Posted by imark | Under Case Studies
Tuesday Apr 22, 2008
Internet has become a ubiquitous resource now a days. We have leveraged the power of internet to different walks of life. While some use it for socialising, some for making money and many for information seeking.
But how about nailing down an auto thief?
Sounds weird, right!!!
But that is what exactly happend to Shaun Ironside, a car dealer in Calgary, Canada. Two young men stole Nissan skyline GT-R from Heritage Auto Sales, when they took it for test drive. After reporting its disappearance to police, Ironside posted a message on www.Beyond.ca, a website for Canadian auto enthusiast.
The post read:
” 10:28 pm, March 26. Unfortunately I have to post this as one of my first posts. My 1991 Skyline GT-R is officially STOLEN. “
The post included several pics of the car and offered a cash prize.
The next day , James Lynch, a forum moderator spotted the car parked outside a mall. He followed the car and at one of the traffic lights, got a picture of the thief. Lynch who is known over the forum by JAYMEZ, posted:
“4:19 pm, March 27 I FOUUUNNNDDDDD THEM =) And I have pictures Called the police and chased them, also talked to them. “
After the posting of Lynch, Allan Thomson known as Numi over the forum, posted about the car’s whereabouts. The post read something like this:
“10:23 pm. March 27 FOUND!! PMED with exact location. Guy drives it like he owns it. Idiot parks outside his house backed in so you cant see his plate. “
Another forum member added google maps to the thread for directions to the house. With the help of another guy named Punit Patel, alias DjStylz on the forum, the thief was nailed in less than 48 hours.
The story does not end here. Even the shaky video of police arresting the curprit Jamie Glen Jacobson was shared for happy ending.
Stories like this vindicate the fact that there are still numerous yet to be explored applications of internet which we have not thought of as yet and hence “Engagement of people”.
Posted by imark | Under Emerging Trends
Wednesday Apr 16, 2008
One of my friends recommended me to join him on twitter.I wondered why another “one of those networking sites” when there are already hundreds present…
But then I thought why not give it a try as it was recommended by a no nonsense guy. I visited the platform and saw a bird on the home page and a question:
” What are you doing?” …. thought what crap is this!!!!
but then joined it, made myself comfortable with it by spending some time exploring it…
And now that I know twitter better,whats the result ?
Warning: Don’t try twitter!! It is an addiction. Once hooked on it , you can’t escape it. It might be injurious to your health!
But kudos to guys who made twitter and gave altogether a new dimension to “Engaging people by leveraging internet” 
Posted by imark | Under Blog Marketing
Sunday Apr 13, 2008
What started off as a personal diary around a decade back, has evolved into a solid and cost effective medium of marketing. This is the beauty of leveraging technology for solutions. Its not only technology that evolves but the same technology can be reused in different ways for different needs.
Blog has done precisely that. And continues to do so. It can be a window to the outside world for an individual to pen down his or thoughts or for corporations and brands to reach out to their customers.
A lot has been done and talked about the ‘personal’ usage of the blogs. I would talk about the ‘next generation’ usages of the blog.
Blog is increasingly becoming a tool to interact with customers. And this is perhaps the only medium which allows you to have two way interaction, its not just a business talking to the consumer, the consumer too can get back to the business with his or her views and thoughts.Not many corporate houses do this as yet in India, but there is a lot of possibilities on blog for soliciting customer feedback and reviews.
Another use of blog is when the product builders and the think tank behind an innovation,idea or a service reach out to the users talking about the product,writing out unbiased reviews about it and giving out sneak preview of upcoming changes and upgradations. A wonderful example of this is 1000nerds, a blog where the geeks from the Kodak share their views,expertise and upcoming trends in the field of digital imaging and invite people to join them in the discussion. At the end of the day they are creating a brand buzz for themselves.
These were indeed quick bites, I would talk at length about these in upcoming posts.
Keep Blogging!
Posted by imark | Under Case Studies
Monday Apr 7, 2008
Bharatiya Junta Party (BJP) of India took a giant leap into cyberspace by becoming e-BJP. I guess this is a tribute to late Prime Minister of India, Congress’ Mr. Rajiv Gandhi who is often considered by many as the father of the telecommunication and the internet in India. BJP has long criticized Congress and specifically Mr. Rajiv Gandhi for whatever he did during his tenure. By adopting technology and more so internet, it has implicitly accepted to the fact that Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was a futuristic person.
With a view to connect each member of the party through its e-mailing system, BJP would set up its own server. All the members of the family would be networked through party’s own emails, instant messaging system and video conferencing. All the top leaders of the party would have their own websites, if they so desire. The websites would be interactive in nature so that the real time comments could be displayed.
The first phase would include top 300 members and then the rest of the clan would be integrated into the system. Out of those 300, the first in line is Mr. Lal Krishna Advani (L.K. Advani), the prime ministerial candidate of the party for 2009 general assembly election. The website is to be inaugurated by Mr. Rajnath Singh, the party president. This is bold progressive step taken by BJP and hopefully would shape up the political landscape in India for years to come.
Hail internet!!!
Hail “Engaging Customers by leveraging internet”!!!
Posted by imark | Under Marketing concepts
Thursday Apr 3, 2008
Customer Segmentation is a common jargon in marketing. It is said that every company should first segment its customers, choose the target segment and then aim to satisfy their needs. With Internet gaining ground and becoming the ‘the’ way of doing business, it becomes imperative for companies and internet marketers to understand the consumer behavior. Prior to any marketing efforts on internet, one should know the answers to the following question.
Do I know know how to segment the customers on the basis of their internet usage pattern?
Or
Are “All users are equal for me” ?
If you don’t have this primary information, there are good chances that your efforts do not produce the desired results, no matter how effective they were for others or how hard you try.How should you go about this task ?The answer is being provided by a study conducted by Mckinsey and Media Metrix which identifies internet consumer segmentation for the first time on their usage patterns.According to the study, the different categories are:
1) Simplifiers “End-to-End” Convenience seeking people. They spend on an average 7 hours per month but have the longest tenure online(49% have been online for over 5 years). Therefore if an internet marketer wants to have sustained sales from this segment, they must provide end-to-end convenience such as ease of access, availability of information etc.
2) Surfers Logs in with a specific purpose in mind- buying gifts for example. According to the study, they constitute 8% of the active user population but account for 32% of the online time.To attract and keep Surfers, a site needs cutting-edge design and features, constant updates, a strong online brand, and an assortment of products and services.
3) Connectors As the name implies,they use the internet to connect with people through different means like email, chat etc. Although Connectors account for 36% of the active user population, 40% of them have been online less than two years, and just 42% have made purchases online (versus an average of 61%). Connectors may count on offline brands they trust to lead them to appealing content and hence Companies with strong offline presences will have the advantage in reaching these beginners.
4) Bargainers These people are driven by quest for deals. 52% of eBay visitors is constituted by this category. To extract sales from this segment, the site must not only appeal to them on rational level but also on emotional level, satisfying their need for competitive pricing, the excitement of the “search,” and the desire for community.
5) Routiners They primarily go to internet for information. As the name implies these folks are routine visitors who are suckers for news. These people visit fewer domains but spend almost twice the time per page than others do. Routiners want superior content and the sense they are getting “something special.”
6) Sportsters Uses internet mainly for sports and entertainment related information. They spend on an average of 7.1 hours( versus 9.8 average). The challenge for companies is to turn this use into revenue, usually by moving visitors from “free” content to a paid subscription.As it is clear from the study that each consumer has different needs and usage pattern thereby giving rise to a different behavior. And therefore the knowledge of these behaviors provide an advantage to online marketers to target their customers in a much better optimized manner.
Recent Comments