhi and its headquarters Bangalore. I was a one-time customer but decided to move my subscription to Big Flix due to lack of good titles to choose from. This means they have my mobile number and probably have my permission (though cheated into using fine print) to send me messages. But the audacity of the message was hilarious. Its content read something like this:

You are the ‘CHOSE ONE’ Get 3 months Unlimited subscription @ Rs499 only and Also Get DVD Combo FREE worth Rs1299 sms RENEW to 57570 or call 08060600070 T&C

So, let me get this straight! I (and based on the language, only I) am the ‘CHOSEN ONE’ to get this special offer. How can you bulk message your former customers and fool them into thinking they are all the ‘CHOSEN ONE’? I would never like to do business with an organisation which takes their customers to be fools. Oh! come on SeventyMM, we can all see through your ruse. ‘CHOSEN ONE’? Why not just get rid of it from your SMS all together; you would’ve at least walked away with a little dignity. So, if I’m the chosen one, along with your discounted membership, do I get to have superman like powers of Neo.

A little bit of digging and I realised they have a lame Twitter profile too. @seventymm Except for a few egotistical broadcast tweets, there was little to show for in their timeline. What shocked me further was the use of Katrina Kaif (not related to SeventyMM in any manner) as their display picture. What were they expecting? A sudden spike in their follower count because they used a leading Bollywood actress as profile image. If it were anywhere but India, they would’ve been sued for misrepresentation. By the way, I wonder if Katrina Kaif or her manager are reading.

While such meaningless strategies are commonplace, I would’ve definitely expected more from a company which is primarily conducting their business online. Social Media Marketing strategies are increasingly becoming effective, you just need to add intelligence to the mix. I could probably help you create one pro bono.

Mantri Square (Mall) is arguably South Asia’s biggest mall, but clearly India’s largest. Situated in Bangalore, India; it opened its gates on March 01, 2010. Recently, it has received criticism for pumping in more traffic to the already congested Malleshwaram locality. What has come under immense fire is their insufficient parking. By distracting the public’s attention to much larger issues, Mantri Square Mall has been successfully running a good penny scam. A penny scam is one, where you get users to fork out small amounts of money which when added up benefits the establishment in crores.

Mantri Square Mall Parking Scam

The scam came to my attention when I visited the mall two Sundays in a row. They coolly asked me to fork up Rs. 50 right underneath a board which claimed the parking fees to start at Rs. 20 onwards. To add to it, they decided to give a parking slip with no rates mentioned on it. When quizzed about the same, their response was that their parking system wasn’t ready and functional as yet, so they can’t log the in and out time. This despite the ‘parking ticket’ having options for in and out timing. Here are a few photographs shot using my mobile camera:

What’s worse is that the security personnel at the exit gate take the ‘parking ticket’ away from you, leaving you with no proof of payment (not that there was any to begin with).

Professional operators of malls such as the Forum Mall provide you with a printed receipt of payment when asked for. Not to mention their system is computerised and logs each vehicles entry and exit time allowing all transactions to be recorded and reported. One can only estimate the professional manner in which a mall such as Mantri Square Mall is run since even after 2 months since launch they don’t have a parking system in place. And maybe intentionally so. Allow me to explain how.

Parking Scam Runs Into Crores

Listed below are the calculations of the undeclared profit for the Mantri Square Mall Parking Scam. Calculating conservatively, the final amount runs up to a cool cash pool of Rs. 1,83,00,000 (one crore, eighty three lakhs); possibly undeclared, unaccounted black money.

Total Parking Capacity: 2,000
Car rollover: 250 cars/hr from 1200 − 2000 hrs
Extra Cars Parked: 2,000
Total Cars Parked: 4,000 (at full capacity)

Conservative Undeclared Margin Per Car – Rs. 25
105 weekends/yr (at full capacity) – Rs. 1,05,00,000 (undeclared)
260 weekdays/yr (at 30% capacity) – Rs. 78,00,000 (undeclared)
Total Undeclared Margin – Rs. 1,83,00,000

That’s 1 Crore 83 Lakhs. Definitely not a small figure and arrived at with conservative calculations without taking into account the margins from two-wheeler parking. Quite clearly the number could exceed 2 Crores.

Node 6

So, what should Mantri Square Mall have done. Here’s my simple three step plan to restore consumer confidence:

1. Install a parking system, tomorrow (yes tomorrow!)
2. Charge the users the lower-end of the parking fee (Rs. 20)
3. Print the price of the parking fee on the ticket

While Mantri Square Mall would love to argue on the second point, my take on the issue is that it’s their fault (and laziness) that the parking system is not ready, why should consumers bear the burden? Either make the parking free, or charge the minimum fee.

The only question on everyone’s mind after reading this would be: What will Mantri do?

Seems like the Apple vs Adobe saga shall continue. Just recently, Steve Jobs responded (to Adobe’s ‘unofficial’ allegations) through an open letter published on Apple’s website on why they’ve decided to omit Flash on their devices. Steve Jobs quotes as saying:

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

I personally think the tone of Steve’s letter in non-threatening and logically explains their decision to disable the problems that arise on their OS, by removing them from the very root. Unlike Adobe’s claim, Adobe or Flash are definitely not as open as HTML5. Also, Flash to iPhone converter can never fully enable or utilise all the features extended by the iPhone OS. Having a middle layer (in this case Adobe’s flash converter) doesn’t improve quality for the user. What it does do is to make it easier for the developer.

Great apps aren’t built easily and iPhone users have every right to ensure only good quality apps are installed on their device. Apple just wants to ensure this, so what if an old not so relevant technology needs to be killed in the process. Adobe, you need to allow Apple to pave way for the new and if you can’t comply, then step aside.

Update

You can find excerpts from WSJ’s interview with Shantanu Narayen, CEO Adobe and a former Apple employee; on Steve’s letter. Amongst many points, Shantanu does move on to say the following:

Speaking about Mr. Jobs’s assertion that Adobe is the No. 1 cause of Mac crashes, Mr. Narayen says if Adobe crashes Apple, that actually has something “to do with the Apple operating system.”

This is ridiculous. This is akin to saying that if your designer clothes don’t fit you, then there’s something wrong with your body structure. I think Adobe needs quickly move across their 5 stages of grief – Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. They presently seem to be stuck at the second stage. All the best Adobe, we’re still cheering for you.

Recently, Condé Nast publications decided to turn into a creative agency for their existing roster of clients with advertisements being produced, customised and optimised for other media (besides Condé Nast properties) such as Facebook and Youtube. Condé Nast, the publishers of Vogue magazine, have a bouquet of publications specialising in fashion, design, lifestyle as well as technology. It’s always endearing to see old media companies get onto the social media bandwagon with little or no understanding.

Case Study: Vogue India

So we decided to analyse the social media efforts by Condé Nast publications over at this side of the world. We analysed the presence of Vogue India on their three primary social media channels – Blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

Vogue India Blog Analysis

Vogue India’s blog can be found at – http://www.vogue.in/blog.aspx With no means to subscribe to a RSS feed, I’m not quite certain if their blog qualifies to be one. While you can leave comments on the blog posts, and subscribe to it via e-mail using a long registration process; it’s nothing but a glorified content page, which until recently updated their blogs only once a month. With no way to subscribe to the content on this blog site (either via RSS or Atom feeds), Vogue India’s blog is user unfriendly and just not Web 2.0 ready.

The first blog post was published on 16 Aug 2008 with close to 70 post so far. The blog articles haven’t been regular until just recently.

Vogue India Facebook Analysis

Disappointingly, Vogue India seems to have taken the Facebook group route instead of bringing in more interaction with the brand by establishing a Facebook page instead. To confuse the user further, they have 2 groups with similar updates.

Vogue India group has 6,418 members and was last updated on 14 Mar 2010 while Vogue India: Your Fashion Bible group has 2,879 members and is up to date. The strategy to maintain two Facebook groups is both disconcerting as well as confusing. Both the groups are listed under the “Entertainment & Arts – Fashion” category and are administered by Jasmeen Dugal.

What’s odd is that there is little or no interaction with group members and the groups are primarily being used as a broadcast medium to notify members about new articles and updates on the main site / publication. Vogue India could’ve used their group album to publish behind the scenes photographs of all the action, but instead they seem to be using it only to update it with the cover pages for each of their issues. There’s a huge scope to utilise this community, but they seem to be doing little about it.

Vogue India Twitter Analysis

Vogue India seems to be using Twitter only as a broadcast channel. They have a disproportionate ratio of tweeps following vs followed. As a thumb rule, brands are expected to follow back their followers. This action enables their fans to send them direct messages which ensures one-to-one communication without disrupting their public timeline.

Their first tweet was published on 29 Sep 2009, a lame broadcast tweet. There is absolutely no interaction with tweeps and all the updates seem to be using the web interface. Anyone serious about using Twitter social media related communication will always use an application like Tweetdeck or CoTweet.

I don’t know what’s worse, their lack of interaction, despite fans wanting to or their lack of understanding of who they need to follow. A large number of tweeps they follow don’t seem to have updated their Twitter profile pic.

Node 6

Listed below are a few pointers Vogue India could use in order to up their social media interaction:

• Enable RSS subscription on Vogue India blog
• Migrate the blog to WordPress platform with Disqus commenting
• Merge both the Facebook groups
• Actively interact with Facebook group members
• Post behind-the-scenes action on group albums
• Move from Facebook group to Facebook pages
• Follow back your followers on Twitter
• Interact with Indian tweeps interested in fashion
• Activate the latest Facebook like button on all web pages
• Integrate all your social media platforms

All stats and details were gathered as on 24 Apr 2010.