I think no other technology can have a 'weird effect' other than MOBILE.
Imagine "Selling goats using mobile" and this the reason why even in time of recession mobile sales haven't gone down.....
Another weird fashion is SOCIAL NETWORKING.Worldwide users of social networking increased by 25% when compared to 2007.
Just combine this two weird things together and you can conquer the world.Internet is the key to next phase of mobile growth in emerging markets as increasing numbers of people are accessing the internet for the first time on their mobile rather than on a PC.
A>Research firm Strategy Analytics has forecast the value of the mobile content market - including downloadable games, ring tones, wallpapers, video, mobile TV, text alerts and mobile Web browsing - to grow 15 percent this year to $79 billion.
B>But still there are great disparities in the distribution and use of many forms of technology. For example, 331 per 1,000 people in Europe use the Internet, while approximately 15 per 1,000 in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, 37 per 1,000 in the Middle East and Africa and 92 per 1,000 in Latin America and the Caribbean use the Internet.
What message do we get from this, message is simple:
Internet or Mobile alone doesn't have a market.
A>It's due to this simple factor that Nokia is now trying to build a new business from mobile Internet services(ovi store) like games or maps in order to cope up with the slowing phone demand.
B>But then we all know Apple was able to convert this simple message to iPhone obviously in a much cooler way.And despite the global economic malaise, apple is still the cool brand that consumers want and willing to spend on.Their stock price has held at the mid to high 90's.
C>Then why the hell am I blabbering about this simple message of combining mobile and internet.
Reason is smartphones are a small minority of all wireless devices.Smartphones make up roughly 10% of all mobile devices globally and about 20% of those in the U.S.
D>As we all know our small world has been divided in to two parts by Uncle Sam ie. developed and developing countries.And today developing countries are driving growth of Global Cell Phone Use.
Less than 10 percent of the population of even the most technologically developed countries don't have telephone service of any kind.That translates into hundreds of millions of potential customers!!!!!!
E>Although trying to sell mobile phones to people who don’t even have old-fashioned landline models might seem like folly, business and infrastructure concerns may give cellular the edge.
The reasons are both economic and regulatory.It’s cheaper for a carrier to lay down a few miles of cable to a base station filled with cellular antennas than to string traditional phone lines to every house and business.
For example take case of Africa where Wireless penetration was 24.4 % in 2006 and is expected to reach 35 % by 2010.
F>Mobile Internet market is ripe for innovation but for mobile internet to do well in developing world, the operator’s will have to bring down the usage cost and encourage adoption.
Now question is how to capture this market when there are so many competitors out there.
1>When doing business in developing world, remember that success is crucially linked to relationship building.
Main focus should be Branding.
2>Don’t waste all the time and money you spend on marketing and sales by not maximizing your brand.
Branding is influencing.Creating a brand identity that associates certain perceptions, emotions, and feelings with that identity.
3>Branding happens before marketing and sales. Without a strong brand, marketing is ineffective and selling is like beating your head against a wall of sales resistance.
In life, as in business, branding is more effective, powerful, and sustainable than marketing and sales.
In next blog I will dicuss about different factors which needs to be taken care of when trying to conquer the "Mobile+Internet" market in developing countries and what are the different marketing campaigns being done by telecom giants in order to grap this raw market.
dude nice to see you writing definitely something wrong must have happened with you ehe..
ReplyDeleteanyways....mobile market is not down agreed but @ the same time it isn't growing as well.
Brand is one side of story. On the other hand, people as of today only ready to SPEND when the think it's worth as compared to earlier.
Branding alone cannot win market. The product should target key customer requirements. For e.g. Apple iphone, although it lacks some major functionality as compared to nokia but the targeting is right blank point.
@rawat:
ReplyDeleteBranding is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.
Strong brands are inspirational and represent not only products, but also systems of beliefs and values. Weak brands misrepresent themselves in an effort to gain popularity and sell products.
So Apple created a brand for smart phone and branding means satisfying customer needs....but can Apple target rural people of India? No but Nokia is a brand name in rural India.
But same Nokia's smart phone market in North America, despite a marketing blitz share has slid to just 8% from 15% two years ago….
So its all how and where u are trying to establish the brand...........
Nokia's market in US is less cos people there were demanding and nokia @ that time wasn't catering to their needs where apple was.
ReplyDeleteMoreover every brand did not became brand overnight. It took time.
"Its all how and where u are trying to establish" -->> that is the same point am trying to say. Like now apple have started to target on different set of mob.
But, Q remains same, how many people really go for brand. Example : If same thing of same level u get @ cheaper cost then which one u will go for?
I can give a very valid example i.e. YOU.
ReplyDeleteAs far i know you never used to wear branded jeans. Reason you are getting same comfortable thing at cheaper rates. The way you can slide your dick in that non branded jeans with so ease. The way you scratch your ass on itching.
So see, brand value did not interfere :). All came here the usability, easiness, comfortableness.
ok one simple question:
ReplyDeleteYou have two Tshirts one from Nike and other from some local company,now consider both are selling at same rate.Which one will u buy??
or
consider a case where Nike sells at 4 bucks and local company at 2 bucks..which one will u go for????
Nokia tried to enter US market with smartphone but wasn't able to create a dent in Apples Market,Why?is it because Nokia didn't satisfy the customer needs or is it because Apple's brand name matters???
Ok now consider my case if LEE sells me jeans at 6 bucks and a non branded one at 5 bucks...i would prefer LEE....
So this is what brand means:: like in India when we talk about mobile , first thing comes in to mind is NOKIA and in US if we talk abt mobile first thing comes in mind is Apple...
so what is this ::: BRAND........and to make a brand it matters who , where and how enters the market.........
Yes. Somple companies only own brand. they don't manufacture. GE is an example.
ReplyDeletethanku yogee for ur comment.........
ReplyDeleteThey way you Brand is much more important than the Branding itslef. One need to differentiate its product from the other because most of the products look similar.
ReplyDeleteExample is Vodafone Ads (ZooZoos).
@BeCreative:i totally agree with u.
ReplyDeleteBut again branding includes may things, now with ZooZoo Vodafone is creating a brand but they shouldn't stick with ZooZoo otherwise ZooZoo will overtake Vodafone's identity.....like Hutch's DOG.............which had more market value than Hutch..hehehe
there should be balance of everything :). Right mixture of branding and product manufacturing and yield stupendous result :)
ReplyDelete@osama.
i will buy both as both are cheaper :)
For e.g. when apple started, were they BRANDED?? No, they create branded image over a period of time :) same with LEE PEE :D
I can get similar Apple product from chinese brands at lower cost but still Apple has more market share although it consumes a lot of power ...its all because it created brand name,,,,,,so product of any kind can work if branding is done properly.....
ReplyDeletelike take Knight riders, shahrukh made maximum profit in IPL even though there team perfromed badly ... its all branding............
see story at:
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/kkr-daredevils-most-profitable-postipl-2/93447-7.html
nice to see two guys are fighting continuously on a point which is not our point of discussion..
ReplyDeletewat i think...the main strength of any company should be product diversification,innovative ways,cutting edge technologies and most important thing is sustainance of liquidity position.All mobile companies are looking for new markets, trying to capture niche markets, exploring new products by integrating new features!! Like technology called GOBI2000...all mobile companies will try to capture high end customers by providing this technology....so its not about "BRANDING"....i think it is about "Playing right cards at the right time!"
Playing right cards at the right time!means influencing the right set of people at right time and right place irrespective of what product u have which in turn means BRANDING.....
ReplyDeleteWhy is Google our first choice for web searching, there are other in market but GOOGLE brand name matters.....
Executing an effective brand begins with diligent research to fully understand the hearts and minds of to be loyal consumers. The fate of every brand is not a matter of logos, color schemes or taglines, but human desire.......
"Playing right cards at the right time!" doesn't mean BRANDING at all....one product promotes to BRAND value after serving human needs....
ReplyDeleteGoogle's algorithm uses a patented system called PageRank...which is innovated by Google itself!
Google is available in many languages and has been localized for many countries!!(capturing new markets)
Even in china Despite trailing Chinese traffic leader Baidu, Google is rated the best search engine in China, according to new research from Keynote Systems.
The study focused on the user experience of the four leading search engines in China: Alibaba/Yahoo, Baidu, Google China and Sohu/Sogou.
Google outperformed its competitors in 11 of 13 factors measured. The finding "was quite a surprise given Baidu has such a strong market share," said Dr. Bonny Brown, Keynote Systems director of research.
The most important "impact drivers" for Chinese searchers were home page design and appeal, general search quality and image search quality.
so after entering into chinese market Google took time to understand key strong points of outperforming its competitors and with the use of cutting edge techs Google achieved it!!(Google was not primary prand in China before 2006!)
so wat i feel...the main strength lies in your innovative ways of thinking and executing the same!
Branding is what you do before selling or marketing a product..."You need a shop to sell a product"..there are several efficient products in market but no one knows abt it why????so playing right card at right time is part of branding....there is no other definition for it......
ReplyDeleteAbove Google information is awesome dude,thanks for sharing....
BUT as u mentioned:
"The study focused on the user experience of the four leading search engines in China"
here the line "FOUR LEADING SEARCH ENGINES" conveys only one message BRAND....
Why did they select only above four engines, they must have selected other engines but noooo its all because all above four are good products but they have a BRAND name.......
(obviously brand becomes because of products capability to resolve customer problems but there are several products which do same thing)