“You give a good product to a mediocre team, they will mess it up, you give a mediocre product to a great team, then you are bound to succeed”

I am certainly not implying Obama’s mediocre…he’s superior (More about it later…), but he’s had an incredible marketing team. Too few words to describe, but probably, I will do a long post about this some time…

“Over the last 13-14 years I’ve made some friends and I’ve made some enemies. One thing I would like to say that it’s all been for the good of Indian cricket. Hopefully you’ve walked the part with me and enjoyed the journey”

Way to go Sourav…you certainly did change Indian Cricket…and I did enjoy the journey. It’s a pity that you had to quit this way!

For me I believe, social marketing is the most successful way to reach out to your audience. Even before a product’s purported launch, there are whispers in the market, prompting people to speculate about it, write and even review without getting their hands on to the product. There has always been speculations on every generation of iPods Apple has launched, there had been plenty of talk about an Apple phone, years before the iPhone was launched, and of course people have anticipated newer versions of each of Apple’s products, be it a G4, Macbook, iMac, Mini or even indigeous add ons such as the Time Machine and the Apple TV. On top of this, it also offers an incredible operating system and some clever applications such as the iTunes. The latest buzz among apple disciples is the launch of a new product code named “brick”. What exactly brick is, nobody knows for certain. But it has garnered significant marketing attention world wide, with bloggers making various conjectures about the product, which includes a newer version of Macbook, an all new Apple TV and even an updated Mac Mini. Some blogs even claim that Brick is a Dual Screen foldable Net Book.

A leading Apple community on the web quoting an unnamed resource has reported that “Brick” is not a product, but a radical new manufacturing process, which apparently will carve out the newer versions of Macbooks and Macbook Pros from a single aluminum block. However, Apple has put an end to all speculation by launching improved thinner version of Macbooks with faster graphics processors and an iPhone like all glass trackpad and an extended battery life. Of course the lower part of the new Apple chassis is made from single aluminum blocks. Whatever the product, it has created enough buzz already. People are certain to queue up in stores either to get their hands on to Apple’s new offering or to catch a glimpse of it.

So what is the secret of Apple’s success? The company has always relied on extending the customers digital lifestyle by offering products which reinvents the way people look at those products. Above all, the company’s business strategies are based on creating products as a support system to its core rather than exploding the market with a wide spectrum reinforcing the company’s brand perceptions. For a technology intensive industry in which Apple participates, keeping a fresh image is absolutely imperative as products evolve constantly. The Apple brand is leveraged in such a way that it can expand from computers to music players and phones because they are known for “thinking different” and therefore setting an expectation of originality. Consumers don’t just buy an Apple product; they buy the idea of what Apple stands for. It is a known fact over the years that much of the success of products or services derives from the effect consumers have on one another’s decisions. Apart from anticipating what features individual consumers might find desirable, Apple has adopted strategies that take social influence into account. Macbooks, IPods & iPhones have managed to get more exposure among average consumers, which could be attributed to social influence and these average consumers are more likely to consider other Apple products, which further enhances the brand image and values associated with the product. Unlike other companies, Apple has always created products which are add ons to its core product. An iPod or an iPhone needs iTunes, Apple TV needs needs an iPod, and of course for the related applications to work, you need an operating system and Apple again stands out with its offering. To run the operating system, you need hardware and for that you have a sleek range of iMacs, Macbooks and Minis.

Consider this, not many would have thought that iTunes would be product on its own. It is an application, which many would have believed was developed to support the iPod range of MP3 players. But today, it is a market place contributing handsomely to Apple’s profit share. The strategy here is simple. Sell an iPod worth £200 which holds 30, 000 songs and sell songs on iTunes for 79 pence. Ideally (If there’s no piracy) to fill up the 30000 capacity iPod you would need £23000 worth of songs and as of September 2007, 150 million iPods in different capacities have been sold worldwide. Consider the average iPod sold is of a 5GB capacity and do the numbers taking into account people buying music from other sources and downloading pirated music from the internet. Although conventional wisdom states that Apple is loosing money on iTunes which it is making up by selling iPods, at a 30 % margin on every song sold, the profits are still enormous. Not to forget that it is expected to increase its market share to 85 % this year. Here’s a company, which believes in designing and developing superior products with innovative industrial design and and markets it with a similar level of creativity to profit from it. It is an ideal example of marketing success.

I have been using Xobni (for inbox spelled backwords) for a couple of days and I must say its an incredibly handy addon. It transforms the otherwise torpid Microsoft Outlook into a powerful email client. And for a feature rich add on like Xobni, it’s hard to believe that it’s being offered free. Started by Adam Smith and Matt Brezina in 2006, with investments from several reputed venture capitalists and a few angel investors, the company has created ripples in the recent months owing to $20 million acquisition rumours by Microsoft. Apparently, after a series of discussions Xobni walked off the deal.

Nevertheless, it is a clever software which integrates with Outlook and does clever things. Xobni’s viewing panel is a revelation. It features a lightning fast search option, people profiles, message threads etc. Xobni’s search is a million times better than the native functionality of Outlook. For every e-mail a user receives, it displays information about the sender including who else they communicate with regularly. It even scrapes sender’s phone numbers from their e-mails and also looks for their Linkedin profiles attached to that email. It displays all conversation threads between the sender and the user along with the attachments they have exchanged, making it easier to track attachments, a feature I feel is extremely beneficial, for I have always struggled to locate attachments in Outlook. Not just that, Xobni also acts a small email analytics tool which not everyone will find much use for. For example, it tells you the top ten people you communicate with, the time you/they take to respond to each other, the number of emails exchanged, average number of emails you get in a day, week, and month etc. You could say it is an Analytics version for the email. These features may be worthless, but its fun. To top this all, it doesn’t reduce Outlook’s functional capabilities or speed even a bit. Xobni has accomplished what other softwares haven’t been able to, to reside on the Outlook platform without eating up its resources.

Xobni also has tremendous potential as a software in the Social Networking Arena. Clearly, social networking is still in its infancy and how companies offering social networking align themselves will define the future. There are hundreds of networking sites out there, but Facebook seems to be running away with the crown. In the coming years, it is obvious for individuals and businesses to adapt to winning social networks, just like they did to Operating Systems of Microsoft and Apple and more recently to Search Engines, Google and Yahoo. Moreover, social networks have access to an incredible amount of user information, giving them the edge to serve advertising which matches an individual’s needs and tastes. So, Xobni’s ability to reside on email clients and disseminate information which not only helps the user but also helps them connect externally will undoubtedly be a winning feature. Unless companies which develop email clients, start bundling it as a package, Xobni has the headway. Xobni’s strength is its platform. Can its platform be replicated by companies which make these email clients? This remains to be seen.

But the issue drills down to one fact…why is Xobni free and why did it walk away from the Microsoft deal, although Microsoft clearly rated the software has top notch?!?! As I understand, Xobni has broader goals than being a plug-in company to Outlook. Xobni’s beliefs are based on developing platforms rather than developing plug-ins. The company is keen on developing similar apps for other popular email clients as well as web services which will also foster creation of new products, which will ultimately show the money. Reminds me of Google in the early days, when it went on to develop a search engine without focusing on the economic side. Today, Google has stood time. Good luck Xobni!

Consumers Shopping online not only get a cost advantage, but they are also served with an incredible amount of information helping them make the right decision. With many price and product comparison sites, blogs, product reviews, feedbacks etc, online shoppers, usually are equipped with product knowledge prior to their purchase. However, despite a wealth of information, consumers often bank on search engines to help them make a purchase. This is where, a company’s approach to its online presence comes into play. User engagement plays an important role in the performance of a website, therefore emphasising the need to develop a site that aids consumers in making a right decision.

Arena Flowers has recently been used as a case study in a forth coming text on Internet Marketing. We are quite pleased with this new development and we feel that we are doing things right. However, there’s always room to improve and enhance customer engagement and we constantly strive to understand internet marketing in its entirety to achieve this. We do rely on customer suggestions and feedback to improve our offering. However, since we are being used as a case study in an internet marketing text, we feel that it would be wise to take suggestions from one of the authors of the text on improving our website. So we approached Dr. Dave Chaffey, a leading Internet Marketing consultant and trainer and the author of best selling books on online marketing for an interview and he gladly agreed. Watch this space for tips on optimising a website for better customer engagement.

Over the weekend, I was quite disappointed to find the fourth largest investment firm, Lehman Brothers collapse. There had been plenty of speculation on companies that could bail out Lehman, and with Barclays walking out late Sunday evening, Lehman had no option but to file for bankruptcy. As far as my memory recollects, even last year, Lehman had posted above average net profits, despite the volatility in the market. Filing for a chapter 11 bankruptcy protection comes as a huge surprise. Arguably, it is one of the biggest collapses of the century. With a little over £300 billion bankruptcy, is the largest company ever to file for a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection, sending the world markets into a turmoil. A Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection allows businesses to continue trading while they restructure and reorganise their sick units. This could also spell thousands of job losses around the world for a company which employs over 25000 people.

In essence, the public feel the pinch for Lehman’s failed fortunes. The repercussions may be varied affecting economies all around the world. A situation which even Adam Smith wouldn’t be proud of to theorise his learning. Yesterday, one of the employees of Lehman brothers was quoted in a leading national daily about how there were no jobs in the economy and how he had managed to save enough to last the gloom without seeking employment. Despite the economic gloom in the last couple of years, finance executives have paid themselves unimaginable and envious bonuses, for investing in financial instruments which are incomprehensible to the common man. Shares, bonds, yields, derivatives, mortgages, swaps, futures and all other complicated jargon you could find in a finance text book. But in the end, who shoulders the burden of a failure? Many companies have been bailed out recently. From Northern Rock in the UK to Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the US. With Merill Lynch selling itself to avoid a similar situation and a troubled insurer AIG facing a similar collapse, are we prepared for another bailout?

Firstly, a collapse of such magnitude could potentially wipe out other valued businesses. Since the announcement yesterday, markets world over have nearly lost one third of their values. It is hard to unravel Lehman’s investments as it literally works with every major entity worldwide from Governments to businesses and financial institutions. It manages funds and investments for these entities. So a collapse would mean the credit in the market has evaporated. Which again means no 0% finance on anything, from credit cards to housing, macbooks to automobiles, iphones to holidays, everything on credit will be seen as a risk. When there is such apprehension in the market, the consumer spending power reduces drastically, resulting in a severe economic crisis. Moreover, such failures will result in lower capital inflows to developing countries leading to a slower investing growth. End of the India Shining story unless the Government intervenes to relax regulations for businesses to borrow from overseas. For individuals, bridging the rich and poor divide becomes much more harder as banks tighten their policies towards mortgages. There was a nice illustration by an Indian TV news channel when Bear Sterns went bust. “Mr. India cannot afford a house because, Mr. America had defaulted on his mortgage payments”.

It all started with one mismanagement - that of Bear Sterns which has had a Domino affect on the world financial industry. Inadequate regulation, which in effect, allowed financial firms to risk investments should have been tightened earlier to avoid such crisis. This would have encouraged financial firms to spread their bets evenly rather than exposing investments to a high degree of risk.

Economics is indeed a complicated subject!

In the recent years, a company’s environmental emphasis has become one of the most important issues. Businesses across various sectors have discovered that a certain section of consumers will buy products, or avoid their purchase, based on the firm’s environmental performance. These consumers are more ethically aware and reach out to seek information on how a business responds to their environmental concerns. As this segment of environmentally aware, green consumers amplify in numbers, a green strategy beyond doubt becomes the way forward for businesses. Government legislation, reaction to competition and other dynamics within the industry is also driving organistions to etch a green commitment.

Businesses are being constantly monitored for their environmental performance by their stakeholders, more so in the flowers business as the industry has invited severe criticism for sourcing air freighted flowers from third world countries. Air freighted flowers in refrigerated units spells a heightened environmental concern due to the high level of CO2 emissions involved in the process. Also, the exploitation of workers in third world countries is another cause of worry although this seems to have been mitigated in the recent years through the presence of organisations such as Fair Trade which monitors the human as well as environmental concerns. However, there is a perennial debate about the ethical benefits of fair trade affiliation as a majority of producers governed by the Fair Trade code of conduct tend to be larger organisations relying on cheap labour.

Also, despite the popularity of green initiatives and a willingness by a section of environmentally motivated consumers to pay a premium for green products, such strategies might not yield the desired results yet. There is still a higher proportion of demographics which inspite of showing an ethical commitment, might place their self interests above the environment. After all, the fundamental principle businesses thrive on is to address consumer needs by creating a valued offering. There are a variety of aspects which could create these valued offerings and going green is one of them. Under these circumstances, it becomes comfusing to pursue a line of green strategy which is beneficial to organisations as well as the stakeholders and the environment.

There are many reasons for a business to think green. The external business environment in which a business operates in offers plenty of leads to begin with. The big retailers in the UK are a good example. Taking cue from each other, all big retailers are treading the green path. Waitrose, Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Asda etc have all adapted green initiatives. A good green marketing strategy could form the basis of a competitive advantage. Also, a business seeking to leverage a competitive advantage through a green strategy should be confident that such a strategy could be ingrained into the ethos of the company. Also, there are plenty of hurdles if a business adapts a green. I guess green businesses are subject to closer scrutiny by the public and media and the shortcomings are easily picked.

At Arena Flowers, we have realised that by being transparent with regard to our environmental policies including our production, packaging and disposal, we seem to evoke a higher interest among our customers, while we have strong foundations to contribute towards a clean and green environment. We believe that if given access to the right information, customers often make the right choice. For this reason, from the very beginning we have placed a special weight on how we respond to the environment.

A couple of days back, I got an email from an individual selling a affiliate services. Though I was least interested in pursuing it further, the email was so compelling that I decided to respond with a polite refusal. A couple of days later I got a reply pushing the service further without being imposing. The first section of Carnegie’s book which speaks about “Fundamental Techniques of Handling People” encourages readers to use a similar language which is sure to win people. In Carnegie’s terms it is important to “arouse in people an eager want”. Had it not been for our previous experience with companies offering similar services with a slightly different marketing language, his emails are extremely convincing.

Here’s our correspondence:

I hope that you don’t mind me emailing out of the blue – I have just ordered my second bunch of flowers from Arena, I love the quality of the products, and thus I sought out your contact details to see if my company could help you grow online sales even further.

I’m sure that you’re using an affiliate network at present, but my company “XXXX” is the “XXXX XXXX XXXX” and we have been winning many clients from the UK over the past 2 years.  I would love to have a quick conversation with you when you have 5 minutes to highlight a couple of differences that we can make, and also our experience in the flower sector.

Best number is always my mobile and I’ll look forward to hearing from you Adarsh.

For which I had replied that it isn’t feasible for us to join another network as it adds little value in terms of incremental sales. And I got another reply highlighting how the network could improve our sales. Also, there’s a catch. He wants us to consolidate our services with other companies to his company, which means that we have to terminate our existing contracts with the networks we already participate in.

Thanks for your reply, and I am indeed not surprised to hear that your additional networks have not provided an incremental increase in sales to warrant the additional resource.

This unfortunately is standard across affiliate networks in the UK market, and something that our clients experience before joining “XXXX”

We work very differently for our clients and being the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, our experience in the online florist sector I believe will interest you.  Perhaps though only if you were willing to consider consolidating your other two networks into “XXX”, I could showcase the strategy to provide the missing incremental increase in sales.

Is there a number that I can reach you on Adarsh, or a meeting that we can schedule for next week with your colleagues and co-decision makers to propose a solution?  I can only reiterate that I am a firm believer in the Arena service and see a clear opportunity to help you grow sales further.

On a personal note, the email is certainly baiting the recipient and I find it to be an incredible example for email marketing. It certainly livens Carnegie’s fundamental principles.

Over the years we have seen many successes being replicated and at times these imitations have gone on to do better than their predecessors. Take the issue of Internet browsers for example. Internet Explorer has ruled the roost for years despite constant threats from other better, feature rich browsers. But in the last few years, browsers are technically superior, less resource intensive and feature filled. Firefox is the best example. Year on year, IE’s usage has been declining by 7-8%, primarily due to a similar increase of Firefox users. Following the success of Firefox, which in essence is bankrolled by a company which dominates the web world, Google, the very firm has announced the launch of Chrome, a next generation web browser which represents a technological shift in the browser market.

Google’s entry to the browser market raises several interesting questions to the search marketing industry. Following the recent launch of Internet Explorer 8, which packs in advanced privacy settings preventing search engines, Google in particular from collecting user centric information related to ad performance, a nifty search bar and several other features which are predominantly inclined towards Microsoft’s services including Live Maps, Encarta and Live Spaces etc.

In any case, retreading the history of Internet browsers is quite laborious, but what spurs the interest is how the search industry reacts to chrome in the coming days. The blogosphere is abuzz with Chrome’s launch and the first screen shots have started trickling in along with a detailed technical view on the browser through the official comic book by Scott McCloud. It’s a pity that there’s no news of Chrome for Mac, but knowing Google it should be on the way soon. In any case, whenever it is available, you can download chrome from here.

We have had many opportunities in the past to attend marketing events, but owing to resources we have only managed to attend a few. Each event is a great experience and offers great insightful learning from businesses who share their experiences in such events. One such learning comes from arguably one of the biggest ecommerce businesses in the World, Dell. Internet, as with many online organizations is a part of Dell’s infrastructure. Dell has fully embraced the participatory phase of Social Media Marketing by being actively involved as a listening company. It has firmly believed that messages need to be dynamic and co-created rather than the company being the mouthpiece for all its products. Part of Dell’s initiatives comes from its previous experience of dealing with customers. Jeff Jarvis, a disgruntled Dell Customer and an American journalist launched a crusade against Dell terming his experience as “Dell Hell” and extensively chronicled his communication on his blog Buzzmachine here. Jeff’s outbursts resulted in spreading the negative word about Dell’s customer service and impacting its overall corporate reputation. True, there were hundreds of peevish customers who had experienced Dell Hell before, but it took one influencer like Jeff Jarvis to coalesce into a crowd. The collaborative influence of bloggers in denting Dell’s stronghold launched the company into frenzy and Dell responded by identifying the shift in power and began listening to customers.

So what exactly has Dell been doing? Head to Dell’s Community Website here, which provides a glimpse of Dell’s pursuits in the social marketing arena. It is evident that the company actively engages in an ongoing conversation with customers to learn their perceptions, and to ingrain those perceptions into Dell’s outreach.

• IdeaStorm: Dell launched IdeaStorm in 2007 to engage with customers and to understand their needs and preferences to develop products. It is an incredible market research initiative with an added personal touch. Users are invited to share their ideas and collaborate with each other. This gives a clear idea to Dell about what their potential customers seek and to share these ideas throughout the organization to gain further thoughts to translate these ideas into products. In essence, Dell has converted its customers, non-customers and potential customers into a massive product development team.

“The name is a take-off on the word “brainstorm” and it is our way of building an online community that brings all of us closer to the creative side of technology by allowing you to share ideas and collaborate with one another. The goal is for you, the customer, to tell Dell what new products or services you’d like to see Dell develop. We hope this site fosters a candid and robust conversation about your ideas

Our commitment is to listen to your input and ideas to improve our products and services, and the way we do business. We will do our best to keep you posted on how Dell brings customer ideas to life.”

• Direct2Dell: Direct2Dell is Dell’s corporate blog; it’s a wire service about Dell to the world.
• Dell Forums: As the name suggests, it’s the community forum where users share their thoughts and
• experiences with others.
• Studio Dell: Dell uses videos and podcasts to educate users on various emerging technologies and also offers tips, tricks and support to get the best out of a Dell product. Studio Dell is an interactive communication tool, which also encourages users to post videos of them using Dell products.
• Smart Business 360: A resource center for small businesses offering product support and advice
• ReGeneration & Dell Earth: Websites on sustainable living to emphasize Dell’s environmental commitment, identified as a key strategy to future growth.

These are some of the prominent community initiatives at Dell. The company participates in other popular social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, etc., etc. Customers are no longer interested in a company’s business structure. They seek experiences. They want to be a part of the business, they want to be heard, understanding which can benefit the business itself. Through Dell’s Community Networking initiatives, the company responds positively to customer needs fomenting strong relationships.

One of the perennial debates in the ongoing marketing world is how does a company leverage commercial benefits by participating in social media marketing and how can such campaigns be measured? Dell employs about 40 individuals working on the community network, which includes hundreds of interactions with customers through blogging, forum posting, Yahoo answers, twittering, facebook etc. Is it really worthwhile? How does it benefit the company? Isn’t social media marketing hard to quantify? Firstly, Dell argues that it doesn’t put a cost on social media. Secondly, Dell has gained significant confidence with regard to customer service and customer satisfaction. Here’s a metric then. Dell claims half a million of sales came from Twitter participation last year. That’s just a spoonful in a bucket of water, but it counts nevertheless. Furthermore, traditional metrics such as traffic, click through rates and conversion rates give a skewed image of social media marketing. The best metrics are often those which show how many people are talking about the company positively in the blogosphere, the number of people who subscribe to the site’s content, the number of positive reviews of the companies products or services etc. The best metrics derive on how social media evolves and what companies seek from it. In traditional marketing sense you could call this brand building.

So should all businesses participate in social media? While participation is essential particularly for online businesses, it entirely depends on the organizational objectives as well. If sales and not brand is the driving factor, then social media marketing can be time consuming and resource heavy. This is particularly true for smaller organizations. It’s more like a long term vs. short term strategy. Social media is clearly long term as it helps in creating an everlasting brand awareness which is extremely important to the success and longevity of a business. However, there is a note of caution. Social media is here to stay and it is essential for businesses, small or large, to realign their marketing initiatives to create the fine balance to leverage success.